This is the first ever diorama I created, apart from some halfhearted attempts to build some scenery around my tank models as a teenager (scenery that invariably got damaged when my mom found it was time to dust the things off ...). I would do many things differently now with this scene, starting with the not too convincing paint job of the figure.

It started out with only the vehicle, anyway. I wanted to use it as a prop for my photographic composites series "Dreamscapes". But as it stood there on my shelf, I suddenly felt the wish to build a diorama around it.

Figure: 1/24 scale, part of a 2-figures-set from MasterBox
Vehicle: Scratch built from a Tamiya 1/24 Mercedes Benz 540K and 1/35 M41 Walker Bulldog tank kit, with added parts from my tool box and bottle caps.
Base: Styrodur on a round wooden tablet, 410 mm in diameter
Landscape: Plaster, putty, sand, pebbles, sansibar rocks
Plants: natural material and living plants (succulents)
Paints: Acrylics, mostly Vallejo

The story the diorama tries to tell is connected with one of my "Dreamscape" series about a group of explorers on an alien world and their former hero, Colonel Kowalski, who has left the troop to search for his missing wife - after having stolen the prototype of a hover vehicle (which I also built as a prop and then put it a diorama). Some of the "Dreamscape" photo composites can be seen on https://richard-duebell.pixels.com/collections/dreamscapes.
  • vincenzo gambinoPLUS

    gold :)
  • Melnikov Ivan "Nakatan"

    gold!
  • Richard Duebell

    Thank you very much, guys!
  • Richard Duebell

    @Maestoso Arte: Thanks for your insights, my friend! I am totally with you. And I am kind of stuck in the past, too, as I have been writing historical novels and articles for quite some years. Yes, I should have added an overall view of the diorama - sadly, I forgot to photograph one (ahem ...). Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you, too! I hope you find time for painting and showing your new work here.