Ideas from images

That's not at all uncommon. I did a single figure of a French soldier sitting in a chair with a machine gun at his feet, reportedly on the Maginot line, well, some thirty years ago. About the same time, I tried to replicate a famous North African picture of two Brits taking the surrender of a Panzer. I had a IV iinstead of a III and the Brits were 1/32 instead of 1/35, but I tried.

Figure sculptors do this all the time using a photo or painting as inspiration.

Alan and Mario Ball, a painter/scupltor husband and wife team talked about this at the Long Island Figure Show last November. Some of what they said, which is referenced in the current Historical Figure magazine (#57) is that you can't take the whole scene most of the time, but imply action off the base. Focus on the part of the action that implies what else is goiing on. You may not get the scene 100% but you'll get the flavor.

This is also a great way to begin to see good composition. The photographer and his/her editor most certainly looked at dozens or hundreds of images for every picture you see reprinted there and kept the ones that told the story with some artistic flair.

that sounds like a pretty cool book you got there.i usually get my ideas from pics,but you're right in saying it's going to be hard to figure everything out that the photo doesn't have in it.but to me that's half the fun of building a dio.what you can do is do a search on the battle or city your are going to represent and try to look at the detail in those photos and you can kind of figure out what else should be in there. good luck!

Yes, it is pretty common to make dios from pictures you see.  I have done it a few times.  Like this:

 

Whenever I start a diorama its based on some picture I've seen. Due to the problem that its hard to find firgures doing exactly what I want them doing, the diorama usually turns into something completely different, but yes it is very possible.

Sometimes, you can take the pictures, and combine them with your own twist.  Currently, I'm dreaming up, and building it in my head, a dio of a Polish armored draisene--for you people who don't know what a draisene is, its a really nifty polish invention-two TK tankettes, and a FT-17 tank ON RAILS!!! whats better, is that they power themselves due to a chain linked to the drivetrain of the vehicle...there are some pics of this out there, and I was intrigued.  But I am planning on mixing it with the bad habit of an FT-17-frequent breakdowns.  So this contraption is going to be blocking traffic at a RR crossing.  Whats perfect with that book is, with some many pics (I have the same book) you can find some interesting ones, and place them in your own own setting, or just 'expand' the picture of a tank to include whats happening around it-a British sherman in the desert...ok...you could add some figs walking along the street next to it, and for some flavor perhaps a few pieces of scattered german equipment, suggesting a retreat or a battle...  Dios don't have to be complex, but they should tell a small story.

Wow that great, it be alot easyer make dioramas from pictures, cause you have a basic ideas, thanks!

I now assume that you can also get ideas from war documetary too, and maybey movies like Battle of Britian (1969) or Pearl harbour (2000) and Behind Enemy Line (2005). Some ideas can get taken from painting of the event as well from artis that where in the war.

Can you also make dioramas based on movies, Documatery and painting?

You can use anything as inspiration, but you must understand your sources, Using "Pearl Harbor" (2000) as a source will result in what amounts to a fantasy retelling of the attack. Much of the action was CG and the ships inthe harbor as often clearly modern warships. I remember reading a review of "Behind Enemy Lines" which rightly criticized the main character for walikg along a ridgeline and exposing himself to being spotted. Paintings are a good source of inpsiraton but even a little reseach will show that most are idealized images and will often include people who were not present. that said, they can lead you to some powerful dioramas/vignettes.

 

I would have to agree with all the above.  Movies are a hard lot to mimic, unless you can freeze a frame on a PC to get an idea, or a group of stills for the overall scope of the diorama.  Even then you have to worry about accuracy, etc.  Pearl Harbor is about the worst.  With all the "Spruance-class" DD's at anchor, turning on the CIWS systems would have abruptly ended the Japanese air attack.

HeavyArty's dio was about the best I've seen of re-creating a photo into a diorama.  Really exceptional work there.

Historical books are great, black and white photos can set a great scene.  Getting the colors accurate are a bit more challenging.

I have a great photo of an SH-60B tied down on my last ship during heavy weather.  Waves breaking over the flight deck (it was an FFG) gives some great impressions of action, which is the one thing dioramas really need to show.  Static displays with static figures are just that... static.  The great ones are the ones that show motion, etc.

Just my .

ajlafleche wrote:

That's not at all uncommon. I did a single figure of a French soldier sitting in a chair with a machine gun at his feet, reportedly on the Maginot line, well, some thirty years ago. About the same time, I tried to replicate a famous North African picture of two Brits taking the surrender of a Panzer. I had a IV iinstead of a III and the Brits were 1/32 instead of 1/35, but I tried. Figure sculptors do this all the time using a photo or painting as inspiration. Alan and Mario Ball, a painter/scupltor husband and wife team talked about this at the Long Island Figure Show last November. Some of what they said, which is referenced in the current Historical Figure magazine (#57) is that you can't take the whole scene most of the time, but imply action off the base. Focus on the part of the action that implies what else is goiing on. You may not get the scene 100% but you'll get the flavor. This is also a great way to begin to see good composition. The photographer and his/her editor most certainly looked at dozens or hundreds of images for every picture you see reprinted there and kept the ones that told the story with some artistic flair.

LOL, I did the same thing with the Brits running forward to the Panzer.  I crudely modified two men from Tamiyas Desert Rats and the German used to have a range finder held up to his eyes, remove the range finder and there you go, 1 German surrendering.  I think my tank was also a Mk IV.  I got the idea from the cover of Time Life's "The Desert War".

One of the neat things about that dio was the ground surface.  it was the same material as the roll out grass sheet, but it was desert yellow w/little red brown bushes in it.  I have not been able to find that material sense (i guess I really haven't looked to hard though). 

 

What about video games, like Call for Duty or Tank war, and maybe stategy game like Empire Earth, can I get ideas from them? Technicaly there the same event?

You can get ideas anywhere movies, pictures, video games (although probably not as accurate), and even books.

There's no "rules" to where you can get ideas.

Basically, any pic, movie, book, idea in your head, etc. can be developed into a dio.  I wouldn't use a video game though.  They are not really historically accurate nor reference material quality.

T-rex wrote:

or got some inspired for the photo?

There's a photo in the T-L WWII Series book Crossing the Rhine, that has always nagged at me to replicate as a dio.  That would be the one of the LCVP & LCM loaded up on "Dragon Wagons" to be used in the big crossing.  Perching a Mike boat up on a tank transporter trailer would be eye-catching at a minimum.  Getting the mud and gloom right would be the next big hurdle.

It's a lot more "do-able" now, than twenty years ago, too, now that an LCM-3 is available, along with the Tamiya release of the M26 & trailer (the old Nitto D.W. just not quite cutting it).

No small impetus to have had a relative, not at all happy in hand-me-down Army uniform (but, not including boots <g>) who is almost in many of those photos.

After my grandfather passed away, I took most of his war time (Korean-war) photos and I've been trying to re-create diorama based on some of those photos.  I've done a diorama based on a photo that I took when I was in Korea.  You can get ideas from just about everything and anything.  However, if you are looking for a historical accuracy, neither movies nor video games should be the source. 

Wow! Thanks alot for the help you guys, I'll send alot of photos and images of my grandfather book, you know the "LIFE'S PICTURES OF WORLD WAR 2". There alot of great ideas there for me and all of you for futur dioramas. There's alot but I should send them soon in another forum.

Keep a eye for it, and thanks again.