When and how did you start making dioramas? (1 Viewer)

[Poppo]

I started to make dioramas when I was about 8 or 9 years old with my mother: they were "nativity cribs" for Christmas.
I went to search for musk in the fields, made a lake with a small mirror and so on. I put the small plastic figures on the hill and the bigger ones on the first line. From those attempts I learned the sense of perspective and the try for realism in the scenes. Many years passed until a few years ago I made my actual dios.

 

[Mitch]

always been interested in drawing and had lots of WWII comics commando and the like and used to draw lots or the scenes in them and then started building ships and tanks from Tamiya and revell and it was after that I saw some of the Tamiya catalogues with Diorama's in from people like Verlinden and that was it.

Always built from real pictures when I was growing up and was fortunate to be involved in a good model club and had some really good model makers to pinch ideas from
Mitch

 

[Louis Badolato]

I wanted a castle for the figures I painted when I was a kid, so I took some scraps of plywood, drew the basic shapes I wanted for the walls with battlements, and cut them out with my dad's jigsaw. The I put the walls and keep together with finish nails and wood glue, and covered the whole thing with pre-mixed plaster my dad had in the paint locker. I painted the whole thing gray, and then spent about a week with a nail scraping out the shapes of the stones so the white plaster shown through as mortar, and the gray painted areas with the stone for the walls. When I was done, the white was too bright, so a watered down some black paint, and washed it over to dull the white plaster, then glued some hobby shop moss and litchen on to simulate ivy growing up the walls. Next I built a base with a vertical wall to which I stapled some torn window screen to make a mountain side. I covered it with powdered papier mache from the hobby shop (just add water), and glued a bunch of railroad trees grass, gravel and stones t complete the scene.

 

[Harper (aka Spitfrnd)]

I haven't really started yet. Given the amazing work reflected here by some talented members like UKReb, fmethorst and artmabigor, it is a daunting undertaking.

 

[zblang]

I'm with Harper. For years I just kept my figures on the shelf. THen I found this forum and I am no longer satisfied with that. Since joining here, I am slowly adding figures to dioramas. It is so much more fun this way and they look so much better.

Thanks to everyone here for opening my eyes to this expanded aspect of this hobby (and for making me spend so much more money! {sm3} )

 

[Poppo]

I'm with Harper. For years I just kept my figures on the shelf. THen I found this forum and I am no longer satisfied with that. Since joining here, I am slowly adding figures to dioramas. It is so much more fun this way and they look so much better.

Thanks to everyone here for opening my eyes to this expanded aspect of this hobby (and for making me spend so much more money! {sm3} )

Same for me. I also started with the shelves, and then I started to put the figures in dioramas and they really look so much better and real :salute:: By the way, I still like to have some of them on the sheves, in situation.

 

[RPZ]

I was building plastic kits at 8 or 9, then a few years later they developed into dogfighting scenes hanging from my bedroom ceiling using fine fishing line complete with cotton wool smoke etc.

 

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Growing up, we were very poor. My parents would lock me in the attic and force me to build dioramas to sell so they could buy bread and cheese...sometimes they would give me some of the bread. I usually built rock formations with it. Nothing much has changed since then. I am still trapped in the attic building dioramas, but at least the iron shackle is off my leg.

If you look closely, you can see me through the attic window.

 

[Poppo]

Growing up, we were very poor. My parents would lock me in the attic and force me to build dioramas to sell so they could buy bread and cheese...sometimes they would give me some of the bread. I usually built rock formations with it. Nothing much has changed since then. I am still trapped in the attic building dioramas, but at least the iron shackle is off my leg.

If you look closely, you can see me through the attic window.





{sm4}

 

[Fort-Stamford]

When I was a child, my parents bought a metal castle for my Johilco knights. As a teenage I progressed and was heavily involved with building plastic model planes and warships and learning from my dad in the building of HO and 027 gauge scale train layouts. Then while living in the UK, in my thirties, and visiting European war museums, I was introduced again to toy soldiers and their display in dioramas. So now, in my retirement years, I display my collection in various ever changing dioramas. I counted a total of 12+ small to large dioramas in my man-cave and my hobby room. The displays cover: Thermopylae, Rome vs. Britons, Crusades, SYW, Waterloo, ACW, War on the Nile, WWI, and WWII. Each new display I improve upon based on what I learn from fellow collectors here on the Treefrog Forum. I feel that dioramas are the best way to display the new (model) toy soldiers being produced today (exception would be the display of the lead classics in their original boxes, otherwise in glass display cases).