Dioramas

[Fencig]

I've mocked together a bunch of temporary setups for photographic storytelling. I'm not sure if they truly count as dioramas, as they often rely on very controlled sight lines. All smoke and mirrors, theatre style. (Though I haven't literally used either smoke or mirrors . . . yet.) A good diorama could be fun, but I haven't done anything permanent as I would hate to tie things down like that. My collection is very much meant to be played with.

this is actually a very important point you made. What is the purpose of your DIO. If it's a game piece then it doesn't need to be very elaborate, if it's a display piece then there's very different criteria to make it really worth doing IMHO. I started very basic many years ago, just playing around with some materials and trying to get the hang of it , didn't really think at the time about any criteria. However , looking back at this now, it's really a game piece.

Then i kicked it up a notch, and did a tree/ foliage, and such, but still a very simple execution. This is from the Grenadier Dragon Lords Giants series , the Forest Giant. Looking back at it, that's a pretty sorry tree

More Undead, only because i liked the Necromancer sculpt so much. Here i played around with additional elements. More mini's from different sculptors, dirt/soil, I tried to add motion/movement - a murder of startled crows , the skellies coming up out of the ground. This worked well, some things that did not was i tried to do a "green undead glow" and i just couldn't pull it off back then. The painting is also very basic, the Rust is ok, the blending shading on here her clothes , hair, and skin are completely lacking.

Anyway, this one got me 2nd place on a forum competition so i guess it wasn't too bad.
The following year, i wanted to do another Giant, and by this point i still wasn't committed to painting for display, and it detracts from the scene. At this point i didn't know they actually judge all this stuff at a real competition , like a con. But if your interested do a Search for moonlight mini's diorama judging criteria.
So this was the following year. I wanted to add suspense, more action, fear, foreboding, sense of dread etc. I tried OSL , (not very good), but i made the door, brass hinges, and the walls and those turned out well. The door actually moves.



as you can probly tell, i really live for Dio's, and they are very immersive for me. For me it's the story-telling, i get an image stuck in my head and have to build it. To be honest i don't think i could paint mini's just to paint, and i hope this is helpful for you. Start small, add elements as you go. you will either love it or decide it's for the birds. To give you and idea of how deep you can get, i just finished 2 that were huge.
One with Orc's and elves, 24 mini's, complex trees, water, stone, flying creatures etc. = 300 hours.
Another Undead, 100 hours.

if you guys are interested i can start a new post, "show us your dio's" and stick them in there.I've actually been reluctant to post since i don't have a lot of Citadel (LOTR MESBG being the exception), but if it's ok i can share more.

 

[Brother Meredith]

These are nice little dioramas!

 

[The Serene Badger]

I don't think anyone's got issues with non-citadel minis? I'd love to see your dio's

 

[symphonicpoet]

I hesitate to even call mine "dioramas," as they're just temporary things to make a photograph or two for a story. They tend to be pretty improvised, but I want them to feel immersive and to imply action, even if they're static things. So I tend to try to make them feel "cinematic" with tricks like depth, perspective, and relatively hard light. They're not proper dioramas, so I'm not sure that they count. I could do them as shadow boxes, but a lot of the light comes from outside the "box" which would make it tricky. (And besides, I don't want my set pieces tied down, as I reuse them in later scenes, but hopefully changing the context and set dressing enough so it's not too obvious.)



















There's a couple of those that were playable boards, but most are really very small scenes set up on a cart. (And the last four are a sequence, of course.)

 

[Eric]

Love those corridor shots in particular.

 

[Michael Stockin]

Helsreach in there?

 

[symphonicpoet]

There's certainly some Helsreach inspiration. (And a clear reference in the second picture.) But officially the second shot is an early version of Logansport, which is the principal settlement on Moab III. The photos were all in service of the story in the ongoing campaign that started with Showdown at the Graceful Ghost some dozen years ago or so, so they're all specific locations around the Tartarus Rim. (And named ships and named characters, even. How that hooded Inquisitor, Inquisitor Giahomme, got off before the thing vented completely into space I'm not sure, but get off he did. The dice did declare it, against all odds. Which is how you get him facing the wrath of the Archmechan Timochi, but that's probably better than slowly suffocating in a pod when the batteries die and life support gives out.)

Anyway, thanks Eric and Michael both.

 

[Orjetax]

@symphonicpoet you have nice set dressing for your photos and I always enjoy them. But i especially like the Squats on the ridge with the tent


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[symphonicpoet]

^Thank you! That's probably the shot that really got this whole thing going. I'd rolled up a scenario for a game using the Rogue Trader scenario generator, and it was one of the ones that mentioned the pirate Abdul Goldberg, saying "who should you spy cresting the last rise," quite evoking a classic Western movie scene, so I tried to capture that in miniature. And I wanted the name to be a reference, but not a quote. I quite enjoyed a little book of one acts called Goldberg Street and Other Plays, so I made him the pirate Goldberg Street. Met Matthew Street a number of years later, but now I can't help but think of him every time I see that pirate, so he quite makes me smile. I do like my dwarves, and Street did too, so hopefully he'd approve. (I think I mentioned it to him once or twice, but never in a way where I officially asked his opinion, so I just hope retroactively that he approves.)

 

[Fencig]

I hesitate to even call mine "dioramas," as they're just temporary things to make a photograph or two for a story.

story telling is the goal of most diorama's, even a simple game piece that a DM might plop down on a game table, he or she is still telling a story. So do what makes you happy in whatever manner makes you happy, that's what this hobby should be about. We live in a world of right and wrong, unfortunately 90% wrong.
Here in our little escape, there's only fun and happiness.
Sometimes when things go wrong at my table i might let out a loud FOOK! which startles my wife " is everything ok up there?" , but we don't talk about that

And it is hard to commit a piece permanently to a a DIO , one of my earlier projects had them loose, but i quickly realized for me and no opportunity or time to game, they were better off permanent.