hye everyone
I'm thinking about buiding a small "vignette" dio representing a room. There would be 2 or 3 soldiers reloading / firing downthrough the window. Ah, yes, it's WWII, but I haven't decided on which side yet.
I've got tissue for the wallpaper, resin for the door frames, balsa for a wooden floor.
What else should I need ?
Any hints, suggestions, councels ?

penpen

Acetate to simulate broken windows? I'm not a dio expert by a long shot but I know this is sometimes used to simulate broken windows.

Hi Penpen,
I think you may need to represent wiring and plumbing if the walls are broken. Isn't there a 1/35th Bathroom kit in resin out there somewhere?
Good Luck and keep us posted
Chuck

PenPen,

Great Idea, I really like it and can see endless posibilities as far as interior (depending on what room it is, what room is it?). My question(s) is what are you going to use for a base and how are you going to build up the walls and the heights? You can get 1/8" plywood or use firm cardboard as a frame. Then build up with either putty or plaster, however Id suggest plaster since the qualities of the plaster (easy to crack, scrape and texture + its realistic). I get a picture in my mind of some of the scenes in Saving Private Ryan, where the American boys fight the Germans in the city from the upper levels. Cool Stuff.
Good Luck and as previously said, keep us posted.

thx !
I had forgotten about the plumbing !
My idea is a bit more precise now : a sniper or an mg hidding behind a half closed window,
waiting for the right time to shoot.
This means that the room (bedroom) would probably be still intact.
I'll be using styrofoam for the base and I'll glue balsa to represent wooden planks making the floor.
I'll try to find the right figures on friday, when I go to that big convention in Paris.

penpen

Hy
I think you should need some resin furnitures....a little painting hanging in the wall.....
things like that...
Don't forget to shows us it when finished, ok?
Good luck!

Here is what I would suggest.

A room, somewhere in France. The room is intact, obviously that of a small child, a girl. There are things scattered around the room that make that obvious... dolls, teddy bear...etc. Everything in the room is untouched. There is no battle damage or broken glass. In the far corner of the room a woman is huddled, holding a small child. She is looking toward the window.
Crouched by the slightly opened window is a German sniper, his rifle shouldered as if he is about to take his first shot toward an unseen soldier in the street below. His uniform is dirty and he has the look of a war weary soldier. He is a stark and horrible contrast to the innocence permeating to rest of the room.

Entitle the diorama.

"The Boogie Man"

Ok...



DG,
Where do you get all these great ideas from?!!

I'm impressed!! Methinks DG is a visitor from Hollywood or something. His discription smells like 'screenplay' or 'teleplay' or something. But ya gotta love it!
If I already haven't said this.....welcome to the site. Your input can be nothing less than inspirational! :-)

Pardon me while I don my cheap sunglasses...

Tread

Thanks for the compliments on the idea. No, I am not from Hollywood, just little old Oregon

Here´s something to comment DGerath´s scheme idea...



Just think about photographing this scene with some light coming from the window through the curtain....


Toni

Congratulations for that great sketching !
I wish I could draw...
The angle I've chosen for the dio is a bit different. I haven't chosen the size of the
window yet, because I need to find the right figure first.
But the floor is ready and looks very nice.
I'll try to wright an article about this dio and submit it to this site.

penpen

I have already started working on the idea myself. When I get farther on it I will post some pics and we can compare the different concepts to the scene. Should be interesting!

Cheers,

Dana

That's unfair !
The beginner I am is gonna have a hard time !
No, I'm kidding !!!
I'll be very glad to compare my work with yours. I'm certain that we'll
see some interesting differences between our works !

good modelling

penpen

Envar,
Great drawing!! I sure wish I could draw, then maybe I could make a decent diorama.

Very nice sketch!

I have been doing illustrations for about 11 years for books and magazines but I have never been able to draw people. All of my illustrations have been on paleontological subjects, (dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals, etc).

About the only drawings I can do are those 3D looking cubes. Those or simple line drawings. I've made a few bare bones sketches of my first dio. (still a ways off) I'm still in the planning phases.

YodaMan

YOdaMan!!



Man, I just hate to plan, I think I just wanna get to the modeling parts. But the funny thing is that I still want to be able to draw out my dioramas before I start making them. It maybe because im so terrible at drawing and planning that I dont like it?

Envar - very nice sketch!

DG - great idea!

I think the floor should be just a little darker underneath the sniper, just to reinforce the contrast between war and innocence.

Actually, I prefer extensive planning as to just starting a dio without one. That way, I do what I've planned and I don't go off into a half-million ideas and try to do too much.
Good idea Phantom. There are many sublte ways you can create a viewpoint in a war dio. Even though it's not a dio, I really like that one painting of German and Allied medics momentarily forgetting they're at war as they come together to retrieve their wounded.

YodaMan

Verlinden Productions offers great furniture for rooms. When I do dioramas with viewed intereior, I like to have hanging pictures fallen to the ground or lopsided on the wall. For this I make the frames from strip styrene and I try to find pictures in magazines or even photos and Photocopy them in a color copy machine and shrink it to the size I need. It works and looks great!!! :-)

What about large gauge wire as plumbing. How would that look? Painted copper. Just an idea.

Hi!
I liked pretty much the Envar sketch, but I would pose my spniper faced for the front sign of the dio (I mean, I´d put him on the other side of the window) so everybody could see his face

I build dioramas for customers... i specialize in "360-degree" stuff... and a lot of the buildings I do have as much detail as the "front"... some of the things I often incorporate are lighting fixtures (some that still work!), plumbing, and old fashioned wiring... where the wire was afixed "to" the wall, rather than inside it... quite common in older houses and offices built before 1915 or so... I also use pre-printed wallpapers that I find at the dollhouse shops, although I print my own time to time using a color laser printer. You can also find nice size picture frames, furniture, and "pictures" (reduce a B/W photo of a stamp using a photocopier!). Another great idea is to take the home decorating calatlogs your wife gets... look inside for photos of rugs... often you can find something that looks typical of the locale, and about the right size... cut 'em out, clue them to a sheet of gauze, then rumple them up on the floor, or role them up and tie them with twine as if they were being stolen or moved for safekeeping. Don't forget your rafters, fallen plaster, and tossed-about tables and chairs, all easily made at your desk with a little patience and practice. Glasses, goblets, books, and plates are also another convincg group of items easily made from scratch! Enjoy! Take a look at my Dioramas "Caen '44" or "Orders" (click FEATURES - DIORAMAS on the menu bar at left) and you will see a LOT of this incorporated. Both are very large dioramas with lots of buildings and figures, but the concept transports well to any size scene. - KFMagee

You can buy large guage electrical coil wire at Michael's Craft's stores that is copper so no painting required. It's very plyable so you can bend it easily with your hands.