dioramas?

13Mtrainer

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what are the points of dioramas? i see a lot of them and they look fun to build. if you have any pics please post them and explane them to me please.:)
 

shaygetz

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The lighting on my layout is awful so I use a diorama to photograph my work in natural sunlight. I'm building another one as this one is getting too well used.
 

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Tyson Rayles

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A wise man once told me dioramas are for people who don't want to see the trains run! :p :rolleyes: :D Actually a diorama is good for testing scenery ideas on, if it doesn't work out you haven't invested that much money or time. A lot of people lately though have gone to building micro or mini layouts. These are about the same size but YOU CAN RUN THE TRAIN! :) :) :) . These can also be hooked together to become part of a bigger layout if thats what you want. Here is a link to a 12" by 24" n-scale micro I'm working on.

http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=10897
 

TomPM

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Dragon

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I started this diorama to practice scenery and trestle building techniques.

DMLC-Shay2.jpg
 

13Mtrainer

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wow thanks a lot everbody this has help me a lot. i think i am going to give this a try over the weekend.2 more questions can you temperally put down the scenery so you can use it on the layout or other dioramas? and does anyone here have those little cars that are remote contral that ride on a black track on there layouts? i might put them on mine and have them run along with the trains.
 

RailRon

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Another diorama which isn't finished yet. I am also building it for taking shots of rolling stock outside, in natural sunlight.

Apart from that, dioramas are very good for practising new techniques, but also for using up left-over stuff (in my case some homasote scraps) and generally 'doing something else for a change'. And yes, M13trainer, it really is fun.

Can you use something on the layout? Sure you do! The scratchbuilt wooden tunnel portal is only loosely attached, and I plan to include it somewhere on my layout later.

Ron
 

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shaygetz

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13Mtrainer said:
can you temperally put down the scenery so you can use it on the layout or other dioramas? and does anyone here have those little cars that are remote contral that ride on a black track on there layouts? i might put them on mine and have them run along with the trains.

In my Nov/Dec Photo contest picture, the "snow" was baking soda sifted onto the diorama on about an 8" patch. When pictures were done, I simply vacuumed the snow off. The same could certainly be done with the dirt and ground cover. :eek: BE VERY CAREFUL :eek: ...that it doesn't get into loco mechs and wheelsets.

As for the other, we used to run our Aurora slot cars thru specially made sections of track that had HO rails running thru it...too cool :thumb: A look on Ebay recently shows that those sections are quite valuable, fetching $30-40 each :(
 

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13Mtrainer

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thats a little out of my price range for now. well last night i was drawling on up and i realized i dont know how big to make it? i was looking at make 2 one of them would be 1' by 2' for making scenery on. while the other one would be 2' by 3' for working with mountains. what sized would be good for that? i am also working in HO.
 

shaygetz

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Size depends on what you plan to do with it. As a static display, you can make it not much bigger than the object being focused on. Woodland Scenics Mini-scenes are technically dioramas and are only 4" around. For photography purposes, make it big enough to cover your photo angles without revealing the edges.