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Road to Nowhere: from Photo to Diorama

Presentation

Of course a diorama is always an attention grabber. But since digital revolution is arriving in our hobby-world there are lots of interesting possibilities for the "after-building-process. All we need is a digital camera (2 mega pixels are enough) with macro-zoom and a photo-editing software. Though "Photoshop" is the most professional one, there are many programs which produce satisfying results. The pics of our dio, for example, were edited with "Mikrograf Picture Publisher". 

All you have to do, is make some good shots of your dio in front of a white background (backside of poster). On the other side you copy a dramatic sky into your program. Then cut out the shape of your dio and copy it into the background sky, smoothening the edges of the dio. Et voilá: The scenery is getting a new life, depending on the background you choose. Of course it can be very impressing, if you play with colours. Fitted into a black and white background our dio comes out very well. And in the end this was our mission goal: We wanted to create an exact accordance between original and model. 

All in all I strongly recommend to all fellow modellers, to take an interesting photo as diorama subject. These projects are a real challenge which skill your modelling-eye and most of all they teach you to look for your own solutions as it isn't possible to buy all accessories on the market. The building of "Road to Nowhere" took approximately two months and I have to say that it was a very pleasant time - and in the end a little monument for these lost guys who went out in 1941 to no man's land, paying the price for the hubris of their commander in chief.