Nelli's diorama entry

There are some artists whose BreyerFest contest entries I look forward to every year. This is definitely the case with Wyoming hobbyist, Nelli Jeanne Lucus. In today's guest post, she shows us her newest big build for the Diorama Contest.

The Making of Hess-tory

by Nelli Jeanne Lucus

When Breyer announced their diorama contest theme this year, I honestly felt a bit stumped. Seventy five years of Breyer memories, history and more? That’s a lot to unpack. Starting February 4th, 2025, I created a seven page document compiling notable moments in the company’s history dating back to 1950. There were a lot of good ideas in there, but nothing stuck more than honoring the man who, in my opinion, truly started it all. Without him, we wouldn’t have over seventy Traditional molds, two additional lines of model scales (Classic and Paddock Pal/Little Bits) and many of the animals we still love today. That man is Chris Hess.

The ideas started with getting diorama museum inspiration from other miniature groups, but truly there isn’t a whole lot that folks have done what I was looking to do. One diorama of an art museum stuck out, it was multi-layered and was created inside of a suitcase. I fell in love with the look and decided to run with it. The vision is an old Chicago industrial warehouse, then converted/modernized into a museum. 

I started with a 12x12x1” foam base. I went ahead and laid my kebab skewers for the floor patten of the wooden beams that would later house the bricks. 

That was followed by two foam walls at 11(tall)x12(wide)x.5(thick)” and 11x11.5x.5”, always reminding myself this must be fully square and no larger than the 12” cube they allow. 

I recessed forty six bricks into the walls and covered the walls with modeling paste to give a repaired brick wall look. 

Six ounces of modeling paste went into the walls alone to give that textured look!

Once the walls were constructed, it was time to add the second level. Using the same foam as the walls, I measured the angles to create the center line that joined both sides of the platform. After adding stability to the second level to the walls, the support pillars were added to the outer corners. It’s really starting to take shape now! 

Following making this second level, I created over three hundred bricks from cork sheets. This was tedious work as there were angles and support pillars to account for. 

Lots, and lots, of hours marking out, cutting, laying and angle cutting to account for the floor pattern. 

As bricks we laid, another entire six ounce container of modeling paste was used as brick mortar to fill in and finish the look of a refurbished brick floor.

We can’t forget the models that are the statement pieces! 

There are six main models used: two are the green Blind Bag unicorn Mini Whinnies, blind bag Saddlebred Mini Whinny, Rearing Unicorn Mini Whinny, Pocket Box Dogs German Shepherd and arguably my favorite, a fully custom sculpt of a buffalo! Let’s go through each one together!

The two green unicorns were dehorned. 

For Secretariat, the tail was cut from the leg and the end re-sculpted. 

Old Timer had harness tack sculpted onto his body, and of course, we couldn’t forget the hat! The rear leg was re-positioned to be resting to complete the look in miniature.

Up next we have what is now our Classic Bucking Bronc0. He started as the rearing pink Mini Whinnie unicorn. The bent front leg was cut and another front leg from a duplicate donor model was affixed by one of my trusty broken sewing needles. Those make great pegs to join two pieces together! 

The leg was then finished with apoxie sculpt.

Hust like that, we have a little bucking guy!

The Saddlebred also received some tweaks! Starting with the tail, it was shortened and the end finished with apoxie to give it more flow and not be touching the surface. The raised rear leg was cut and a donor leg from a Mini Whinnie Cigar look-a-like was then affixed with another broken needle and the muscles and leg finished in apoxie. The idea behind this leg and tail was to mimic the Paddock Pal Palomino, with the hoof tip touching and the tail trailing behind.

Lastly, we have our two animal molds: Buffalo and Rin Tin Tin! Rin started as the fun, little Pocket Box Dogs German Shepherd. He only needed a simple repaint to be similar to his 1950’s counterpart. Buffalo was truly a bout of learning. Starting with a couple balls of tin foil and apoxie, I just went for it. My motto when making him was this excerpt from JAH 1977 of what Hess said about sculpting, “It’s easy. Just get some wire and clay and sculpt a horse…”. So I did just that, but with a tiny buffalo! While I have sculpted manes and tails, a whole sculpt from the ground up, no matter the size, was a new experience for me. Personally, I am proud of my little buffalo guy!

Now that we have the main components, it was time to wire in the LED’s. The wires were very small, twenty four gauge, so it was a day long task of preparing the wire, soldering and a few rounds of re-soldering connections that I wanted a bit stronger. The battery pack powering them was taken from a 12v decoration strand that had little dragonflies. It was time for the pack to be repurposed as the dragonflies had crumbled. Reuse and recycle folks! The LED mounts were affixed to two positions on the top walls, and three illuminating the bottom level. I don’t like exposed wires - it’s the car stereo installer in me! - so all are plastered and covered for a fresh, clean look.

At this point, we are nearing the end! The final touches started with four topiary bushes, that consist of four Mini Whinnies. Each was spray glued, and doused in spices such as oregano, thyme and basil!

Afterwards, different shades of green coated them, and they were affixed into small wooden pots, painted as terracotta and filled with recycled glass bits as pot filler. 

The frames are cast from resin and painted gold, outfitted with photos of Hess and some other fun moments of his. 

You can also find a couple of posters promoting him, because why not? 

For my vinyl, I stole Austin’s 54” industrial cutter (perks of the mister having a vinyl business!) To cut the “Hess-Tory” wall text and the 5 base “plaques”. While cutting and weeding is quick and easy, laying these designs onto the modeling paste and bases took a bit more time. Eventually after gently working the vinyl from the transfer tape, the text was laid and it was looking so cool. The pedestal bases were cut from scrap 2x4” pieces, squared off and stained. The models all had at least one hole made into a supporting leg while a 3/16” hole was drilled into each base. Using some rigid and twisted wire from some CAT5 cable, it was glued into each hole on both the model side and base side. Now, the models aren’t going anywhere.

After four months and over two hundred hours of tedious work, I was proud and excited to call my diorama FINISHED! There are so many elements that I performed either for the first time, or on this scale. Seeing it all come together in one finished piece really does the heart and mind good. While I didn’t jam-pack my diorama and fill every inch, I hope the tedious detail and work shows how much I not only love this contest, but love creating. So many Breyer memories fill all of our hearts, and many of them we can thank Hess for starting all by creating a model!

Congratulations, Nelli. I love all your dioramas, but this one truly has my heart. Good luck in Kentucky!