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For a long while now I have admired the dioramas that are created for Hornby railway sets and have always wanted to attempt
to construct my own diorama. The problem is that most railway sets and accessories for dioramas are in HO scale, which works
out to be in 1:87 scale and therefore too small for use with 1:64 scale models in my collection. So, if I was to construct my own
diorama I would have to construct the majority of the buildings and street furniture myself and then falling back upon the
accessories for 1:87 scale dioramas where possible (for example trees and plants).
I decided that I would like to construct a small village setting, and that I would construct most items/buildings out of card,
as I could easily print out the designs and then easily construct the building and modify them where necessary. Also, if I made
a mistake, it would be easy to modify the design and reprint. It was important to me to try to create a diorama that was as
realistic as possible, so therefore I have tried to capture realistic designs and colours, as well as making windows transparent
and then install interiors into the buildings so add to the realism.
With a lack of any experience of model making, I have treated this as a project and experiment with the buildings to see how good
I was at model making and how well the buildings turned out. I decided to start with making a Shell petrol station and a Renault
car dealer/garage. I have been picking my brands at random, if truth be told, however the Renault dealer was picked because I have
a large range of Norev models, although it could have easily have been Citroen, Peugeot or VW. I design the station and garage
using Word, working with a consistent scale and drawing the buildings myself with the "insert shapes" function of Word. Where the
shapes could not be replicated or required details that exceed the capability of the Word (for example the Renault logo), I used
images from the internet. I also used images of buildings within Google Street View as a point of reference in order to get the
design and styles of buildings correct, for example I used pictures of a local Shell petrol station to get the design of the petrol
pumps right. Once I was happy with the design and had figure out how to I was going to piece the models together, I printed out all
of my designs.
Once I had everything printed out, I then used a combination of stationary to help construct the buildings. I used scissors to cut
the large pieces, a craft knife to cut out the finer detail, such as window frames and then glued everything together with a glue
stick. For the windows, I used transparent plastic packaging that I had obtained from Christmas cracker boxes. After I had constructed
the Renault garage and petrol station, I became more confident and went on to design a row of shops, including a Post Office
(including a British telephone box), Subway, a chemist and a coffee shop and off which included more detailed 3D interiors.
So where next? Well I had experimented with printing my own base and landscape (please see the pictures with the Renault garage),
however this didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. So I am going to construct a proper based, with village layout, out of wood
and use paint to colour in the roads, pavements and grass. The grand plans currently include building a railway embankment, likely
to be constructed with styrofoam and wood, and will feature a bridge over a road and a railway station too. I also need to invest
in some HO scale accessories (such as trees and grass) that will help me with my landscaping. In addition to this, I need to make
some amendments to the roof that I have made for the shops and I would like to add a canopy to the petrol station too.
Although for now, please see my pictures below and look out for the second part of this report to be published when I have made further
progress on my project.
Picture Gallery - Please click to enlarge
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