The Art Of The Storyboard Diorama

[JohnReid]

The uneven blotchy color is only the first thin coat of paint that I put on to get rid of the stark white of the paper.If not covered now it will stick out like a sore thumb and will be almost impossible to cover later if accidentally touched with glue.This light gray color can at least be easily worked into the overall stone color of the wall which will eventually become the lightest color stone on the finished wall.The variety in shades on the individual stones happens automatically when using very watery acrylic paint ,as the pigment tends to settle to the bottom as you are using it over a period of time.

[JohnReid]

All of these techniques that I am discussing here ,old wood and paint,brick and stone walls ,could be used to create quite a believable dockyard scene.The Old Navy Dockyard at Kingston Ontario for example has limestone walls similar in design to the stone wall depicted here.Locks,wharves,docks all look better when weathered to varying degrees.In the future I plan to use these facades for picture taking purposes to create an old dockyard scene.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Either one of these 1/16th scale models would work well depending on the era depicted.I can think of a thousand camera angles that would work very well without showing any water at all.Think of Victory in dry dock ,all those wonderful pics and not a drop of water in sight.

[JohnReid]

I build two types of dioramas ones that physically exist in museums and ones that exist in pictures only.The second type is a lot like a film or stage play where you build and bring all the components together and record the images as they once existed in the composition.You still get to make all the parts ,scratch or otherwise ,which is really the most fun in model making,but it is really the composition of these parts that tell the story.In fact when finished I often like the pictures of the piece more than the actual model.It is a lot of fun playing with the lighting,camera angles etc...doing all the things that movie directors get to do but on a small scale.An added bonus is that you still get to keep your models and display them the way you want.One nice idea would be to display your model with pictures of it in its original diorama setting.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

I have made up a series of pics on how to repair a crack when landscaping a vignette or diorama.They are pretty much self explanatory and can be found by clicking on the thumbnail.
If at any time you feel that there is something that you don't understand or the pics are not clear enough please feel free to stop me and ask any questions on the" how to..s" of diorama building.If I don't have the answer I will try to find it for you.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[Cadman]

wow that looks real!

[JohnReid]

Thank you for your kind words. Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Just for fun I put all 5 modules together to take a few forced perspective pics of various subjects. I enjoy playing around with the camera using the facade as a backdrop.None of the models depicted are finished they are here for composition purposes only.

[JohnReid]