Final photos of this diorama.

 It was a great journey

 

Its time to create the final set up.

 The tree was made from natural tree parts and photoetched leaves.

First posing of figures in its permanent diorama display

        Some more figures from various brands mostly Stalingrad,Miniart and Masterbox with minor         convertions

   Adding moisture and dry leaves to the pavement 

 

Finding the right way to tell a story with no words.....

I scratchbuilt an opened suitcase to add more drama to the scene

The basic scene is in place at last

 Opel blitz

It's the all time classic kit from Italeri with an Eduard photo-eched set and some homemade  additions specially to the hood to looks more realistic.

Some photos of the contruction stage

                                                               ready for some color

and some more of the finished truck

Varius brown colors and transparent washes create all the shadows needed  for a realistic brick wall. All details painted separate and glued in plase after the weathering. Only a filter applied as a final step to unify all different colors in a balanced result

some details of the number 263 building

                        Painting the pavement wasn't much different except from the colors used

And the first test with all diorama's masonry painted 

Adding more shadows and dust 

 

CONSTRUCTION

Honestly, I had almost a year of efforts until I managed to find the material to build successfully the facades. I tried balsa, cardboard, thin laminated wood and cork sheets. None of them had worked for me. I decided to build it from plastic (a material which I am very familiar with) and finally felt pleased with the outcome. A lot of measurements had to be made to be historical accurate and keep the diorama in a practical size without a lot of dead spaces.

First photos are Anne Frank's building where the hideout was in Pinscengracht 263. 

     

         Next photo is Pinscengracht 261 building facade. The basement nowdays is a restaurant 

Buidings in its permanent position with window frames, windows and doors, all according to historical photos

Next comes the road section with the characteristic standard pavement of a Dutch street which gave me a lot of fuzzy thoughts on how to curve it correctlly. 

   The embankment wall  was the easiest and fastest part as it was the last to build and I have already      been used to cut brick and pavement sections in a plastic sheet.

The final setting of the major parts on my diorama

It looks like a lot with the original street section after some efforts and 18 months of testing since I decided this to become  my next project:)

 

 ITS TIME FOR SOMETHING NEW

After a long time I decided to continue the presentation of my work throughout this blog.

Choosing to be absent and without an account in social media I feel it's the right moment to give this blog an extra push. 

Frozen Goulash was my last diorama project for almost two and a half years. Business and family have taken up most of my time for a long period but things seems to be in the right order right know.

A diorama I had in my mind for a long time started. The idea came from reading 'The Anne Frank diary'  book. My new project is the Anne Frank real house that she has been hidding for almost three years through the German occupation in Amsterdam.The building still exists so I found a lot of reference photos and with the help of Google Earth I could have a perspective of the street where the house is. I have lived in Holland for almost a year at 2002 and I obtained the sense of the Dutch architecture and colors of the city.

The colored house in the next photo is Anne Frank's and it is a museum nowdays. The address is Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam.

Some photos of the street at present.

The next photo is the oldest one I could find and it is taken a while after WW2 so it's my basic reference for the architecture of the buildings in my diorama. The building at its present condition has some slight changes from the condition at 1940's, mainly at the entrance from which my reference photo shows.

next post will be construction.