alan barton Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 (edited) For about 10 years the members of Perth and Districts Model Club have joined forces to build substantial dioramas that are then displayed at our annual hot rod show and two local model shows. A few years ago the decision was made to produce our biggest production yet, a huge open air car show. The initial planning and setup was done in our garage and my wife Ute (pronounced Oo-Tee) decided to join in the fun by producing not one but two complete modules for the project. One was a large lake and the other was the one shown here, an open air wedding. Ute is not a model builder per se but all her life she has been a highly creative and talented person , as a painter in many different mediums and for the last twenty years as a spectacular patchwork quilter. As Ute got deep into this project, she looked at things with a different eye than your average model builder. This is the result of about three months work. We recently discovered that, quite by accident the diorama would fit unaltered into one of our display cabinets so it is now on permanent display in our home. I couldn’t be prouder. Pretty much everything you see in this diorama with the exception of the cars and the gazebo has been made or enhanced by Ute. I thought you might enjoy seeing her work. Ute used a large rectangular scrap of packaging foam to form the base of the scene. After laying out the main elements of the road and the gardens we went digging through our stash of diorama materials and found we had a lot of bits that would be perfectly suited. Some of the plastic trees, for example, I had kept from our family slot car track in my teenage years! The roadway is formed from vacformed styrene brickwork from a local hobby shop. As with much of the colouring throughout the diorama, Ute used Jo Sonja acrylic craft paint to get the tones she was after. The garden beds were made from foam core board with one plastic side of the sandwich sliced off. Ute used a Stanley knife to cut the surface to the desired contours and then painted them an earthy brown. The foam was then coated in ceramic tile adhesive, leftover from the ceramic tiles that Ute laid in our front entryway. After smoothing this out and letting it dry, she used a variety of green and brown tons to get a lawn colour. The tile adhesive gives a texture that is more to scale than the model railway grass products that are often used for this work. I had collected a variety of shrubs, bushes, trees and flowers over the years for diorama projects and these were a good start but Ute had grand designs for her gardens and the local hobby shops did not have what she had in mind. Instead, she hit Spotlight, a chain similar to Hobby Lobby, for artificial greenery for plants with foliage that would work in scale. Ute also found a cheap range of fake aquarium plants in a local dollar store and these proved to be perfect for the job. The photos below show the wedding module as part of the P.D.M.C display and also part of the array of plants that Ute assembled. In the full length photo of the display, you can just make out the white gazebo sticking up at the far end of the display table. Edited August 4, 2019 by alan barton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 4, 2019 Author Share Posted August 4, 2019 The small round green shrubs came from a fancy edge strip from a fabric store. Some of the plants have been drybrushed with craft paint to remove the plasticy sheen. Most of the garden plants have been attached with dressmaking pins or nails pushed straight through into the foam. This gives a lot of freedom to alter the layout and avoids the mess and time delays of using adhesives. In the first two photos you can also see the foam core garden beds which are raised up slightly from the roadway. They say a good diorama should tell a story and this scene has a whole range of vignettes within, with separate groupings of people adding their own stories. You have to peruse the scene as a whole and then in detail to spot all the little scenarios being played out. Can you guess the origins of the entry buildings into the two sides of the park? If you are into show rods you might have an advantage over others! The gazebo where the wedding is taking place was a white wire piece that we gave my late mother for her miniature collection. Along with the food at the picnic on the left, I am sure she would be delighted to see her pieces in such a beautiful setting. The bride and groom are modified wedding cake figures. I had bought two or three of these over the years and with a bit of plastic surgery they were ready to tie the knot. They were well proportioned and detailed but would have scaled out at about 71/2 feet high till I took a razor saw to them! Ute added a small bouquet. There are also hand made floral arrangements on the gazebo and some of the seats in the park. An Ed Roth figure from a Revell kit is the wedding celebrant and you can see a Revell Truckers figure of a girl that Ute converted into a photographer standing off to their right. Apart from a few pre-painted commercially available figures, Ute has painted them all with a combination of Jo Sonja acrylics and Humbrol enamels. Some were especially made for this diorama while others were painted previously for some of my dioramas. The table started life as the cap from a plastic bottle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 That's amazing ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 Very cool work Alan! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 5, 2019 Author Share Posted August 5, 2019 Thanks Cobra man, thanks Tom. For me, it was amazing to see this design come together. Trust me, Ute did not follow the normal path that a modeller would follow, and just look at the result!!!! It was also nice to see so much stuff get used up that I had been saving for decades. Ute and I had prepared about 120 figures over the years but they only came out of the box for public displays so it is terrific to now have a lot of them on display. The wedding car is a Revell 1959 Chevy convertible that I built just after it came out. The only mod I made was to convert the dash to RHD and believe me , that is as close as I ever get to box stock! Ute twisted up some fine ribbon to make the wedding ribbons as well as adding a small bouquet to the grill. We would like to have had the traditional bridal doll on the hood but can you imagine how small that would have been? Of course, some of the guys are far more interested in the car that the matrimonial proceedings! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1930fordpickup Posted August 5, 2019 Share Posted August 5, 2019 This is outstanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisR Posted August 5, 2019 Share Posted August 5, 2019 Awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 9, 2019 Author Share Posted August 9, 2019 Thanks guys. Here are some more shots giving a more complete view of the entire module. On the opposite side of the driveway to the wedding you can see a group of friends having a picnic. Some of the food items are dolls house pieces - though they are intended as 1/12 scale, they don't look out of place. The girls are sitting on the old log seat from the back of the Beverley Hillbillies' Oldsmobile. We found the front fence in a Halloween store during a vacation in the USA many years ago. A fellow club member, Rob, found the park benches on eBay. Cheers Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gramps46 Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 I simply cannot comprehend the amount of work that has gone into this diorama. Thank you for sharing it with us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYLIBUD Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 Wow,that’s crazy.Great job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixties Sam Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 Amazing! So much detail. Wow! Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 16, 2019 Author Share Posted August 16, 2019 Thanks guys, I will make sure my wife sees your compliments. It is so cool to have something like this in our display cabinets and I expect from time to time we will swap out the cars in the carpark to produce a new scene or even change the era. Also, because Ute chose polystyrene foam for a base, if she chooses to add more people then it is just a matter of drilling a small hole in one leg and inserting a pin. The figure, or plants or other accessories, can then be pushed into the foam with no noticeable damage, no risk of glue smears and no having to stand the figures up every now and then. It works so well I can't imagine doing it amy other way in the future. Cheers Alan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Geiger Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 Hey Alan! You are bringing this diorama with you the next time to attend NNL East? Right? ? Say hello to Ute for us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan barton Posted August 16, 2019 Author Share Posted August 16, 2019 I'll fly back with you after you visit our show! Bazinga! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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