Some new territory for me here... I've never build much more than just a base for my models using cardboard and chip board. However, I've always wanted to take the plunge into building a proper diorama. Seeing another modeler on another forum post this incredible diorama inspired by the BOB series after just seeing a painting of La Roche I became inspired!
The question is... what do I want to build? I love it when people make a diorama from a picture. But, for me, part of the fun is coming up with a scene of your own. Maybe some of the historical facts may be bent. But, so what! It's much more fun when you're free to do as you please. So the questions are... How? What? Why? Blank page staring up at me... Start with a spark then go of on a tangent until a story appears. This is what I came up with......
I had been working on Tamiya's BMW R75 and their Panther Aus G so this was the perfect excuse to use them up.. all we needed now was some rangers.
The idea is that the BMW crew have stopped to ask directions with the panther commander while the rangers are hiding away in the barn. Simple and sweet for my first hand made dio. Trying to build a diorama that explains itself right? Anyway.. on with the build.
First was to shape the board itself. Foam insulation board from B&Q. Cheap and REALLY easy to mold into shape.
I work on a farm and just love how deep ruts and tracks can really go in mud. So I wanted to re-create this in my diorama. I set about digging the road out to give the impression of constant use.
In my experience the corners are never square and considering the size and maneuverability of these tanks I wanted to give the impression that the corner had indeed been cut!
With the road cut out it was time to focus on the barn. Now, my scratch building skills are none... literally. After trolling the net I came so many ideas my head was spinning. I just stuck with using more foam as I have tons of it and plan on coating with with clay anyway.
I decided that pinning would be a good idea to reinforce the foam as its rather soft and brittle.. I'm hoping that it'll hold the clay. I'm hopeful at least!
So here is the barn so far...
I decided to border the diorama in MDF. Fairly easy to do and it tied together nicely with a mitered butt joint.
Not the strongest bond as it's only stuck to the bottom of the dio. I had to add some PVA to the sides in order to "bulk" and strengthen it up a bit. The gaps at the side will disappear once the ground work has been laid. Here's a test run.. mock roof intact...
Next up was adding brick work to the barn and water trough. I,m completely new to all this and a book by David Wright called "Making Railway Buildings for Model Railways" came in handy massively. The book cover's EVERYTHING you will need to know on building making. Just up the scales to (in my case) 1/35 and you have an absolute gold mine of information! As the barn is meant to be run down and "Farmer John" style. I figured an older style of brick laying would be in order.
Now to add some detail to the piece. As it's meant to resemble some kind of field or farm a wooden fence was most definitely in order! This was a lot easier to replicate than I thought. As most "farm" fences I've seen are mostly bit of scrap, I estimated what width the planks should be. Using a 1/35 figure as a rough ruler, I started to cut the planks out and set it in place. A break in the fence here and there and hurrah! My first balsa wood experiment complete.
I really liked the idea of adding a road sign, there are lots of options online, however, I wanted unique and rustic...
Seeing as I was on a balsa roll, I was toying with the idea of making my own wagon wheel.. Risky as I'm new to this scratch building malarkey. But, perseverance paid off and with a little bit of weathering I think it'll look the part.
Added a few rocks here and there the piece has started to come together. I really don't want to over complicate the piece. After the ground work has been laid it'll down to the models to do all the talking. So far... so good.
