MODELLTEICH
Swedish scene - diorama construction
After watching a few videos on YouTube about building dioramas, I felt the urge to create my own scenery. My recent vacation in Sweden should serve as inspiration and the first work should not be too big. H0 (1:87) was chosen as the scale because I was not yet sure whether I wanted to integrate figures and I knew that everything could be found in this scale. The core of the project was to be one of the typical Swedish houses in the well-known Falun red. The house was planned and drawn in PowerPoint in the style of a craft sheet, then everything was printed and glued to cardboard of varying thickness depending on the component. The nice thing about this type of “kit” is that you can keep the construction very simple and print any details directly onto the facade so that you get the result very quickly. Or, like me, you can cut out the elements several times and work with several layers, which greatly enhances the realism.
A small Swedish house is being built
A single house doesn't look like much, so I quickly started planning a small beacon. After researching online, it was clear that it would be a small round tower with a surrounding platform and an octagonal construction on top with a bright light in the form of a white LED. Once again, everything was created in PowerPoint, but this time the shapes proved to be a lot more difficult, but even that was eventually achieved. The two-dimensional construction on the PC requires a lot of imagination but is great fun, especially when the object gradually becomes reality and you realize that you have planned everything correctly.
The lighthouse in its individual parts
At some point, the two buildings were completed and I was able to start thinking about the landscape design. As in the Swedish archipelago, barren rocks and of course the sea were to dominate, and I also wanted to make the scenery more interesting by using different heights. I used a piece of chipboard as a base onto which I glued polystyrene blocks and then cut them into shape with a cutter. In future I will probably use rigid foam boards, which are cleaner and easier to work with. Cut-outs for the LED lighting were made under the respective buildings; warm white for the house and white for the lighthouse. A battery box and an on/off switch were also hidden away. Once these steps had been completed, plaster was mixed and everything was covered with it. The fine rock structures were then carved into the still damp plaster.
Creation of the landscape, the later position of the buildings can be seen
Once the plaster was dry, the landscape was painted with acrylic paints. I paid particular attention to the rocks and the seabed, as I wanted to use color gradients to suggest the weathering of the rock and, of course, the depth of the sea. Here it is important to study nature carefully: Where the tide reaches, the rock is colored differently, cracks are significantly darker and edges are much lighter than other areas. If you follow these principles, you can achieve very realistic results. Grass flakes and bushes from the model railroad accessories were used for the greenery. In addition to the two buildings, I built a flagpole and a small footbridge from matchsticks and stirring rods.
Almost finished, only the design of the sea surface is still missing
Most people use epoxy resin for the marine surface. This is certainly a good solution but I found this material to be quite expensive and I only needed a small amount of it. The various products from the model railroad accessories are also extremely expensive for what they do, so I bought a transparent polymer (similar to transparent construction silicone, only clearer) from the hardware store and spread it on the sea surface using a stirring rod, in certain places I created waves and spray by applying a thicker layer. The material hardens within 24 hours and can then be worked on further. I brushed the waves with a dry brush and white paint to create a beautiful water effect. Last but not least, the diorama was given a narrow black pedestal.
