I’m kicking around making an HO diorama for taking pictures. I would like to have it sorta universal for structures and track related goodies.
I worked with my grandson for a couple of weeks on a 18” x 48” diorama to try and hook him on our hobby he wasn’t interested after a couple of weeks. That was several years ago and it’s been leaning in a corner ever since.
This is as far as we got when his I-Pad won.
I’m looking for ideas. I have some 2” foam and a half bag each of Sculptamold and Paper Mache (can buy more if needed).
I have a bunch of Woodland Scenics Trees, plenty of Parks Super Glaze for water and enough Arizona Rock & Mineral to
Mel, I made a 30 inch square photo diorama and use poseable terrain pieces to create scenes.
This siaze was not a great decision arrived upon after careful consideration. Instead, I just used my gaming board for 15mm De Bellis Antiquitatis which is 30 by 30.
The lighting kit was about $80.00 on eBay, and really made the pictures look great.
I started using this set up, and have been improving for the past three years.
Be careful, photo-diorama pictures can become a hobby all of their own.
Mel, I made a diorama on a whim about nine years ago. I had one of those particle board cheapie shelves with the white thin plastic layer on both surfaces that swell when they get wet if the sides are not sealed. I angled the tracks a bit and incorporated a bridge over a creek. I used foam as a filler, but I used Joe Fugates’ ‘ground goop’ over much of it to make the terrain more even and natural (I get tired of carving and rasping foam for hours).
The tracks, as your picture shows, would almost certainly be on a raise roadbed, so you’d want to lift those and add a layer of 1/4"-1/2" ply…IF…you don’t also sculpt the surrounding terrain. Even if you have visions of the tracks running through, or emerging from, a rock cut, you still have to raise the tracks so that there’s a ditch on either side for drainage.
If you’re going to have a tall rock cut behind the tracks, and a slope on this side of them, you’ll need to elevate the tracks by about 2 inches, maybe more. So, either way, you have to lift those tracks and build a raised roadbed under them.
My main aim, finally to get to it, is to have you build something without a backdrop, or with one that can easily be removed. You may have a hankering to do outdoors photography with this diorama in front of a fabulous natural setting, too good to pass up, so build some flexibility into your design. Also, if you add another foot or more in area, you have more diversity in structure and settings to take images of on one diorama…don’t make it too small.
The one I show below is about 4.5’ long, and I shot this with a local famous glacier in the background. The diorama is everthing this side of the tracks and beyond until the stream disappears. The middle ground trees are across a paved country road, and they’re about 30 yards distant. The glacier is about 25 miles distant.
Great ideas guys! I need a place on the diorama for my scratch builts too, I’m really into building scratch built homes for my layout. I do like the bridge and river. I was thinking about a creek with a bridge and maybe a road for my vehicles. I have asphalt, gravel and dirt roads on my layout with powered sockets for vehicle lighting.
I am going to remove both tracks and raise the roadbed but thinking about only using a single track. The dual tracks with the turnout was a try to interest the grandson, didn’t work.
I have one I started, probably close to 10 years ago now. Yes, I work slow. SOmewhere along the line, I picked up one of those Woodland Scenics diorma kits. I have the frame all built, everything painted flat black so the underside hides. Now it needs the scenery applied to it. It’s been hanging around gathering dust ever since I got it that far. I was going to use it to practice scenery.
I also won, as a raffle prize, the WS kit which is meant to display one of those village houses, at last year’s Reading Modeler Meet. I figure it cna be adapted to other things, or I can use the materials. It’s geared towards makign a snow scene - maybe I will combine the two and make the train one a winter scene.
Perhaps I will complete one or the other around the time when pigs fly.
Mel, I would strongly recommend making every scenic element moveable/poseable. You might be amazed how quickly you get board with a photo setting that cannot be changed.
I totally agree with you Kevin! I built my layout like that too. Everything is removable except track, mountains and my turntable/roundhouse. I shuffle houses, vehicles and trees constantly.
I have about 90 vehicles with lights and a bit over 100 socketed places on roads and parking spots. I have close to 450 trees all removable, they plug into either 1/8” or 1/16” sockets. All my structures are held in place with 1/8” diameter Neodymium magnets.
I need to come up with a place on the diorama that I can put structures that fits in with the track with or without the structure in place.
I am planning on having a small creek and a road for vehicles.
You should watch some of Ken Patterson Youtube videos.
He does professional advertising shoots outside, he lives on a cliff overlooking the Mississippi river.
It’s all on one or two big foam modules. He has fake mountains on a tripod behind the layout, which simplifies landscaping. He does a lot of night shots with time exposures and episodic lighting of the train or structures.
He also uses photo stacking software, which greatly extends depth of field. I haven’t gotten into that yet.
Some of his shots are from a rail fan perspective, rather than the blimp shots we often see in the forum. That makes the landscaping behind the train less critical
When I made my diorama, I didn’t plan on structures. I just wanted something to practice scenery on and to have something nice to take roster pictures of my rolling stock on. So I kept the track towards the back of the diorama, but I added a dirt road in part of the foreground for taking vehicle pics, especially my piggyback trailers since I consider them rolling stock.
My outside problem in the realively crowded residential area I’m in. I mean, it’s an old section of town with many mature trees, shrubs, etc, but also garages, roof tops, yard shed, etc.
I DO want to finish what I have started, THEN I’ll need to learn how to fully operate the Cannon camera the kids gave me 10 yrs. ago. I don’t use a phone, my phone is a Verizon, LG flip phone…[swg]…So many projects!..
Mel, I’ve seen the pictures of your scratchbuilt houses. Amazing! I hope you can find a way to add them to the diorama. Since you have spent so much time lighting your houses, is that something you will do on the diorama, also?
Actually, I have it right here, it’s Cannon PowerShot SD750 ELPH, 7.1 mp’s. If the manual that came with it, was typed in regular, say 12 font, it would probably be a 3 book, bound edition. [:|]
What I have strated, is just a piece of track, on a decent mainline profile, some foreground, low scenery, to photo locomotives, and rolling stock.
There’s a guy that puts out diorama’s, all seasons, and they are EXCELLENT. I think he’s Swedish, or from Denmark. Some of his photos shots, are done into videos, with a lot of Hans Zimmer music, and weathered rolling stock looking like you are right there.
I’ll have to look for him, and post a link. He shows how he builds the scenes.
One of my (many, countless) nieces has a Canon Powershot, and it takes amazing pictures for an enhanced point-and-shoot camera. You should be able to get some good pictures with it.
When I got my Rebel EOS, the instruction manual was insane. On the Canon site there was a “simplified” manual that was only about 70 pages long, in 12 point font. pdf format download. That “simplified” manual was a great thing to read. I still have not popped open the manual that came with the camera.
I found one with a Google Image search. It won’t be exactly like this one but I did get a good idea from it. I can have my creek and road plus a small hill with a few trees.
I’ll post pictures on WPF as construction permits. That way I can still take advice from members as I work on it.
