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A Simple Diorama

One of the first questions I'm usually asked when people see my dioramas is "where did you get the idea from?" In all honesty, I don't really know how to answer it.

Generally speaking, the idea comes from seeing a model I would like to build and then looking for ways to incorporate it into a scene. Once I have an idea for a diorama story, I go about finding figures and buildings that I feel will go well with the model and help depict the theme I have in mind.

Another source for ideas are history and other books, especially those with lots of pictures as these can stimulate the grey matter and give rise to some great ideas. Of course, work done by other modellers can also be a great source of inspiration.

Planning the diorama

I usually start any project by doing a small sketch. This allows me to better visualize what I am trying to end up with. It also allows me to roughly work out the size of the base I'll need. The sketch only needs to be a rough outline, it need not be a work of art. Its purpose is only to put your thoughts into black and white and create a visual reference for the initial stages of the project's construction. It is very rare that the final diorama will look like the first sketch but at least now you can see if the idea will work [figure 1].

Once you've decided what your diorama will consist of you need to get a better idea of the size the base will need to be. The easiest way to do this is to put the main components on a piece of paper then use a ruler to work out the dimensions.

Once you have the dimensions you need to decide what material the base is going to be made from. For this project I will use medium density fibreboard (mdf) because it is cheap, readily available and easy to work with. I've determined that the best size for this project will be 12" x 12" square.