Where do you get diorama ideas?

MortarMagnet wrote:

Typically, they just come to me.  If I want to make a dio for a kit and I can't think of anything; I have a routine.  First, I find a secluded location, deep woods or open fields.  Then, there I sit upon the earth in a circle of waste sprue and worn out paintbrushes.  The incense is lit.  My face is mark with squadron white in strange runes.  I begin to meditate.  Before me, I create a pool of laquer thinner.  Placed in the center of it is a sacrificial Tamiya figure.  Sweeping my hands upward from the ground over my head, I clap three times, and I speak, "Styrenus! [god of plastic models] I beseech thee, bestow a vision upon your humble servant."  That's when it my eyes are opened and the vision is clear.

I haven't given the proper respects to Styrenus in a while.  I better do that before a bottle of paint with a faulty lid tips over. 

I like to get my ideas from reference books, documentaries (History Channel and The Military Channel), and sometimes movies and TV shows.  I think a Hue City dio with an M48 would be cool.  That one comes straight from "Full Metal Jacket."  I've been watching alot of M*A*S*H lately and it occured to me that Academy's 1/35 Bell 47D would look great on a pad with Hawkey, BJ and Hotlips evaluating the wounded on the skid-litters.  Where to put Radar and his clipboard?  I don't know if I'll ever get to these ideas, but it doesn't really matter.  I work slow anyway.  I could do the Standard Sherman with walking infantry.  That may not be very original, but it would use some kits and figures that are taking up some space in thier boxes.

Semper Fi,

Chris 

I get my ideas for dioramas in pieces. A building or house from one place, something else from another place. They sort of fit together all at once then I'll do some real rough sketches most of the time the sketches go in a pile with the other sketches. Lately, when I get an idea or thought I'll do a Google search for images and save the pictures that I like. I've found a lot of pictures of buildings that I'd like to build. Other ideas just sort of pop up for no reason. I like to find the humor in things from the real world and incorporate them into dioramas. Who knows my next diorama might me 'Dave's Snowmobile Repair & Petting Zoo'.

Thats why I keep a notebook handy. I'll get these ideas for a Diorama and sketch it out and make notations. This way as the muse strikes I can keep the idea before its lost to something else. If I feel like I'm in a slump I just flip through my notebook and get jazzed up again. Alot of times I combine ideas to come up with a whole new piece.

I bring my pocket notebook to shows with me and make sketches of scenes that I think are noteworthy or elements of something that I think I might find handy later. (also comes in handy wrtiting down book or product names, contact info for new friends, etc.)

Styrenus, eh?  Funny, I dont remember hearing him mentioned in chruch a couple days ago?...

Anyways, Im sure Ill get the whole "but thats not 100% realistic!" and the "Your clearly not interested in historical accuracy!" for saying this, but I,m expecting it, so bring it on!

Anyways, I agree, games can be great for those epic moments .  Especially call of duty 2.  Theres a great in game scene in it where you and some russian infantry are cowering in a ditch as some German Tanks crash over the trench, completely oblivious to the men below.  Or maybe they were russian tanks.  But either way Id do it with a german tank.  Plus, if you get the scene from the game, you can wnader around and look at tiny details, and how it would look from different angles, I think its great.

Five or so minutes before I drift off to sleep or wake up.

Photos are an excellent reference because they depict a scene that already has a realistic theme. A combat snapshot, a relaxed ground maintenance picture, mail call photo, infantry approaching a suspicious building, tanks with infantry riding on them etc.

Propaganda photos are also good references for posing figures around a vehicle or airplane.

Al

I like to combine military models with sci-fi in endless "what-if" mindgames.  I don't have the skill just yet, but I'd love to do any of the following:

• Tripods from the most recent version of "War of the Worlds" vs. WW1 armor!
• Giant Squid taking down a WW2 warship!
• WW2 armor/infantry vs. dinosaurs!

Hopefully, such projects can get me to take this a little less seriously...

Flynavy1958 

When I want to inject a little humor in dioramas using 1/35th figures, I go and pull out Bill Mauldin's "Army" as a reference and do a Willie and Joe scene. 

Scott 

T26E4 wrote:

I read lots of memoirs and study battle histories and photos.  Movies are some art director's interpretation of some fanciful event.    Go to the real thing.

why so cynical...? 

i dont think T26E4 is being cynical at all. He has a valid point if you are looking to make a historically correct or just a diorama or build that looks close to what it is supposed to your best bet is to hit the books and reference materials. These will provide you the true to life tanks uniforms landscapes buildings or what ever you are looking for.

i can not agree more that movies are just an interpretation of some one. i am sure they do research but to push movies out and make a buck they arent that correct on alot of things they put in film.

kenny

Most historical military movies have huge gaps in the quality of their historical accuracy.   The lauded HBO miniseries Band of Brothers used wonderfully-built reconstructions of StuGs and Tigers, and authentic-looking Shermans, but nary a Panther or Tiger II... and I don't recall a single British British tank (ie, Cromwells and Comets and the like).  But the scenes of combat and the emotional content were way up there on the accuracy meter.  An infinite variety of dioramas could be made from that series alone!

1970's Patton was chock full of M47's and M48's playing generic German tanks, and M24 Chaffees as Shermans... but that didn't lessen the impact of the battle scenes (not much,  anyway) nor take any value as an idea generator.

Take ideas from Hollywood, but do your research and choose the right tanks, planes, etc., based on reality, not "reel-ality"!