68 Impala

[The Modeling Hermit]

This young lady seems to be really proud of her 1968 Chevy Impala 2 door hardtop.

This is a great starter diorama for the novice. Some of you may feel intimidated by the dioramas that you see, and think that you could never build one. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This one consist of some ground cover purchased at the model railroad section of a hobby shop, a model car, a figure, and a calendar photo for a backdrop. Dilute water based glue with water and spay onto the base, then sprinkle your ground cover on to suit you. After the ground cover dries I like to give it another watered glue overcoat to settle it. Set your favorite calendar photo behind and add your props, and you have a diorama.

Give it a try.

[jeffs396]

Looks GREAT!

Me likey '68 Impalas

[cobraman]

Very cool.

[BubbaJoe]

waiting for the cowboy with the mercy i bet ..another nice build

[charlie8575]

It does looks good. Do you have an overall shot of the diorama so we can see how it assembled?

Charlie Larkin

[The Modeling Hermit]

In this case, I cleared some cars off of the corner of my used car dealer diorama. The back support is cardboard and the calendar is supported to it with a couple of clothespins at the top. A note on the ground cover is to remember that not all grass is Hollywood Mansion perfect. Mix in weeds and other blended colors to give a natural look to the scene.

Now if you really want a beginner's "diorama", try this.

I'm not sure that you could really call this a diorama, but it is a way of gaining inspiration. You can't get any more basic than this. The car is sitting on a shiny dining room table, which gives a look of wet pavement. The backdrop is a calendar picture propped against a cereal box. That's all there is. Just get your camera angle right and you've got your first realistic(ish) photo.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Kodiak Island Modeler

[darthsideous]

Thank you for posting this. This is a really great post for newbie diorama builders. Simple techniques for really nice results. Thanks again

[Rotorbolt73]

Wow, great photography! I never thought of using a calender as a backdrop. Simple and VERY effective.

[RAMBENNA]

nice job

[disabled modeler]

Very nice....I started to build a couple of dioramas and made good progress on both but will have to start over from scratch thanks to some bandits everything was a total loss

[mikemopar70]

Nice Impala, rare model, i like this year!!

[slusher]

Very nice

[Eshaver]

Doug, your Photo back drops are phenomenal ! I know in my experience as an advertising lay out artist such props are highly effective . Just look at Michael Williams's and ken Hamilton . BOTH gentlemen have used Photo back drops with carefully selected photo angles to achieve a very realistic scene at minimal cost .