Diorama Advice/Help Thread

[Godzilla Vinyl Mania]

Mmm, Tohokyo isn’t mine (though I wish it were!). That’s ApexOversteer. In fairness, he did post that these exact effects pieces were available on bbts. I got mine from amazon, but it was his post that prompted me.

And yes, the G ‘65 is awesome and highly recommended if you have the chance to get one! The pose is so dynamic and lifelike! You can almost feel him stomping through the display.

Ahhh....my mistake.

[ApexOversteer]

Oh man, those blast effects look amazing canofhumdingers!

I'm currently learning my new Canon EOS Rebel camera, and haven't really added much to Tohokyo lately... I did take a cool quickn'dirty pic of my NECA '62, posted over in the creative pics thread...

Here's the raw, unedited image...

[Godzilla Vinyl Mania]

Small update. Added some perimeter strips underneath to reinforce the base and make it sit level due to the wiring.


Added in 1 month 8 days 13 hours 6 minutes 24 seconds:
Worked on the destruction area a bit. Tried to get a blast area look going. Still have all the finer details left (people, street signs, poles , cars etc...) think the next thing to do is to spray entire diorama in a clear matte finish.



Added in 2 hours 38 minutes 48 seconds:
Just hit it with the matte finish and blended it all nicely imo.



Added in 5 hours 39 minutes 27 seconds:
& a little more for today. Added the street lights.

[canofhumdingers]

That is really coming together nicely! Not gonna lie, I'm more than a little envious! Can't wait to see more

[Godzilla Vinyl Mania]

That is really coming together nicely! Not gonna lie, I'm more than a little envious! Can't wait to see more

Thank you coh. Haven't been dedicating regular time to it and have to be feeling it otherwise it's not enjoyable so it's taking quite a while. I was a little nervous when I started painting the destruction on the base but I am happy with the way it came out so far. Cars have to be painted and assembled so that is my next challenge.

[ApexOversteer]

Expermimenting with overhead lighting for the Tohokyo corner... borrowed some cheap battery powered LED tap lights for testing. I like it lit up, so I've found some plug-in LED strips for not too much money. I''m also getting ready to add 4/6 more buildings too, mostly more damaged stuff...





Added in 9 days 23 hours 36 minutes 59 seconds:
The actual plug-in lights are more even and dimmable, so I can make the lighting softer, warmer...



Added in 1 day 12 minutes 58 seconds:
I was trippin' through my local craft crap store, and they had an aisle set up for teachers going back to school, decorating classrooms, and there I finally found a sky to work with; bulletin board liner paper. It comes in rolls 12 feet long, 4 feet high, with the pattern repeating every three feet or so. I mounted it to foamcore board, and when it gets ratty from being bumped around, I can just make another one from the same roll. I can also flip it upside-down and have a different sky. Not bad for $10.

Here's my set-up for a picture I took using the new sky and Tohokyo...




The main light is a ceiling fan, with 4 "daylight" LED bulbs. The LED light you see at Godzillas feet is covered by the parchment paper next to it usually, to put diffused the light on Godzilla. Off to the left is another fill light, to take some more shadows off Godzilla and the buildings, to confuse the scale a little bit.

You can see the finished pic over in the Creative Pics thread...

viewtopic.php?p=1681582#p1681582

[canofhumdingers]

I really enjoy all your “behind the scenes” pics and info! There’s so many things like this I want to do but just don’t currently have the time or space so it’s fun to live vicariously.

[LynnBob 1967]

With out redigging through this thread again, what scales are approximate for G19-14 700 scale?
What about Showa and Heisie Godzillas?
Lynn

[ApexOversteer]

With out redigging through this thread again, what scales are approximate for G19-14 700 scale?
What about Showa and Heisie Godzillas?
Lynn

Ok, in 1/700 scale...

Showa: 50 meters (164 feet) scales to 71.5mm (2.8 inches)

Heisei: '84 - 80 meters (260 feet) scales to 114mm (4.5 inches)
'89/'95 - 100 meters (330 feet) scales to 143mm (5.5inches)

Legendary: G'14 - 108 meters (355 feet) scales to 154mm (6 inches)
G'19 - 120 meters (395 feet) scales to 171.5mm (6.7 inches)

[Destorogoji]

With out redigging through this thread again, what scales are approximate for G19-14 700 scale?
What about Showa and Heisie Godzillas?
Lynn

G14/Heisei Godzillas scale pretty well with 1:600; too bad there's not so much on that scale, and your G19 ends up a little smaller (he should be 20 cm tall to be a 120 m kaiju on that scale). Funny enough, Shin scales pretty great as a 118 m kaiju on that scale.

For a Showa figure with 15-16 cm in height, 1:350 works perfectly, and you can find more things on that scale.

Personally, I work with either 1:350 and 1:450 scale objects since the kaiju look big and mean while also giving chance to my buildings and ships to shine.

[LynnBob 1967]

Thanks! Technically what scale are the buildings, Mazzer cannon tanks, and planes that are with the SH Monsterarts diorama sets? I like that scale for the buildings and vehicals when compared to any era of figures and I think will be OK with pretty much all of the figures. Most people will not know that they aren't scaled to any particular era of figures.
Lynn

Added in 2 minutes 10 seconds:

With out redigging through this thread again, what scales are approximate for G19-14 700 scale?
What about Showa and Heisie Godzillas?
Lynn

Ok, in 1/700 scale...

Showa: 50 meters (164 feet) scales to 71.5mm (2.8 inches)

Heisei: '84 - 80 meters (260 feet) scales to 114mm (4.5 inches)
'89/'95 - 100 meters (330 feet) scales to 143mm (5.5inches)

Legendary: G'14 - 108 meters (355 feet) scales to 154mm (6 inches)
G'19 - 120 meters (395 feet) scales to 171.5mm (6.7 inches)

Thanks! I should have been more precise, I wanted to know what scale the Showa Heisei figures were, I know the G19 is 700 scale.
Lynn

Added in 13 minutes 21 seconds:
Will 1/144-1/150 scale buildings work for taking pictures if placed just right for forced perspective shots?
Lynn

[ApexOversteer]

SHMA/NECA/Bandai guys might want to check out the miniatures for the tabletop game Monsterpocaplypse. They have some seriously gorgeous buildings, roughly in scale with 6" Gojis I would think. The buildings range between 3 and 8 inches, the power plant and factory are 2.5 inches. There is more out there. They even have some really groovy Kaiju...

I found this stuff while surfing Amazon, but I'm sure there are better sources for it, if you look. It's called Monsterpocalypse by Privateer Press.

[LynnBob 1967]

I like it and they are reasonably priced too. Thanks!!

[DirektorSplennic]

Apex, have I ever told you how much I love you?

[ApexOversteer]

I like it and they are reasonably priced too. Thanks!!

Apex, have I ever told you how much I love you?

[ApexOversteer]

Just got a couple new buildings for Tohokyo, and I tried a product from a new company for the first time, Jioworld (Geoworld). The building in the center of the photo below is their 8-story Hotel. The main structure is thin, stiff foamcore board, covered in a printed deco paper with very nice detail. The building comes fully assembled and decorated, simply open the box, and place into your diorama. The signage says "HOTEL PLAZA" in Japanese. The dimensions are 9in tall, 4.5in across the front of the base (not the building), and 3.5in along the side of the base. Cost was $16. As a price comparison, the TomyTec "City Buildings Of Showa" collection building (Number "C2" in the collection, also a recent re-release and purchase, link below) just to the right of the Hotel, was $19, and required full assembly and application of decals.

The Jioworld Hotel is listed as a "Backorder" on Hobby Search, but don't let that put you off. Hobby Search says it will take 7 days to stock, but when I ordered it, they had it shipped two business days later.

I'm pretty pleased with the Jioworld building, with one exception, the windows, which are some kind of silver foil, and if you look directly at them, the nature of the foil is evident. What I might do is get some clear pla plate, cut it to size, and paint it black or blue on the back side and install it in the window holes as "tinted" glass. Other than that, this is a solid 8 out of 10 piece, and I can't wait to use it for some upcoming photos I'm going to take...







Also new to Tohokyo in that pic, just to the left of the Jioworld hotel is a recent classic Tomix re-release, their "Small Building A", all 4 inches of it. A nice bargain at $8.30.

I've also added about 60 trees, and 3 more of the TomyTec "Buildings Under Demolition", two of the high-rise and one apartment building. You can see the new demolished buildings behind MosuGoji in the wide shot below...







One of my favorite things about Tohokyo right now is looking over from my desk, through the trees, to see the tanks of the "JDSF" rolling up on Godzilla...







And the additions aren't done! Over the next few weeks I will be adding five more buildings, including three from another new company, Outland Models, from China. If you've ever searched for model buildings on Amazon, you've probably seen these kits. I decided to go ahead and try a few, after finding a few offered by a US seller. It will be interesting to see what they are like. I'm not going to show these, or link to them yet, until I know what the quality, and assembly is like. There's a distinct possibility they are complete crap, and I have wasted the small bit of cash I spent on them... we'll see. They should arrive in the next three weeks.

The last two are going to be re-releases from Kato's extremely popular Dioworld series, the "5th Avenue Boutique" and "SMBC Broadcasting" buildings which you can see below. These are very, very popular with model railroaders in Japan and usually sell out quickly each time Kato re-issues them. These are pretty much the largest non-kit N-scale buildings available at 8.5inches tall with a base 4.5inches on each side and the building coming almost to the edge of the base on each side. Hobby Search currently has them for pre-order, with the release expected within the next 7 days, priced at $38 each, Links below.




Diotown Boutique Building on Left, SMBC Broadcasting Building on Right.




Jioworld (Geoworld) "8-Storied Hotel": https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10280370

TomyTec "City Buildings Of Showa C2": https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10536122

Tomix "Small Building A (Dark Grey)": https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10513447

TomyTec "Building Collection 151/Buildings Under Demolition A High-Rise": https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10402474

TomyTec "Building Collection 152/Buildings Under Demolition B Apartment Complex": https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10402476

Kato "Diotown 5th Avenue Fashion Boutique": https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10646056

Kato "Diotown SMBC Broadcasting Building": https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10646054

[LynnBob 1967]

I just got some generic 3D printed building off of eBay that seem work good with the Showa Godzilla's scale wise. With these 3 buildings, being the same stories, but scaled in different heights is they work well staggered back from each other for depth perception.



They look close to scale going by counting the building stories and seeing where they land compared to the figure.
Lynn

[ApexOversteer]

Since I had added so many new buildings to Tohokyo it was time to cut some new sidewalks, rearrange the buildings and do something about the loose border trees, which were falling off the shelf 4 or 6 at a time, if I brushed against them. Since I had to go down to bare shelf for the first time in a while, I took the opportunity to take a picture of each layer that makes up Tohokyo, Sidewalks&Buildings, Trees, Kaju and Border Trees. You can click on the pictures for the high-res originals...





... and with some double-sided tape I mounted the Border Trees to a strip of green matting board, and some more "sidewalk" grey matting board. The border is now two sections that can be easily removed, and the trees stay put even if I bump into them...





The new KATO Diotown buildings can be seen behind ol' Clankypants there.

The next big challenge is adding a sky...

.

[goji89]

Nothing starts my day more than seeing Apexoversteer post in this thread........

Love the pics man.....dont ever stop.

[LynnBob 1967]

AC Morre is now going out of business. Now is the time to head over and get diorama supplies!! I got some woodland scenes stuff cheap as well as some sky and space poster board for pictures cheap.