Command Operations Center, LLC
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Command Operations Center, LLC |
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Building a Diorama The basics of making of a Diorama in 1mm per foot scale... When you begin a diorama you need something to be the focus of the work, the object upon which the viewer's eye will be drawn. In this case it is a Leopard tank in 1/285th scale by GHQ miniatures. The figures standing on the tank are 1/220 scale by Preiser and fit nicely into the picture even though they are larger in size than a normal human in 1/285th scale, but they work because there is no direct reference to their size, and after all, there are tall people in the German Army just like there are tall people in any Army
The picture below is of very near the beginning of the project. A wooden base was found that allowed the scene to be constructed to the size chosen by the modeler. The ground was formed using foam, pine bark for the rocks, and light weight spackling material found at a building supply store. You can purchase "filler foam" from your hobby store for four or five times the cost of the same material at a building supplier like Lowe's or Home Depot. This "rough" is allowed to dry overnight before continuing. In this picture you will see a second application of the filler material. It has been formed into the cleaner lines you can see with the sides sculpted slightly inward to increase the sense of "mass" or height to the base of the hill behind the road, which when viewed from the front of the diorama should give an indication of a larger mass behind the scene. What looks like dirt sprinkled around the rocks is actually ground cover that is being used to look for holes in the spackling. The solid white of the spackling tends to hide small indentations and holes when you are working it into the shape you want so the modeler uses the ground cover to help find the depressions.
In the picture above you can see the base color of the ground and the road, plus you can see where the tapered sides have been colored black to help focus the viewers eye on the subject, not the base. You will notice the test fitting of some of the other components of the scene and the beginnings of details to the road, like where the tank's tracks have broken though the asphalt, etc.
Lots of detail has been added in the picture above. Note the ground cover, the dry grass, the trees and how the rock has been dry brushed to highlight the depth of the rocks. Also note the work on the pavement. The repair lines, the different colors of roadway, and the shoulder work. The dark pine trees are made from round tooth picks and some dark ground cover foam, the light dense pine trees are commercially available from Walthers, and all the foam and ground cover is from Woodland Scenics also available from Walthers or your local hobby retailer. Note the road signs, the ammo truck partially open tarp, and the grass growing up through the asphalt in the foreground. Every detail you add brings life to the scene.
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