Introduction

Pla Editions, publisher of Abrams Squad, started to release a new quarterly magazine - DioraMag. As the company stated, the aim of the magazine is to provide imagination and new ideas to diorama modelers for their own works, inspire them by the works of well-known artists, show them different techiques by step by step articles and short-format tutorials and also inform them about new diorama products.

First issue DioraMag Vol.1 is in A4 format with laminated cover. 96 pages full of photos and all texts in English.

Notice

DioraMag in association with Euro Miniatures Expo and Macone Models are proud to present the Euro Cup for Best Diorama and Best Vignette at Scale Model Challenge 2018.

In addition to prestigious crystal cup on a marble base, both winners will receive 100 EUR gift certificate from Macone Models and a complimentary 1 year subscription to DioraMag.

Inside The Book

Editoral by Art Director Sven Frisch

List of contents

A Brief History of Dioramas ; Three page intro refreshing our memories with a short text and photos of legendary books like How to Build Dioramas and The Verlinden Way.

News ; In this part, you may see some new diorama products of companies like Reality in Scale, Matho Models, Miniart, Macone Models, Dio Dump and Joefix Studios.

Diorama Classics ; Nice gesture of Pla Editions to commemorate Sheperd Paine. 2 pages with 4 photos of many diorama builder’s inspiration - A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, German 88 mm antitank gun hidden in a church.

Leave No Man Behind, Vietnam 1968 ; John Rosengrant shares his built of Dragon’s M48A3 with tank crew and USMC figures. 17 photos for the building steps and finished model.Besides great weathering on tank and painting of Marines, facial expressions of soldiers worth to see.

Showcase ; 8 photos for vignettes and dioramas by Roger Hurkmans. Great World War I and II scenes.

Cordonnerie ; Very useful step-by-step article by Marcel Ackle. He explains how to build one of the three buildings- an abandoned shoemaker store of a 1/35 scale French suburban scene in 50x30 cm. 63 photos in numeric sequence with explanatory texts. I liked the To be continued note at the end of the article as it will be great to see such articles on next issues.

Showcase ; 10 photos for small scale dioramas by Dirk Mennigke. A naval dio, an airfield section with a F-15 Strike Eagle and an outstanding Vietnam War Brown water scene with two Pibbers.

The Death of Fury ; An excellent World War II diorama inspired by the movie- Fury and built by owner of Paracel Miniatures - Giang Xuan Le. 10 high quality photos of the finished scene.

Showcase ; 15 photos for 1/35 scale World War II dioramas with German tanks and soldiers by Bernhard Lustig. I can say painting of the figures are great but the exhausted look of the German soldiers on After The Battle, Russia 1942 scene are exceptional.

Death of A Prince ; Korean Modeler Won-hui Lee shares a dramatic naval diorama of 1/700 scale waterline HMS Prince of Wales gets hit by a japanese torpedo on December 10,1941. Another great article for naval enthusiasts. Step by step photos with texts on how to paint and weather the ship, making water with epoxy resin, simulating waves, ripples and water columns, wakes of torpedos, explosion effects and more. I am not a naval modelers but enjoyed to read it so much.

Japanese Masters ; 19 photos of various World War II dioramas by Kazuya Yoshioka. Absolutely an inspiring part with great autumn scenes.

Forgotten Walker ; A sci-fi scene by Per Olav Lund of a damaged Starwars 1/48 scale AT-ST on a damp and humid scenery of Endor. He first tells about how to make the rock formations carving insulation foam, then making vegatation and finally waterfall by acrylic gel. I appreciated his effort to make a 3-D Ewok figure.

Showcase ; Another great section full of photos showing World War II German dioramas by one of my favorite artists - Volker Bembennek. Weathering on vehicles and groundwork are exceptional.

Diorama Classics ; Two photos of British soldiers checking a German 88 mm dio. Another refreshing memory page to honor Francois Verlinden.

Warsaw 1944 - Part 1 ; A nice how to make article prepared by Sven Frisch for a road section with a street barricade diorama by Manuel Reinher. First part of the article brings us 13 close-up photos explained with detailed texts on making the cobblestone road from cork and basic painting. We have to wait next issue for refinements and more subtle effects.

Industrial Windows ; Yen Models has nice lasercut windows made from architectural cardboard. Yen Drenth demonstrates how to paint industrial, factory and warehouse windows and add effects on 22 step-by-step photos. Photos are numerical and well defined with texts.

Forest Base ; Marian Berg paints a figure base from Black Army Modells. A nice tutorial with 31 photos.

Die Gedanken Sind Frei ; Last article of the magazine from Sven Frisch is a two-page article with 3 photos in a different attitude. He tells a diorama doesn’t always need to be complex, time-consuming or have figures to have a story. I liked the story of Sophie Scholl and listened the song.

The magazine ends with 3 pages full of diorama photos from 2018 Malcom Show, Penang, Malaysia.

Conclusion

Not to mention on the printing and photo quality on DioraMag, as the company already has a rightful reputation on that by Abrams Squad magazines and several books.

First of all, I liked the idea to honor milestones like Shep Paine and Verlinden who inspired all of us.
Nice to see magazine has pages gathering new diorama products just released together as there are so many companies lately and hard to follow them.
Content is well organized. Showcases are represented between step-by- step articles.
Detailed articles by well-known and talented artists are easy to understand and photos are very helpful.

Shortly, the first issue of DioraMag is really an inspiring and useful handbook. Highly recommended for all diorama enthusiasts.

Special thanks to Pere Pla for thunder speed service.