Walls Up
Updated: Nov 25, 2020
Growing up, I spent countless hours watching Popin’ Cookin’ videos on YouTube. This fascination quickly grew to miniature terrariums, dollhouses, and even houses made out of real cement and brick!
It’s been a hot minute since I first tried my hand at crafting my own dioramas. I’m still absorbing as much as I can, and I’d love to learn with you! If you’re also just starting out, or would just like to critique/compliment my work, stick around.
The beauty about diorama crafting is the end result of all the time and effort you've put in. And if you're lucky, the parts you want to create could end up being inexpensive as well!
Some of my first few projects were a couple of wall prototypes. Before I owned an engineer’s square, I could never cut lines that weren’t slanted. Now, my lines are still slanted but I only have myself to blame. ;) All jokes aside though, a T-square/engineer’s square is really useful, especially for kindreds who have some sort of internal parallax error.
This was my first ever wall prototype. It started off promisingly until I attempted to carve the window and grate frames into the wall. That’s a near impossible task without an X-Acto knife.
Now, I’m sure my ideas aren’t new, but every time I stumble across a method like what I’m about to share, I thank the diorama gods on their XPS foam thrones.
I struggled for ages trying to figure out how to glue down cardboard in tiny strips without it lifting up. I eventually abandoned the finicky cardboard cereal boxes for its more stable cousin - the humble newspaper.
Newspapers are super easy to manipulate into whatever breadth you want! They also stick down like a charm. After that, it was just a matter of painting over it. A quick dry brush gave it the weathered, rusty look and we were good to go.
The grill frame was made out of the same method (folded newspaper) and the grills themselves out of completely free twisty wires you get when you purchase a small electronic item. Also, spot Winnie the Pennywise Pooh back there behind the grate.
Now that I got the fundamentals down, I can’t wait to make a wall out of appropriate proportions! This was a fun and fast project that is perfect for beginners.
What would a good next article be? I could chat more about my other dioramas with more work-in-progress photos, talk about the trials and tribulations of a beginner diorama crafter. Let me know and I’ll see what I can whip up! Subscribe to us and stay updated with our latests posts.
Stay safe and please, keep your fingers and toes inside the ride at all times ;)
Signing off,
Tillss