Forced Perspective Dio Questions

You're bass-ackwards, IMHO... I'd use a small-scale aircraft and progresively larger scale figures, with aircraft approaching from the head-on aspect...

Best way to experiment with shadow boxes and forced-perpective is to get a cardboard box and put in a base mock up, then collect your figures and the aircraft and place them.  Then you'll wanna make a vewing window and put it in place and arrange everything looking through it...

When you get to the mock-up stage, lemme know... We'll talk about material and construction/lighting.  Oh yeah, buy a book on model railroad lighting and search for articles on fore-ground and background matte-paintings... You're gonna need 'em..

 If you're bound and determined to use a 1/32 aircraft. it'll work, but you're going to run into problems with size...

Hans von Hammer wrote:

You're bass-ackwards, IMHO... I'd use a small-scale aircraft and progresively larger scale figures, with aircraft approaching from the head-on aspect...

Agreed Col. With a larger scale plane you would have to do it from the birds perspective. This is a interesting concept...lots to consider...looking forward to seeing some shots. Good Luck!

Just so ya know, I just did a little experimenting with a 1/48th-scale figure and a 1/32-scale Spitfire, Smeagol, and I couldn't hold the 1/32 scale plane far enough away from the figure to make it appear to be farther away than about 40 feet...  Even with 1/72-scale, I think that, with the 1/32 aircraft in front and using forced-perspective, you'll still wind up with a shadow box at least 4 feet deep... 

Then how could I get away with doing this?

Depends... Are you bound and determined to do a 1/32nd scale bird and use it or is it the strafing thing that you want to do?

If you want to feature the 1/32nd scale but aren't all that hard-azzed about it's mission, there's a couple different things that come to mind... Right off the top of my head, I'd suggest that you do a dogfight between your 1/32 bird and a 1/72 scale opponent, or if the grund attack thing is your way to go, use a small-scale airplane at the back and figures at the front...
A forced perspective dog-fight is the easier way to go, I promise you... Shadow boxes are at the top of the diorama category, and forced perspective at the top of THAT list..
I'd suggest the dog-fight angle using mixed scales and see if you can get it to the finish-line, pard... You thinkin' about that Revell Zeke as the primary?
If so, you might wanna think about a 1/72 scale Wildcat or something along those lines as an opponent, or even some 1/440 or whatever those little guys are......

Well, though I ask questions and leave details shady, if you look around at my other posts you can piece together what I want to do.

Latley I have been obsessed with the Civilization series of games.  In the game, one technique is to put everything into research and tech as fast as you can to high levels, when I play against comps if I do it right and get good resources, I can end up with what I want to do, WWII era weaponry, forgoing basic things like fishing and horseback riding, when the comps are still in the bronze or midevil age.

So, on that, I have an idea, tenativly called, 'The best allies are those that Tech' or something of the like, I cant name for my life.  It would consist of two bronze age armies in 1/72nd attacking each other, you know, phalanx, greco-roman troops.  The center of it being the defending nation's 'ally' swooping down in a WWII era fighter, whichever it may be, to help.

I have the 1/72nd figures, my dad has a BILLION.

For the planes I dont care what I use, I know I have 1/32nd IJN planes, I have a few 1/48th, and some 1/72nd planes as well, so it all depends on what would look good.

Well, though I ask questions and leave details shady, if you look around at my other posts you can piece together what I want to do.

Lol.. Well, although bein' one of your biggest fans, I don't get to every post you make, Smeagol ol' buddy, but I'm sure you can forgive this once...

It would consist of two bronze age armies in 1/72nd attacking each other, you know, phalanx, greco-roman troops.  The center of it being the defending nation's 'ally' swooping down in a WWII era fighter, whichever it may be, to help. I have the 1/72nd figures, my dad has a BILLION.

Well, I still have no idea what you're talkin' about, other than a game of some kind, I'll try to put this into perspective (get it? Perspective? We're talkin' about forced perspective, so...) of some sort...

What, exactly, is the picture you have in mind?  A shadow box is a 3-D picture with restricted viewing angles, so that's the best way to ask...  From what I've read, you seem to want the picture to be from the perspective of the aircraft right?  Tail towards the viewer, aircraft flying away from the front, with two armies perpendicular to aircraft's flight-path... I also take it that you want the entire airctaft visible with the viewpoint being dead 6 o'clock, rather than the viewpoint being from behind and above or below the wing, at about the 5 or 7 O'clock position?

THe two armies are facing each other, the aircraft is attacking one of them.  Here's a quick & dirty sketch:

And:

So, since you don't care about scale for the aircraft, is this about what you're picturing?

 

Well, What I am after exactly would an airal view, from above, of the figher banking into the dive to strafe.

What im invisioning for the non plane aspect is some sort of terrain (I keep thinking desert, cant think of a reason of why to use that one) with one army attacking another in a earthenwork fortress.

As far as the game goes.  Its a nation sim/turned based strategy game.  You take one nation from history (like America, rome, greece, japan, russia, carthage, zululand, germany, britan, souix, spain, etc etc etc). 

Basic game starts you as a nomad, you found the first city and start to build it (building things like barracks, grainaries, hospitals, harbors, and eventually wonders, like the pyramids, statue of liberty, great wall, manhattan project, space elevator)  

Eventuially you expand out with settlers, building more cities and getting more resources (normal things like deer, fish, crab, wheat, rice, sugar.  Eventually more strategic ones, like iron, coal, copper, oil, uranium, aluminum)

You research and discover new technologies for your nation that follow a tech tree.  Instead of typing a bit out

I like to tech as fast as I can, then take what I need from the unadvanced.

Well, What I am after exactly would an airal view, from above, of the figher banking into the dive to strafe

Then you'd model the terrain on the back wall... Looking through the viewing window, you can have any perspective you want...  But there's no way that you're going to be able to use 1/72 scale without a DEEP box...I'm thinking that you'll have to go to the 1/350 PE crewmen made for aircraft carriers and such...

.

I have a few i can shaere with you, some worked and some didn't. This is a 1/72 Stuka with micro T-34.

These are all 1/72

These are all 1/72 too

1/72 with a micro IL-2

 

Those are good-lookin builds... But are they shadow boxes or free-standing dios like the top one? A shadow box can only be viewed from one side with very limited viewing angles..

oooooh! I was looking at it, as the Col. put it so delicatly, bass ackwards...I was thinking 35 figs in the forfront with a 72 plane in the background....same concept i guess. An Aerial view changes things. So the forced perspective will be you can only veiw from the top?

Lufttiger, very cool builds! You didnt need a forced per. to make your point.

Does anyone have a good example of a forced perspective dio?

Stern0 wrote:

Does anyone have a good example of a forced perspective dio?

I do, but don't have a scanner to post 'em...

Shep Paine's How to Build Dioramas (2nd edition) has some in it... There's one of Little Big Horn that has the appearance of tombstones going up the hill for a couple hundred yards, but the box is only about 3" deep... Another of the Lightsabre fight between Obi Wan and Vader uses 100mm figures of the two, with 20 and 30mm figures of stormtroopers in the background.  The stormtroopers appear to be down the corridor and  in the next bay, but they're only about 6 inches from the 120mm figures..

edit:

All kinds of 'em here..

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Forced+perspective+dioramas&gbv=2

 

gollum you must have done some maths at school. You can do some simple calculations to work out the dimensions/ratios needed to force the perspective. And don't forget that size is not the only thing that changes with distance...there are atmospheric effects that alter the colour as well. think about it a lot. That is my best advice