Does any one on here do any diorama’s? This maybe a weird question, but I have some old trains and track, tried to run them without much luck. i don’t want to put much time into getting them fixed ( don’t even know if they are worth it). So my thought was to practice weathering and detailing, and try doing a scene of perhaps an old locomotive “put out to pasture”. Any thoughts, ideas, photos of completed dioramas?
Thanks Bob.
No question is a stupid question, right?
Here’s what I did last summer (no, I didn’t run over any pedestrians who will now haunt me forever…instead I built a couple of little dioramas on which to pose all the stuff I’ve been collecting for 50 years, that has never been on an actual layout):
Looks pretty strange when you can see back far enough to see how its done…but “comes a cropping” and the photo can look quite realistic…this next one fooled my neighbour (who has this same view out her back window) into gasping and asking just WHEN there was a railroad track running behind our houses:
Diaramas are a great way to get started. Another good starter is a small switching layout sometimes called a “timesaver”.
http://www.gdlines.com/Timesaver.html
[#welcome]
dioramas for me, will be the basis of my layout.( i will explain in a few) By building small, you can practice your skills and if you mess up or are unhappy with your results start over!!, you haven’t invested to much money (hopefully) in the small project. you can find what works, and what doesnt work for you. you can find out what part of the hobby you acceI (excel?) in, and what areas you need to work on. for me, I realized i will never have space to represent the railroad i want to model in the way i want to model it. my wife and i are happy with our small 800 sq ft house with no basement and no spare room…lol so i have decided to model it in almost museum fashion, the old theatre trick of black fascias above and below the dioramas. it will be a series of dioramas linked together, my favorite scenes along the route. this way i can have it all…just not the way i originally thought i could! good luck…
Check out these Forums http://cs.finescale.com/forums/ ( it’s part of the Kalmbach family). I have learned a few tricks there. The family bought the Woodland Scenics S927 - The Scenery Kit for me, have not attempted to put it together yet, but I have watched the assembly video and it looks easy.
I’ve built probably 20 diorama’s in my life time but to display model cars, not trains. Most of the skills I developed over the years building cars have really helped me progress faster then I thought I would building my own layout. Diorama’s are a great learning tool.
The Timesaver track plan itself is a puzzle, not a small layout. I think it would become very frustarting as a standalone layout, because it is intended to be “challenging” to operate, not realistic.
In a way, my whole layout is a series of dioramas, strung together with the track work. Most are built on the workbench to a size and shape that will fit in a space on the layout. Many of them have been taken to shows and clinics. Because I now build entirely with foam they are light weight and easily repairable. You can see many of the scenes in my pics which can be seen by clicking on my sig.
I’ve seen some that were sceniced(sp?) and detailed out real nice. Then you have an operating diorama instead of a static display.(just pointing out an option.)
I’m working off a diorama right now due to the fact that for a short time my young family and I live at my in-law’s house so no layout for me.
I’ve never really built a layout before or had any real experience with really modeling trains so this was in my mind the best way to start for my situation.
My diorama is actually much bigger than others. It’s 3x10 ft and in HO scale. My scene is a spot on the Montana Rail Link line just outside of Bozeman where I went to college. I wanted a spot where to tracks tuned to one and headed into a tunnel, and the scene was perfect.
I now am about half way done and I for sure have a list of do’s and don’ts.
The other good part about my diorama is that as soon as I learn about DCC, and purchase a system, I will use my diorama to program my engines and speed match them.
Here’s a shot:
Here’s the real place:
I built my with wheels so that I can move it outside to catch the real sunlight for some nice photos. My hopes is to one day enter a photo in MR’s photo contest.
Unca Roggie and ZGardner18 those are VERY impressive! ZGardner the far end looks brilliant.
I made one a while back. 36x18 ins. It was and still is a good place to display locos and rollingstock and it taught me a lot about scenery.
Mike
Great shots of your dioramas guys.
I built a very small one once to try out some woodland scenics fall foliage I’d gotten and to see if I liked hte look of fall for a layout. here’s the pictures:
http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh55/Packers_1/mainline%20diorama/
AS to what I learned: A)this foliage stuff can give you good results, you just have to be patient w/ it, and that fall is not the season that i want to model.
I’m with Mike, about showing off my fleet. I was sick of showing off an newly detailed car or engine on my computer desk, so I figured that a diorama was a good place to have as a background.
Here’s a close up to the end that I have been working on. Don’t mind the unwired poles. That will be done this weekend.
Mike: I’ll trade compliments with you…I blew up your above photos and studied how well the different facets of ground and so forth were done…VERY difficult to detect its only a model! The road is also amazing.
I did mine in a HURRY (for a reason I cannot recall…makes me angry later when I catch myself thinking that I’m not using time wisely, when doing anything that doesn’t produce income.)
I can tell you must have taken your sweet time on yours. The SECOND one, done about a month later, I tried to do slower and better:
That’s some great work, and some great advise. I was going to try something a little smaller, maybe like a 16inX16in square of plywood. My plan is to put the track diagonal on the plywood, with a “buffer” on one end, and maybe a turnout in the there somewhere going off … Can I use a 1 inch piece of foam insulation board adhered to the plywood, or should I use something thicker. again my theme is an old engine out to pasture, may throw an old caboose in there too.
I would think that a 16 X 16 item would allow you to make it of anything you WANT, without it causing any problem (in terms of being able to pick it up and move it outdoors, etc.)
One thing I learned from my experience: make it so you CAN pick it up, without your thumbs on top destroying the scenery you just worked on making look good! Little HANDLES on each side, can be cropped out of any photo, bear in mind.
I’ll speculate that no matter what you do on your first one, you’ll want to do a second one–not only is it a lot of fun, but this is the kind of thing where you learn best from your own mistakes (which, in the art world, according to the late great Bob Ross, are only “happy little accidents.”)
I’ve built several dioranas before building my layout, one was a track with a bridge and another a small oilfield called the Tar Creek Oil Co. : http://www.geocities.com/espee9164/field.mod.html If you don’t have a layout, its a great way to pratice modeling skills.
Mine was dashed together out of scraps of foam and a chunk of 1x 6.
I made it long and skinny to accommodate photographing equipment… Works pretty well.
Since I live in town, I can’t get a wide sweeping vista, so I usually shoot from a low angle to get the trees in the background to fuzz out a little.
Other times I’ll “shop” in a sky…
Or drop some props fore and aft…
It’s a great thing to have. One day I’ll throw it in the car and head up to the mountains and get some “real” backdrops…
Lee