We previously cut the lexan to the proper shape. And in this part of the tutorial we cut away the banks of the moat so the lexan will fit seamlessly into the diorama.

Part 1 (The beginning) of this tutorial is right here

Now we need to cut into the diorama in order to fit the sheet of lexan in there. So I placed the lexan right over the moat, in place, and marked the diorama.

See those black lines. Great! This is where we want to cut the foam.

I cut the foam with a hacksaw blade. Now I can remove those two pieces.

Now I cut those two pieces of foam right in half - height wise.

It is this cut we are making. We slice those pieces in half horizontally so we can put the lexan in there.

Now we can lay those bottom halves right into the opening. See how they come half way up?

The lexan will go right in on top of those and lay nice and flat. Do this just to test it at this point for a good fit. We need to paint it before we actually glue it in.

Now lets put the top parts in just to test them. And see how that top piece sticks up a little bit? It is higher than the rest of the diorama. That is because we added the 1/8 inch lexan in between.

To compensate for the added height of the lexan I cut an eighth inch off the foam strips. Just like this.

Now when we glue it all in place the height will be exactly right.

Let's carve and paint the banks of the moat (Part 7c)