If street scenes make the diorama-and they do-then what makes the street scenes…and how?
Another population increase is heading for Wardglenn CA, and in this installment of my li’l blog I’m going to demonstrate the process I go through from start to finish to add 3D-Printed figures to my diorama. Painting these figures individually can be a challenge, and the results are rarely perfect (note that the high-rez camera can pick up defects your naked eyes could never see!) but as with building a slot car, this is my idea of fun.
This latest order of figgys from one of my usual vendors was a group of 10. They are all men this time, which is unusual, since I almost always have some ladies thrown in as well, although admittedly about 2/3 of the figs on the diorama are men because-well, ever been to a race track in real life? That’s about the ratio you’ll see! Some of these were fairly easy to paint, but this group included a couple of more elaborately-shaped figures that were a real challenge to get looking right.
In general, figures that are standing straight with hands at their sides or outstretched in some way are amongst the easier ones to paint. It gets more challenging when you have limbs that separate and rejoin, such as people with crossed arms or legs; it gets even morechallenging when they are holding objects in their hands, like bottles or tools, and the most difficult pieces of all are the ones with an object held but also touching the body, like a cel phone or-in the case of one of these figures here-a jaunty lad with a jacket slung over his shoulder.
So here’s a demo of what it takes to make a group of 10 solid gray figures pop with realism and bring your diorama to life.
And the still shots of the finished guys in situ abound throughout this post!
Like I said, you will see imperfections in the photos, primarily areas of unpainted gray showing between where the colors meet, but to the naked eye these gaps are very hard to see, and on the diorama they all look really good. You’ve seen plenty of shots of other figures I’ve made, but now you’ve seen the process from start to finish!
On a diorama, the figures are as important as the cars or anything else to really bring the layout to life; without them, something is definitely missing. Finished 1:64 scale figures were hard to find and very expensive, but thanks to 3D printing, the selection has now gotten quite good-there are hundreds of different figures to choose from-and they are an affordable way to up your diorama game, if you can spend the time and develop the skill to make them look right. I have no doubt there’s room for improvement in what I’m doing, but overall, I think these guys all turned out all right!
Definitely check out this link to see what is available, and get your paint and brushes ready; with some effort and practice, your 1:64 scenes “down on the street” will look like the real thing!
Thanks for that step by step video! That was very cool to see how you have been doing these folks and I really think that you have gotten good about that. I would think that painting these guys could be relaxing in the way of focusing on the task at hand and picking colors for each one. That’s how I feel about some of the aspect of landscaping my set up. I see your vendor has some really cool stuff for sale! I’m seeing more O Scale figures now which is cool. I honestly think they came out great!