My first ever Diorama

Well done! Thoughtful planning and learning to do modelling is great fun. And you even made a "real diorama" = lightbox.
The lanterns are awesome, always a fan of LED stuff. making them all by yourself is impressive. I guess I would have used fairy lights or sth bc I'm bad at electronic stuff lol

Very cool love the result.

I'm impressed that you chose to work with wired LED lighting run from a plug-in source rather than with battery-operated fairy lights. That added a level of challenge to the project.

The cherry blossoms are truly astonishing in their realism.

BAMComix wrote:Very clever, it looks amazing. Looking forward too seeing more as it progress's

Thanks! It's done btw, I guess I didn't make that super clear earlier, sorry about that! Finished pics coming.

Valiarde wrote:Well done! Thoughtful planning and learning to do modeling is great fun. And you even made a "real diorama" = lightbox.
The lanterns are awesome, always a fan of LED stuff. making them all by yourself is impressive. I guess I would have used fairy lights or sth bc I'm bad at electronic stuff lol

Very cool love the result.

Thanks! Building it all was very fun and satisfying. I was terrified to do the electrical on this as I too am not so great with electrical work. But youtube to the rescue, plus bouncing things off my electrician dad helped. It all worked out in the end and nothing burned down      

davidd wrote:I'm impressed that you chose to work with wired LED lighting run from a plug-in source rather than with battery-operated fairy lights. That added a level of challenge to the project.

The cherry blossoms are truly astonishing in their realism.

Thanks! I was extremely happy with the cherry blossom effect when I first tried it out. I sealed it all with a misting of Dulcoat, so I hope to avoid fading for awhile.

So the reason I went wired instead of battery powered is pretty simple at the end of the day: I have smart switches. TpLink Kasa switches to be exact. Don't get me wrong, I spent a full day wiring this. However, the fact I can now set a schedule for it to turn on and off at, turn it on at will, or tie it in with any of my other smart lights, was worth the trouble. I do have fairy lights, but with the way everything is spaced in the dio, I determined it would be more difficult to add them plus hide the battery pack. I've got an idea for them though, which just popped into my mind.




All that said, I went after work today and picked up some good ol' black felt. I was thinking about Shazzdan's comment about the lanterns, as well as Valiarde's "lightbox" comment and I thought "what if....". The dio itself is positioned where it has about 2in from the wall, the corner pieces are solid and the top is sealed. I could, if careful, try a new backdrop. So I did. I played with some lighting, and my camera's settings (including shooting through wifi off a tripod to remove any shaky hands) as well. I can't say they're perfect, but they are an improvement and are better than a rushed phone pic.

I'm glad to see the finished diorama in its full effect. Simply magical. Beautifully done! I know there are things we do not see that could bear improvements, as you indicated. But from what we can see, the only thing that could improve this is a slightly less assembly-line pose. It doesn't have to be extreme at all to look natural. Or perhaps this is how she appears in source material, I wouldn't know.

Stunning work .

Whoa this looks amazing! Thanks for sharing the process! Always great to see handcrafted dioramas. I think the lanterns are the best part and I learned about the static grass. Did you end up buying one of those contraptions in the video?

Oooh, these photos are even better. Good call on the black backdrop!

wooooaaaaaaaaa... Amazing work!!! The result is absolutely stunning, those last pictures are so atmospheric!!! Phenomenal work, and superb creation!

Good work!

Starting with the 1st image, i thought it looked like a Vivarium. As worked progressed, things picked up.
One area i really like, is the floor constructed of hexagonal tiles.
The light up lanterns look excellent!

..later on, the blossom floor works well.

That's one serious diorama you built there, excellent work especially the lanterns.
Same as Ukshaun, i also like the hexagonal backsplash tiles, maybe on your future dio?
And best of all, seeing that JXK pug peeing on the tree!

Thank you for the tutorial recommendation! Will save that for future use.

The new photos with the lights against the dark backdrop are just stunning! I hope you are extremely proud of this one!

Nicely realistic lighting now that you have blocked the background with black felt. Much more aesthetically pleasing overall effect.

GubernatorFan wrote:I'm glad to see the finished diorama in its full effect. Simply magical. Beautifully done! I know there are things we do not see that could bear improvements, as you indicated. But from what we can see, the only thing that could improve this is a slightly less assembly-line pose. It doesn't have to be extreme at all to look natural. Or perhaps this is how she appears in source material, I wouldn't know.

I agree that a less assembly line pose would add to it, but I made the decision a long time ago that she'd stay in the "museum" pose. I will trade off some visual appeal for additional protection of the body. It actually lends itself decently well to her personality as she's more that gentle, calm, quiet, and unassuming personality that doesn't go and willing seek confrontation. By contrast, the other custom I made, Ayane (think purple hair), is her half sister in the DOA series and her personality is much more arrogant, brash, sarcastic, and willing to get in someone's face to call them an idiot.  

BAMComix wrote:Stunning work .

Thank you!

csyeung wrote:Whoa this looks amazing! Thanks for sharing the process! Always great to see handcrafted dioramas. I think the lanterns are the best part and I learned about the static grass. Did you end up buying one of those contraptions in the video?

I am glad I could add to your stable of ideas!

Luke Towan (who made that tutorial video) built his own, which I thought about doing, but went "I am too tired for this." So I bought the Woodland Scenics Static King instead. Wasn't cheap, but it was cheaper as Amazon had a deal going on for it. If you buy one, I do recommend the Static King, though there is a slight learning curve with it. Regardless, make sure if you buy one to get the actual wall plug. 9V battery power is great, and it helps with hard to reach places, but there is a clear difference in results with the taller grasses (6mm and up) when using a 9V battery compared to the wall plug. Wall plug = amazing!

Diana wrote:Oooh, these photos are even better. Good call on the black backdrop!

davidd wrote:Nicely realistic lighting now that you have blocked the background with black felt. Much more aesthetically pleasing overall effect.

Thanks! I appreciate everyone's comments as they helped guide towards that.

blackpool wrote:wooooaaaaaaaaa... Amazing work!!! The result is absolutely stunning, those last pictures are so atmospheric!!! Phenomenal work, and superb creation!

Thank you!

ukshaun wrote:Good work!

Starting with the 1st image, i thought it looked like a Vivarium. As worked progressed, things picked up.
One area i really like, is the floor constructed of hexagonal tiles.
The light up lanterns look excellent!

..later on, the blossom floor works well.

rollotomasi wrote:That's one serious diorama you built there, excellent work especially the lanterns.
Same as Ukshaun, i also like the hexagonal backsplash tiles, maybe on your future dio?
And best of all, seeing that JXK pug peeing on the tree!

Thank you both Ukshaun and Rollotomasi! The hexagon tiles are going to get used for something, but that project is still in the early planning stages. I know you all know it, but clothing a M34 is not easy, especially when it will require a custom suit of armor.    

And thank you Rollotomasi for noticing the pug! I hoped someone would notice that :p It is my pug's opinion that most things need peed on lol

skywalkersaga wrote:Thank you for the tutorial recommendation! Will save that for future use.

The new photos with the lights against the dark backdrop are just stunning! I hope you are extremely proud of this one!

Thanks Sky, I enjoy it every day

As for the tutorial, his channel is worth watching everything. Different scale, extremely transferable skills!

Thoroughly amazing!!!
lave whatever comes with light effects

and thanks for all the details! if only each and everyone of us could pursue all of those 1001 projects we have in mind and keep adding to…

That is an outstanding diorama, MeMyself&I!      
I wish I could do something similar without messing up big time.  

Illusion wrote:Thoroughly amazing!!!
lave whatever comes with light effects

and thanks for all the details! if only each and everyone of us could pursue all of those 1001 projects we have in mind and keep adding to…

Thank you! I can't tell you how much of this process I look back on and go "wow, wish I had a picture of how I did that!" lol.

Randam Hajile wrote:That is an outstanding diorama, MeMyself&I!      
I wish I could do something similar without messing up big time.  

Thank you!

As for your "I wish I could do something similar without messing up big time" comment, I encourage you to just jump in, even if it is a smaller dio or something grander! I only did this scale because I am a crazy person who has no self control!

Seriously though, as I know a few have said something similar about "wishing" they could do this, I knew nothing going into this project. I learned so much from not only you guys, but also from youtube videos. I learned painting from Warhammer players and terrain making from model railroaders. I tried a ton of things in my own style and failed a ton. Her head sculpt you see in the photos is version 50 something because frankly painting eyes sucks and my hand is only steady when it wants to be. The trees are version 5. The lanterns, version 4 and the yellow paper inserts version 3. I spent probably a solid week just figuring out how the heck to use the static grass applicator the way I saw in the model train layout videos! The point is, nothing we make in this hobby is truly permanent and if something does go sideways we can either fix it, or it can turn out to be a happy accident!

So just go for it and give it your best!

Thank you for pointing out that you needed many attempts at some things
leading us to the key word: patience.
Mine is nil.
I have on average ONE attempt at something. If it does not work, I give up… If I am desperate enough, it gets two attempts - then desperation turns into despair and conviction of eternal failure.

Bottomline: I do not want to learn and practice and I want to be able to do it right away.  

(also has to do with that I rarely have several hours at a time to be completely caught up in something)

btw: I always forget to take pictures at all when working on something and I keep wondering what I had been doing for it to hold together