Diorama basics

Sooner or later, every diehard performance shower is going to find themselves needing a diorama. For various reasons - mostly related to the difficulty of shipping this sort of item - these tend to be do-it-yourself projects. Here's a wonderful guest post from Linda White to help get you started. Thanks, Linda!

How to Make a Diorama

by Linda White

I heard a lot of comments about my dioramas at QVPO last weekend, and decided to share how they're made. It's messy but fun and easy to do. You'll need some scrap plywood, heavy cardboard, plaster, and railroading supplies.

Step 1 - This is a 1/4" plywood base with corrugated cardboard glued down in the basic shape of the hill. You want to minimize the amount of plaster needed because it gets heavy and takes forever to dry when it's thick.

Step 2 - Covered the hill with Plaster Cloth from Woodland Scenics. This gives a hard "shell" to start adding plaster to.

Step 3 - Cut off the edges of the plaster cloth.

Step 4 - Add a layer of plaster over the cloth. Any type of craft plaster works fine. Your goal is to fill in any "steps" from the cardboard layers so it is smooth.

Step 5 - Keep adding plaster layers until the hill is relatively smooth. If you have a model that is tippy you can imprint their hoofs into the plaster for added stability. Just wrap your models legs in plastic wrap so plaster doesn't get on your model!

Step 6 - I added rocks to the side for interest. These are made from casting plaster molds, which are available from Woodland Scenics. I painted the rocks using their tutorials and plastered them onto the side.

Step 7 - Basecoat the areas that will have turf in a similar color with craft paint.

Step 8 - Finally, add Green Blend Turf over all the grassy areas. You can also use some of the rougher shrubbery and grasses as accents.

Here's the finished diorama.