Dioramas

[Dr. John]

I am planning on building a small diorama to photograph some of my trains and to experiment with scenery techniques. It will be small, lightweight and portable but allow me the flexibility to photograph from several angles.

Have any of you built such a diorama for your trains? Tell us about it and post any pics if you have them.

[mersenne6]

Several of the pictures I've had published in CTT's Display Case and the now defunct photo contest were dioramas. The most recent picture was a couple of years ago and involved an AF UP streamliner coming straight at you. It was a night time scene complete with lightning flashes in the sky and rain water in the ditch between the rails. Most of the equipment in the shot was prewar Flyer but there was also a KBN California Frucht Transport car in the foreground and a Bing Freight shed far in the background.

For dioramas, the trick is to remember you are doing Hollywood on a much reduced scale. This means, if the camera can't see it, don't waste your time making it. An overhead shot of any of my dioramas would look like a real slipshod mess with parts and pieces of things completed and others just left blank. Wires, for independent illumination are strung everwhere out of camera view.

In order to get the best effect I'd recommend a film camera which permits multiple exposures on the same piece of film. What I do is black out the entire room, lock the mirror up, and then uncover the lens (obviously the camera is bolted to a very sturdy tripod). Expose the highlights first - light bulbs, and other point sources of light and then cover up the lens and release the mirror.

Next set up the flood lights for the overall area shot and expose in the normal fashion. Since I like to take night time shots I use a very small spotlight necked down with black aluminum foil to "paint" in the areas I want lighted. I also use a rear projection screen for skies like the one with the storm.

[Dr. John]

Wow! Great tips! I still have my old Nikon FM that I have used for time exposed shots. I'll have to try some of your suggestions for night shots.

My main purpose will be to shoot outdoor, daylight shots using natural scenery in the background - tricky but it can be done.

[FJ and G]

Mersenne,

I recall that photo. Extremely well done.

I've seen some nice rock outcroppings and streams where a "dioramma" could be staged with help from mother nature. I've never heard anyone doing such an "outdoor dioramma" but if the angle is right and things look in perspective, that might be another idea to consider.

The indoor dioramma has a lot of appeal as well. Within the last several months there was a fairly large article in Model Railroader regarding an indoor dioramma, how to position the camera, etc. The person who designed the dioramma (Tony Koester??) used a commercially printed backdrop of an area in the midwest that added realism.

I'm a big fan of diorammas. People in the smaller scales seem to do more of them than toy train modelers. Yet, I see a big place in our hobby for the dioramma. Instead of merely displaying your toy train collection on the wall, why not put the train in a dioramma? The dioramma could be long and realtively shallow and still contain items of interest to make it appear as if the train is in its operating environment.

Good luck, John w/your project.

[cnw1995]

I tried my hands at diorama building - with just two pieces of straight track on a painted foam board - which I would customize with trees and other details. But I would second the recommendation of using a film camera - my digital just doesn't it justice.

[csxt30]

I can't forget the Diarama, in HO, that used to be at Willougby Trains, in Toms' city, back I believe in the 1970's. In a glass case, it had a series of switchbacks on this mountain. I was buying a lot of HO then & I would always watch the train go up the mt. & the switches were all automatic, & the mountain was really realistic. The straight sections of track at the ends of the switches would hold 3 or 4 cars, Which I think were logging cars. I wish I had a picture, now! Thanks, John

[daan]

A nice idea!! A Diorama adds a lot to a loco. Just see the last few months of the online videa extra's. Though lighning has improveda lot, the video's are less attractive..
The older movies where filmed on layouts and because of the environment the trains looked better.. But since this video is only to show the locomotive and that part has improved big time on the straight test track, I guess it's a better option.

Just as with zoo animals, they look best in their natural environment..