Where do you get diorama ideas?

I see inspiration for dioramas from many sources. These can be movies, wartime photographs, etc. At the same time a little artistic license would be used with the composition of the scene to may add some added interest to the scene. Historic accuracy is one thing that I try to maintain. 

For example, I am working on a diorama concerning the Bogart film "Sahara". At first I was going to copy a scene from the movie, but now I have decided to alter my thoughts to a "what if" scene of Lullabelle stopped and the crew doing a little maintainence on her at a time prior to the straffing by the German fighter.

Other thoughts were inspired by the kits themselves, Dragons two sets of Gebirgsjagers gave me a thought. First of all, I thought to combine the two kits and maybe a piece of armor as well. More careful examining the kits, I have decided that at least two dioramas will be made. The first will be a small pack train (3 animals) of the Gebirgsjagers during the Balkan campaign marching up the incline. I might scratch build certain parts of the 7.5cm Gebirgskanone as part of the load to add some interest. The rest of the pack train would be implied as following up the trail. In the second would be an assault scenario, still thinking on it, but scattered British equipment may play a part in it.

The big thing is to use your imagination and don't be too rigid on how the scene develops. Changes to the design is part of the project.

Brumbler, in "Band of Brothers" during the Market Garden campaign with the attack on Van Gough's home town there was a tank that resemebled a Comet among the Shermans.

Where would you get the materials for making a good diorama? Just your local hobby store? Or would you have to look online for some things?

Also, where would you get things like damaged buildings for your dioramas? I've seen it in one. Actually, it's in the current Finescale magazine. Where would you get something like that? Do you have to make it from scratch?

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"!

 

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

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...? 

 

As a gunpla modeller I usually find the source from various OVA/Manga and etc.
But for diorama I've been used the book called "MS Era 0099 War Photo Album".
This is the pseudo war pictorial album done by the famous(?) photographer during the One Year War between EFF and Zeon.
It's bilingual and good read for anyone interested in Gundam Universal Century in general...

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 

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 

I got some great ideas from The Military Channel's show Tank Overhaul.  They had some incredible footage that I'd not seen before on this week's Panther show, which gave me an idea for what could be a great dio, if my skills are up to it.  I'm very excited to give it a try, anyway (and the planning is half the fun, IMHO).

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'm like Zokissima. Ideas come from a lot fo different sources - movies, books, other modelers(not meaning to plagerize, just look at their dio and think that would be cool for my.... and change it a little). Also by talking to other modelers.

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

I get my ideas almost everywhere. From movies, books, and mostrly from just building the model itself and thinking up an interesting scene to display it in.

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.

Old WW2 photographs mostly. Once in a while a kit will talk to me but very rarely do my kits start and end as intended! I like it that way. ;)

Books

I typically just start out with a model I want to build.  As I'm working on it, I think about how I want it displayed, or other models/accessories that would look good with it.  After I finish all the modeling, I basically have a rough idea of the layout, and sort of experiment with the background as I go along.

do you remember the mission name to COD 2? bacuse that would be aswome! there are also some good ones from COD 3. like brittish jeeps finding capured officers behind anomy lines and one seen where you are blowing up a fuel/suply/train station.

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.

Id love to do a dio of the attack on the building that saddams sons where in

Books, photos, etc. and the occaisional "brainstorm". One of my favorites that I built some years ago is a Pzkpfw 3 tank crashing thru a fence in France and dragging the wash off the clothesline with an old woman chasing the tank with a broom ! One I'm thinking about now is a Zero that's been down in the jungle for years with the skeleton of the pilot still in the cockpit.

Usually i won't have an idea for a diorama before building a model. Sometimes I will be in the middle of a model and suddenly come up with an idea for one. Of course, I model on a kit by kit basis, and so what ever my current model is, usually becomes the subject of the next idea. Currently i have only one dio done, but i have had lots of ideas. Hopefully I can get my latest idea to materialize, I'm already half way done on the model. I want to try to finish it in time for the FSM article contest.
Honestly, I can't really tell you how I come up with ideas, I guess i just think of where how the model will best fit in. Also, I try to make it as cool looking as possible. Perhaps looking online at diorama accessories can give you an idea. Movies are a great place for ideas, I think. I can tell you that an idea will change quite a bit from my original idea. For example, my current idea involve a helicopter and figures, but I couldn't find any Iraqis in 1/48 scale, and so it has changed to an enemy tank and a humvee. Good luck.

---Sawyer

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.)

I recently won a "Best of Show" with a dio I did called "Spooked"; it's a blown-up PZ-IVJ with ghosts coming out of it and two kids and their dog running away in terror, with a brave little beagle pup giving the ghosts a good barkin' at...I got the idea thinking about how to model an interior and give it maximum visibility. I also absolutely LOVE old, dead things--rundown farm houses hidden behind grown-up lots; old cars or construction equipment rusting away; photos of abandoned or disabled tanks--anything yhat has a story to tell just waiting to be discovered. I'm submitting it for an article; with a little luck you'll be seeing it soon. I get a lot of my ideas from the Concord Series books, they have some great photos. Also from reading military history, like Kurt Meyer's "Grenadiers"--highly recommended!

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'.

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 

That's a really good idea.  I hope you do something with it.  It seems like it would be a nice change of pace, especially to a viewer.  All the dios you get are normally a tank and figures or the like.

I don't know when (or even if) I'll ever get to building it, but I have an idea for a hurricane damage diorama from a book I have about hurricanes.

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.