Building Maritime Dioramas

[Vinnie BraniganParticipant @vinniebranigan92297]

Graham Castle divulges some of the secrets behind his dioramas.

Vinnie

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Hi Vinnie

I find dioramas fasinating, each one is a highly detailed snapshot of an event even down to the blades of grass, this is highly detailed modelbuilding using the same skills as scale radio building but at the same time being so different.

Dioramas really have to been seen "live" as the 2D page or screen do not do them justice. When you have the chance to look around one you find that every change in position gives you a totally different perspective on the subject,

I know this sounds obvious but until the uninitiated have sampled the impact of a "live" example they just can’t understand how an inanimate model scene can come alive simply by just walking around it,

I hope to see more examples both on the site and in print and have been amazed at the detailing at the examples on the military modelling site, I am very tempted to have a go myself when I finish my current restoration project.

[Vinnie BraniganParticipant @vinniebranigan92297]

FEATURE

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

I have built a few dioramas, but they seldom generate much interest from fellow model shipbuilders – probably because I only deal with merchant ships – Here is a diorama of a tramp steamer, bunkering from a coal hulk. Also a coal barge from another diorama –

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Here is a Thames diorama of the collier Errington Dunford with a coal barge and a sailing barge alongside –

Edited By Bob Wilson on 01/07/2023 09:46:11

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

And here is a shipwreck from a Skeleton Coast diorama –

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

Cor Bob..you have dug up an old post there!

Unless it’s a running model railway diorama, or one built for a museum I think home dioramas may be an acquired taste?

Ashley

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

I don't think I've seen a weathered ship from Bob. I like the bunkering scenario, brings back fond memories, and, no!, I haven't bunkered coal in my time!

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thanks – Here is a prison hulk, and HMS Carcass stuck in the ice whilst trying to find the Northwest Passage

–

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Steam whaling barque laid alongside an ice shelf –

 

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Bob

I love those dioramas, they start to tell you a story at first glance 🙂

I always thought my F T Everard Simplicity 1/72nd scale would be ideal for a railway quayside scene, she’s been finished 2 years and has never been in the water !!

Kind Regards   Ray

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Thanks Ray,

I haven’t built many of them, but I quite like what I did build.   Here is one showing the barque Jhelum, lying on the beach in  Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, as she may have apppeared when arriving storm damaged in 1870.   Also a photograph of the real Jhelum that I took in 1982, and another of me inside the real ship –

 

  

[James Hill 5Participant @jameshill5]

Hi Bob,

I’ve always found dioramas very interesting. You can get so much detail into a small area and the skill required is as much, if not more than a normal modeller. Your pictures show exactly that.

Jim.

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

Hi Jim,

Thanks, but I don’t have any special skills.   I never progressed beyond Grade1 at woodwork and metalwork at school and my abilities in my last report were “poor to moderate,”  but I carried on anyway.    I am certain that large numbers of model builders convince themselves that they do not have much skill, and therefore confine themselves to kits.   One of the most common statements that I hear is “I could never do anything like that, I just don’t have the skills!” 

The word “skill” should be replaced with “practice,” and once you start to practice, things get better all the time.   My early models were nothing special, but I carried on anyway.   Here are two of the Siren, built a few years apart.   A lot of people simply cannot see any difference in quality, but it is obvious to me that the first one is not very good, although I was happy with it at the time. 

I am more “the poor man’s modeller.”      The top miniaturists get tens of thousands of pounds for each model, but I have  seldom topped £1,000 or even got very close to it.

Bob

 

 

 

[Bob WilsonParticipant @bobwilson59101]

After commission deductions at Christie’s auction house, London, a few years ago, I got £100 for this one (Marion Lightbody) and the income tax took £20 off that!     Very disappointing as I thought t was quite good.

 

 

 

[Author]

Posts