Diorama Advice/Help Thread

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ILL GREEN
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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by ILL GREEN »

goji89 wrote:Where did you buy yours from and are they expensive?
From Hobby Search train section. They range from $8 to $15 depending on the model. Check every week if stock is sold out, usually it'll get restocked for a short time.

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goji89
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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by goji89 »

ILL GREEN wrote:
goji89 wrote:Where did you buy yours from and are they expensive?
From Hobby Search train section. They range from $8 to $15 depending on the model. Check every week if stock is sold out, usually it'll get restocked for a short time.
Thanks! And I'll be sure to check every week. Looks good with that Gamera.

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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by ILL GREEN »

Thanks goji89!!

Forgot the link!

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c ... i+building

Another custom building.

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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by BARAGONZILLA »

Ok, so I'm in the process of making a Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla and I've run into a problem with making sets. I can never seem to get them right. They just never look good. Well, I can do hillside sets and forest like ones, but it's just the city ones I have a problem with. I know you can buy buildings, but I don't have the money for them and the ones you do buy that are good, are mostly plastic and you can't destroy them during the stop motion. Another thing I am having trouble with is making the rubble. I originally was tearing up paper and painting it to make it look like pieces of buildings, but this looked really bad and I hated how it looked. It didn't give it that chrushed up building feeling.
Image
This is basically what I want to accomplish.
What I want to know is how would I make something like this.
The main questions on this I have are:
What is the rubble made out of and how was it made?
What are those spikes made of?
How do I make the background?
How would I construct those buildings?
Do you see the grey and white building to the far left? How do I do that?
I think the buildings are cut out of foam to shape pictures of buildings but I am not sure.
This may not be a diorama question but when I am photographing the action figures, they always cast a shadow on the back drop. How would I fix this exactly? Another thing I would like to fix is the problem with moving the camera as I shoot the film. If I move it to far off, it will catch unwanted footage because my background isn't long enough. People have told me that it is best I curve the backdrop so I don't get the unwanted background. Is this true?
If anyone can answer thanks for your help!
This is the beginning of the end.

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ILL GREEN
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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by ILL GREEN »

What is the rubble made out of and how was it made?
I use real pebbles and little rocks and spray paint them in grey, white, and light blue. Then glue them down.
What are those spikes made of?
Clear epoxy. But you must learn how to mold and cast to create them. Youtube how to make a glove-mold. Thats the name of the technique, not to make gloves. Shapes like that are easy to mold.
How do I make the background?
If you have skills in air brushing would be efficient. But any large photo or even a huge painting would be fine. Photoshop or MSPaint would do the job, then print to poster size. Colors should be matte to prevent glossing and shine.
How would I construct those buildings?
Do you see the grey and white building to the far left? How do I do that?
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng for all your cardboard buildings, click under Model Trains and browse around the N and Z scale sections. I prefer cardboard over the plastic buildings because you can customize them with a blade to look damaged, since no company makes damaged buildings except at O scale and thats too big for 6 to 8 inch monsters.


This may not be a diorama question but when I am photographing the action figures, they always cast a shadow on the back drop. How would I fix this exactly?
Now you becoming a photographer. Lighting is what you need and plenty of it. There are lighting boxes for sale but you better off looking at one to see how it works and try to make your own. But the best and simple answer to that is to point a lamp from above the background shining down. The light will act as a shield and deflect the shadows away. Here is an example:

Image

See the light on top of the background painting? and no shadow :)

And for your final question, its best to have plenty of space for curving backgrounds around your set. Yes its essential and makes a square foot stage look like a huge world. A flat background can work too, but if you are shooting multiple angles, then curving the background around the set would be best.

Hope that helps, when all else fails youtube it. I learnt my whole craft from there :mrgreen:

Look up: Casting and Molding, diorama vids, how to make war damaged buildings and anything in between.

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Kaijugriffey
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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by Kaijugriffey »

BARAGONZILLA wrote:Ok, so I'm in the process of making a Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla and I've run into a problem with making sets. I can never seem to get them right. They just never look good. Well, I can do hillside sets and forest like ones, but it's just the city ones I have a problem with. I know you can buy buildings, but I don't have the money for them and the ones you do buy that are good, are mostly plastic and you can't destroy them during the stop motion. Another thing I am having trouble with is making the rubble. I originally was tearing up paper and painting it to make it look like pieces of buildings, but this looked really bad and I hated how it looked. It didn't give it that chrushed up building feeling.

This is basically what I want to accomplish.
What I want to know is how would I make something like this.
The main questions on this I have are:
What is the rubble made out of and how was it made?
What are those spikes made of?
How do I make the background?
How would I construct those buildings?
Do you see the grey and white building to the far left? How do I do that?
I think the buildings are cut out of foam to shape pictures of buildings but I am not sure.
This may not be a diorama question but when I am photographing the action figures, they always cast a shadow on the back drop. How would I fix this exactly? Another thing I would like to fix is the problem with moving the camera as I shoot the film. If I move it to far off, it will catch unwanted footage because my background isn't long enough. People have told me that it is best I curve the backdrop so I don't get the unwanted background. Is this true?
If anyone can answer thanks for your help!
As I mentioned in another thread, a good reference book on Model Railroad scenery will do you a world of good. A company called Kalambach are a good starting place
https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/products ... 091e8d7520

Buildings are astonishingly easy to make and dirt cheap, at least in the scales we are talking about here. They don't need deep down super detailing. Just some basic architectural models really. You can do a better than acceptable job using Cardstock or if you need something more permanent sheet styrene. All of which is extremely inexpensive and may be found at any mass merchant hobby store. Really the only tools you need are a sharp hobby blade a metal straight edge ruler and some glue and paint.

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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by BARAGONZILLA »

Kaijugriffey wrote:
BARAGONZILLA wrote:Ok, so I'm in the process of making a Godzilla vs Spacegodzilla and I've run into a problem with making sets. I can never seem to get them right. They just never look good. Well, I can do hillside sets and forest like ones, but it's just the city ones I have a problem with. I know you can buy buildings, but I don't have the money for them and the ones you do buy that are good, are mostly plastic and you can't destroy them during the stop motion. Another thing I am having trouble with is making the rubble. I originally was tearing up paper and painting it to make it look like pieces of buildings, but this looked really bad and I hated how it looked. It didn't give it that chrushed up building feeling.

This is basically what I want to accomplish.
What I want to know is how would I make something like this.
The main questions on this I have are:
What is the rubble made out of and how was it made?
What are those spikes made of?
How do I make the background?
How would I construct those buildings?
Do you see the grey and white building to the far left? How do I do that?
I think the buildings are cut out of foam to shape pictures of buildings but I am not sure.
This may not be a diorama question but when I am photographing the action figures, they always cast a shadow on the back drop. How would I fix this exactly? Another thing I would like to fix is the problem with moving the camera as I shoot the film. If I move it to far off, it will catch unwanted footage because my background isn't long enough. People have told me that it is best I curve the backdrop so I don't get the unwanted background. Is this true?
If anyone can answer thanks for your help!
As I mentioned in another thread, a good reference book on Model Railroad scenery will do you a world of good. A company called Kalambach are a good starting place
https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/products ... 091e8d7520

Buildings are astonishingly easy to make and dirt cheap, at least in the scales we are talking about here. They don't need deep down super detailing. Just some basic architectural models really. You can do a better than acceptable job using Cardstock or if you need something more permanent sheet styrene. All of which is extremely inexpensive and may be found at any mass merchant hobby store. Really the only tools you need are a sharp hobby blade a metal straight edge ruler and some glue and paint.
THANKS A MILLION GUYS!!!

Is there a video I can watch so I can get a step by step tutorial.
This is the beginning of the end.

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Kaijugriffey
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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by Kaijugriffey »

BARAGONZILLA wrote:
THANKS A MILLION GUYS!!!

Is there a video I can watch so I can get a step by step tutorial.
This is a good simple example of the basics. He is showing how to do "mock ups" out of cardboard. Honestly for what you are looking to do a slightly higher grade cardstock is a nice yet cheap choice. Depending on the figure you are messing with they run between 1:150 scale and 1:200'ish. You get a "close enough" match with N scale which is 1:160 and Z scale which is 1:220. If you want to spend a little money to make life easier you can get a Model Railroad Scale Ruler. This is a normal metal ruler but instead of being calibrated in inches and centimeters it is marked out in feet or meters in the various scales. So you can easily make a 100' building with no math conversions.

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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by BARAGONZILLA »

Kaijugriffey wrote:
BARAGONZILLA wrote:
THANKS A MILLION GUYS!!!

Is there a video I can watch so I can get a step by step tutorial.
This is a good simple example of the basics. He is showing how to do "mock ups" out of cardboard. Honestly for what you are looking to do a slightly higher grade cardstock is a nice yet cheap choice. Depending on the figure you are messing with they run between 1:150 scale and 1:200'ish. You get a "close enough" match with N scale which is 1:160 and Z scale which is 1:220. If you want to spend a little money to make life easier you can get a Model Railroad Scale Ruler. This is a normal metal ruler but instead of being calibrated in inches and centimeters it is marked out in feet or meters in the various scales. So you can easily make a 100' building with no math conversions.
Thanks man!!!!
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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by MoarCrossovers »

What scale of model railways buildings should I purchase in order to be in scale with the SHMA vehicles?
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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by ILL GREEN »

For SHMA stuff, 1:500 seems about right, though sometimes you can get away using Z scale.

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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by Vankor »

Birdman wrote:What scale of model railways buildings should I purchase in order to be in scale with the SHMA vehicles?
SHMA Godzilla stuff is roughly between 1/600 and 1/700 scale. Rebirth is 1/656 to be exact, but as far as I know there are no model railroad sets in this scale.

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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by ILL GREEN »

No, but there are specialty architech stores that have those supplies, if you wanna go the technical route and build your own from scratch. Some have cars and people up to 1:1000 scale too but thats like dust particles so becareful.

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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by BARAGONZILLA »

If you need help making buildings, you can go to clever models.com, you can get layouts you cut out. They aren't too expensive. Kits are about $5. But you can customize them. They have n scale buildings which work pretty good.
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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by BARAGONZILLA »

http://skyscrapermodels.us/models/model_main.html

I found an extremely cool site you guys might like. It makes getting buildings a lot easier!
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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by Dyrakro »

Does anybody know where to get tanks that have a good size for a kaiju diorama? Most of them are either too big or expensive - or both!
:?

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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by ILL GREEN »

I bought 4 N scale military Japanese tanks from Hobby Search last year. I'm checking now and they're all gone. Smallest tanks they have are 1:48 now. You need the 1:144 or 1:150 scale for kaiju 11 inches or more. However, hlj.com has the 1989 Mazer at 1:144 scale. That should hold you down for a while until N scale tanks pop up again. And don't be discourage if tanks look too big, in reality tanks and mazers are freekin huge.

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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by Breakdown »

@ BARAGONZILLA and anyone else interested in how to make building ruins and rubble effects

There's a method called "Flocking" which you spread glue (or wood glue depending on the base you're using) and you sprinkle various grits of sand and other materiel to give the illusion of rubble or stone. I do this with my Warhammer 40k terrain. An effective way to make rubble is to get a plastic cup and fill it with fine, medium, and heavy grit sand. Then add plaster chips, crushed eggshells and cut up metal screens. Then, add glue to the base of your diorama and carefully sprinkle the mixture onto the glue.

Alternatively there's "Rubble Paste" in which you use the cup of materiel I listed above, but this time you add PVC glue and black paint. Add a proportional amount of paint and glue to get a good thickness without clogging up detail. After you're done, use a brush or popsicle stick to spread the paste where you want piles of rubble.

To make ruined buildings, use relatively thin sheets of cork and cut out the shapes of the buildings you want as well as any damaged areas you want. Once you're done that, use the edge of an X-acto knife and scrape the edges of the damaged sections of your buildings to make them looked crumbled. Afterwards you can also add metal wire or toothpicks to simulate steel girders or concrete rebar.

If done right, you should come out with results like this, these being terrain pieces for tabletop Warhammer 40k. Note that you might have to scale down your buildings due to Kaiju being massive.

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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by TheRadness »

I decided to have a go at some of those destruction buildling from the G14 playset, scaling is off but I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out.

Used spray paint, a sharpie a lighter and a nail.

Hope you guys dig em.

Image

Image


They aren't in scale or anything I'm sure, but I'm glad I could do something cool with an otherwise lackluster bit of the collection.

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Re: City Diorama / Buildings for Kaiju Figures

Post by ILL GREEN »

Damn good, really looks like fire. Should've done a before and after pic. But whutcanya do. You did it. You take the heat.

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