How I build large scale dioramas! (2 Viewers)

Why Keep Posting ?
You may be asking yourself,why does he keep posting this stuff when there is so little active response to his posts?

Number one is, to fulfill a promise that I made to myself 12 years ago to spread the word about dioramas as far and as wide as I possibly could,simply because I love dioramas.

Number two is, how do I know anybody is tuning in ? well in only one year I have got almost a million hits on my photobucket site. Yes,I can't believe it either.Most are repeats but still a million hits is very encouraging to keep on going with this stuff.
On occasion someone will tell me how they have been following my stuff for a long time ,sometimes on another site.

Number three is the amount of hits that I get on some websites that I post to.You guys may not always respond but I know that you are following along.

I want to thank all you guys and gals who have supported me now and in the past.You will never know how much your support means to this old guy. Cheers ! John.:D
 
A large scale diorama can be built for taking pictures of all types of models.They can be built expressly for that purpose or as in my case as a temporary backdrop before I ship it off.This backdrop was originally made for my airplane diorama "The Road Taken".The airplane has been temporary stored in my home and can be re-installed back in the diorama in as little as five minutes.Actually I have more fun taking pictures than the actual modeling and in some cases I like the pictures better than the model or diorama.Storyboarding using your own pictures is also a lot of fun too when using them in a picture book or album.In my case the storyboard albums will be for members of my family and friends because the real thing will be gone to a better home.
This thread is about ideas not a specific type or genre of modeling.Website owners please feel free to move it or delete it at your own discretion if you feel that it does not meet the standards of your site.I don't mind,honest !
 
Warning!! the next picture that you see may be disturbing to some viewers, yes it is a car. I used it here only for information purposes.Airplane,RR,figure guys etc...will just have to try to avoid looking at it ! Please let me explain.

The pic below depicts a car of course but it really could be anything.The point here is the backdrop and how it was used to create a little vignette within the larger diorama.
Here I have taken a 1/18th scale car and put it in a 1/16th scale diorama.By using camera angles,lighting,focus,forced perspective etc... I was able to create the illusion that it is all the same scale.
I deliberately selected a very shiny new car right out of the showroom for this example. Using proper lighting I was able to control any excessive shine which would otherwise only serve to make it look toy like.This is especially true of figures.You have to learn how to control the shine.Even in this picture it is still quite shiny but you should see it if I didn't play around with it a bit.
My technique is very simple, I just experiment and shoot lots of pics using different kinds of lighting.I have no professional equipment and I use a point and shoot camera.(In the old film days ,I wound be broke by now.)If you get 1 in 20 that looks good you will be lucky.Don't spend a lot of time and money on fancy equipment,you just don't need it.Most of my pics that I am taking now of an outdoor scene I just bounce the light off a white ceiling and use a hand held clip on light with a 60W bulb to produce shadows.Don't be afraid to keep moving the light around by hand until you get what your looking for.Sometimes an accidental shot will be the best of the bunch.
For my indoor shots in hangars etc.. I usually set up overhead lighting controlled by a rheostat especially when I am using figures to take advantage of the shadows that this produces, which is usually better than anything that I can paint on by hand.Simply underpaint only and play with the light to bring out the detail.In a controlled light setting this works very well.My figures for example look best indoors and in artificial light.Outdoors I have got to work a little harder but either way I am no Shep Paine with painting figures,that's for sure.

To make the scene look like it is all one scale there are a few things that can be played with.Camera angle is one.Low angle shots worked best in this case as it distorts the scale.Out of focus background also helps.Take shots that don't give it away.For example anything that is of readily known proportions like figures in the foreground or windows in the background must be used very carefully.In the above pic for example the fence can come in various sizes in real life but everyone knows the approximate size of a standard door or window from that era.

to be continued.......
 
Backdropsforpics013-1.jpg
 
pics above
Pic 1
-two guys standing in the door is an example of indoor overhead controlled lighting.Of course the painting could be better,especially the faces,but when viewed at a natural viewer distance in its protective case it looks just fine for my purposes.
Pic 2
-special lighting effects for photography can easily be set up.Here for example,the overhead hangar lights have been shut off and I simply shone a hand held light through the door and windows and moved it around to create interesting shadows.
 
The facade lighting is from the empty space in the back of the diorama that is normally covered with plywood.Here I am just just a 60w bulb to see if any light is still shining through the bricks after I painted the other side black.
The rooms with closed drapes or blinds with be painted various colors on the board in back.This should give each room a different color glow when lighted.The open windows will either be covered with wallpaper or painted ,with maybe a picture or clock hanging on the wall for added interest.I will have to experiment a bit here with the colors and the intensity of the light.
Would my dollhouse friends who follow my posts have some good ideas on this ?
Maybe using LED's ?
 
My next diorama is called "Once Upon A Time In The Movies" .It is my idea of how a movie set may have looked like back in the 1960's and is pure fantasy .It is a piece that I have dedicated to the great Italian film director Sergio Leone.The theme is old Western movie making based upon my favorite movie "Once Upon A Time In The West."
This diorama will be in 1/24 scale.I plan to have lots of fun with this one !I am presently building a locomotive as a movie prop based upon the old General model kit.Well here goes !
 
Here is a brief review of what I have done on this diorama prior to now.

The above illustration is of a typical movie set.

Of course everything starts with a little research on the subject that you are interested in.Pick a subject that is really personal to you,something that you love and not what others think you should love.If your heart is really in it that will see you through the rough periods and there always are a few of those along the way in any creative project.
Once you have a subject in mind the next step is the most important you will take.Research,research,research,get to know your subject really well.
The web ,libraries,museums books,magazines,films etc.. are good places to start. In my case with this project I have a huge advantage, I have the movie itself which I can stop and study frame by frame.
Other than for me personally, this diorama will be more instructive than emotional for the viewer.The last two dioramas that I have done were designed to involve the viewer emotional in the piece and send a message of some kind.This time it will be a more descriptive piece,how they used to make movies.
It is however emotional for me personally as I am a great fan of Sergio and have guided myself in the making of my dioramas the way he made movies,except mine are only one frame long.
 
First I made a 3D mockup of what I am planning.I like to use this for reference purposes as I find that it really helps to put everything in context.It is not written in stone though, nothing is with my style of modeling as I want the freedom to change things right up until the end of the project.This helps keep me interested too as I never know where it will end up.

Anything that I measure on the HO mockup I simply multiply by 3.625 for 1/24 scale.Speaking about scales I sometimes cheat a little and call it Artistic License.A good example of this is the locomotive kit I am using which is actually 1/25 scale in a 1/24 scale diorama but unless I told you ,you probably would not have noticed and you guys are much more familiar with scale than the general public would ever be.
My goal here is eventually find a good museum as a home for this diorama, because of its descriptive nature I want it to be seen by the public.
 
Sergio is the fellow with the hat and white shirt standing by the rear door next to the light.I don't know from which of his movies this pic comes from but it looks like one of his westerns that he was so famous for.
My closed set will be quite different as the diorama will depict an old abandoned movie set with no figures except for maybe a ghost or two.(every old western set needs one).

The HO train cars on the piece of round plywood is the basic design so far.The caboose with the cardboard roof will be the station from the opening scene of the movie.The locomotive will be pretty much as you see here except it will be a prop.
The green boxcar will actually be a closed set passenger car in the diorama.Somewhere in the scene I plan to put an old directors chair with Sergio written on the back.

Originally I was going to do this piece as a set from the film.I have since changed my mind actually I now plan to make it a long abandoned set from that era.I really enjoy making things look old and weathered (like me) and I think that it will add some emotion to the piece.Sergio died at 60 at the height of his artistic abilities and I want to honor that sense of loss of a man that still had so much more to give.
 
Well I guess that I might as pick up where I left off building the locomotive as a prop to be used in the movie set.You will remember that I am using "The General" kit as my starting point and I am now adapting it to look like a movie prop.There is lots of nice detail to work with here and it is an eye-saving 1/25 scale.
This is my first RR diorama and my first attempt at building a scale model locomotive so please if you see that I am going down a wrong path I would appreciate it if you more experienced builders would advise me.I have run electric(yes we had electricity way back then, LOL) trains on and off for 65 years now but never had this building opportunity before.
I can't remember exactly what my first train was but it was back in Toronto just after dad returned from overseas about 1945 .I do remember him saying though before one of his flights "Don't leave it plugged in too long you will burn out the transformer"Well he wasn't gone long and I proceeded to do just that.It became a push train after that.
 
Here is a pic of the great director himself in action on the set of Once upon a time......It is taken near the cab of a Spanish locomotive in Spain, by Angelo Novi Sergio's personal stills photographer.
My locomotive will be a little different and is actually closer to the real thing in design.I have chosen to build a fake locomotive and use it as a prop as was commonly done back in earlier times.My General will be a shell built of wood and tin and depicted sitting on a track waiting for the actors return which never came.
Although I don't believe it ever happened in this case, props were often built after the main movie was shot and used in re-takes.It was a lot less expensive this way.
 
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