I have always been impressed with Bob Letterman’s huge diorama’s and have always wanted to construct one for myself. The first time I saw his “Twilight of the Third Reich” diorama, which featured a French town that was occupied by German forces, was in a Finescale Modeler issue back in 1992 in at which I was in awe and kind of inspired me to build diorama’s. A few years ago I purchased Super Dioramas and noticed that the original diorama was called “Legacies” which showed US forces going through the same French town with General Patton leading the force across a bridge.
I have since studied the pictures and construction processes to build the “Legacies” diorama in at which I have started scratch building the structures first to build my own version of the “Legacies” diorama. I will make the buildings with different features so it doesn’t look like the original “Legacies” diorama. Once I have about 50% of the structures completed I will start to construct the base. This is first time I have constructed buildings this large. I have scratch built buildings for a model railroad before, but they were at a much smaller scale and consisted mainly of styrene. I have always liked scratch building structures since it makes it unique to what the modeler wants and is something different from the typical kits out there.
The buildings in the pictures below are built out of foamboard, styrene, resin, balsa and artist acrylic paste to simulate stucco and stone. I still need to weather the outside of the first building, add the business signs and posters, gutters need to be installed and put grayish black rock on the roof. I will construct a module for the interior on the first floor at which will house a European art store. I am open to opinions since this is the first time I have constructed buildings using these materials and have never constructed European buildings. I will start building a clock tower building next month. I am liking the results so far. Thanks for looking.
Those are very impressive! It will be really cool to see the ads and weathering on the completed one, I bet that will really tie it all together.
I’m intrigued by the unfinished one. Is it all foam board? I can’t tell what materials it has on it now. The stairs look great. If my opinion is worth anything, I think that one would look great finished in a mixture of brick and stone.
Sorry for the late reply, just been busy with work and the large scale diorama that I am working on. For your question about the second structure is made up of, it is all plain white foam board that you can get at Hobby Lobby, Micheals, and etc. Once I get the basic shape of the structure I then go onto cutting out window and door openings, spray paint the interior black and then apply artist acrylic paste to the outside. I then sand down the entire structure and paint the outside. From then on, it all about adding large and small details to the building.
Here are three new photos of the progress on the second building. It is nearing completion somewhat. I still need to add the clear styrene to the upper floor windows along with permanently attaching the railing as well. I have to also attach the large billboard to the roof of the building along with letters and beer bottle. I probably won’t add the signs and do the weathering until I get the next two buildings done at which will be a restaurant and clock tower/cigar store. I will try to post some pictures of the next two buildings that I currently working on.
Also, can anybody please let me know if the wording layout is correct for the large billboard display at which is in french - “BRIGAND VEND LES BIERES.” I want to make sure it says “BRIGAND SELLS BEER” before I permanently set the letters in place onto the billboard frame. Thanks.
Sorry for the late reply, just been busy with work and the large scale diorama that I am working on. For your question about the second structure is made up of, it is all plain white foam board that you can get at Hobby Lobby, Micheals, and etc. Once I get the basic shape of the structure I then go onto cutting out window and door openings, spray paint the interior black and then apply artist acrylic paste to the outside. I then sand down the entire structure and paint the outside. From then on, it all about adding large and small details to the building.
Wow those are impressive!! I always wanted to do something similar as well just not there yet with my skills. Have you thought about lighting the buildings? I would think a large scene with lights or maybe streetlights would make a very cool nighttime or dusk scene.
Simply incredible, stunning! The work of a lifetime. The level of precision and patience going into this is boggling my mind. I am very eager to see how this comes together on the base.
How many figures and armor pieces have you got in mind?
