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Wet Feet

about dioramas

I’ve been modelling for more than 25 years, starting at a very early age always in the most absolute loneliness, rarely showing my stuff to people. This is great to forge some strong beliefs about the whole thing. As for today I can describe my way of considering my hobby with those 10 points below.

1 -The diorama is everything modelling is about, it’s the meeting point of the manufactured object that is the model and the human input, you can –and have to- tell stories with dioramas.

2 -When doing your diorama you should not be influenced by any trend or by any fellow modeller for you will only reproduce pale copies of originals.

3 -You should instead be influenced by EVERYTHING; a trip in nature, archive footages, paintings, music… you should never consider this list to be closed.

4 -If you don’t have a good idea to start with, or know you won’t have any, wait for one to come.

5 - tuez pour l'ambiance (In English we would say “Go for the Gusto” or “Go all out”). If nothing shines from your diorama, you miss your point and just picture an assortment of junk and people.

6 -You should remember that a diorama is a 3D thing whose advantage is that you can turn it around and get different perspectives of the same scene. You will therefore make an effort to not close the view of any part of it.

7 -You should remember that the nature surrounding a panzer is equally as important as the panzer.

8 -You should buy a book about artistic composition which will help you avoid scattering the work in pointless details.

9 -Whenever dealing with war you should treat it with conscience: you should remember it’s a sad thing that destroys a man, even if he survives it. You should also try not to do graphic historic rendition.

10 -You should try to do something you can be proud of and remember that a diorama may be seen as some piece of art if your input in it is strong enough.