Post by ozmac on May 7, 2022 17:01:06 GMT -5
I can't believe all the photos I have of this Art Deco diorama project are dated 2016. I thought maybe it had gone onto the backburner maybe four years go. But six? Can't quite believe it. Anyway, it's back on my "to do" list.
Multi-part inspiration for the whole thing, which is set during the Berlin Olympics of 1936. I was reading a biography of a famous Australian journalist, Alan Moorehead, who on his first assignment overseas not only narrowly escaped death in the Spanish Civil War, then landed on his feet in Berlin in 1936, for the Olympics. Quite the first year of work experience, eh?
Pictured above is the art deco theatre (still standing) in Tasmania that I knew would be an ideal setting for a diorama of my young Aussie journo going out on a date to the movies in Berlin in 1936. I couldn't decide whether he and his lady friend would catch the bus to the movies (most likely) or somehow borrow a car, so I went for all three options, just to be safe.
First, the bus. Built specially for the Olympics, this Opel bus (in 1:72 scale) has very cool art deco fins.
And so given fins were the "in" thing in 1936, this Tatra car built from a plastic model might be our boy's very lucky find. Otherwise it belongs to a rich official who's going to the same movie.
However, if all our boy could find was a normal person's car to borrow, I converted this model of an Olympia military vehicle into something more modest yet still a bit swish, suited to a date night.
And here's our journo with his lady friend, and it looks like it's the Olympia car for them.
My collection of movie-goers are based on assorted super-cheap plastic figures made in China, bought on eBay, lovingly hand-painted by me over many hours.
My favourite characters were sexy lady in red, and the two burly nurses enjoying an evening away from the hospital.
When I last did any work on the whole thing, I had got to mock-up stage, drawing up the facade of the theatre, adding some posters and people.
Finding movie posters from that era proved an education. All these are of movies from the 20s and 30s. Some look very modern still.
And if I remember correctly, I was experimenting with how to create a cement render look for the outside of the theatre when life interrupted all my fun. White paint applied with a coarse textured foam roller, while still wet it's then sprinkled with Johnson's Baby Powder through a sieve and instant cement render!
Well, all that was 6 years ago, but lately I've been watching an Australian TV series called "Tiny Oz" on some amazing non-motoring dioramas (or at least, not many cars are involved), and not only am I re-inspired, I've got my confidence back. As I watched the TV series, I saw that their expert diorama makers were using many of the same methods and tools that I use. I found mine on YouTube videos mostly, but it seems like I am not that far off the mark, for a newbie to the many fine arts of dio making.
It was back in 2016 that my wife's elderly mother started to have a whole range of new and serious health problems, and all my spare time got gobbled up taking her to appointments, then slowly but surely taking over the management of all the other details of the old girl's life. She's still going strong, 93 going on 94 now, and she's now safe in a well-run nursing home enjoying a very good quality of care.
It's Mothers Day today, so I won't be making a start on the diorama today, I'll be visiting her instead.
But at least I've dusted off all the photos, found all the models and components stored in little metal boxes, and I am ready to get back into some Art Deco style diorama making again.
Multi-part inspiration for the whole thing, which is set during the Berlin Olympics of 1936. I was reading a biography of a famous Australian journalist, Alan Moorehead, who on his first assignment overseas not only narrowly escaped death in the Spanish Civil War, then landed on his feet in Berlin in 1936, for the Olympics. Quite the first year of work experience, eh?
Pictured above is the art deco theatre (still standing) in Tasmania that I knew would be an ideal setting for a diorama of my young Aussie journo going out on a date to the movies in Berlin in 1936. I couldn't decide whether he and his lady friend would catch the bus to the movies (most likely) or somehow borrow a car, so I went for all three options, just to be safe.
First, the bus. Built specially for the Olympics, this Opel bus (in 1:72 scale) has very cool art deco fins.
And so given fins were the "in" thing in 1936, this Tatra car built from a plastic model might be our boy's very lucky find. Otherwise it belongs to a rich official who's going to the same movie.
However, if all our boy could find was a normal person's car to borrow, I converted this model of an Olympia military vehicle into something more modest yet still a bit swish, suited to a date night.
And here's our journo with his lady friend, and it looks like it's the Olympia car for them.
My collection of movie-goers are based on assorted super-cheap plastic figures made in China, bought on eBay, lovingly hand-painted by me over many hours.
My favourite characters were sexy lady in red, and the two burly nurses enjoying an evening away from the hospital.
When I last did any work on the whole thing, I had got to mock-up stage, drawing up the facade of the theatre, adding some posters and people.
Finding movie posters from that era proved an education. All these are of movies from the 20s and 30s. Some look very modern still.
And if I remember correctly, I was experimenting with how to create a cement render look for the outside of the theatre when life interrupted all my fun. White paint applied with a coarse textured foam roller, while still wet it's then sprinkled with Johnson's Baby Powder through a sieve and instant cement render!
Well, all that was 6 years ago, but lately I've been watching an Australian TV series called "Tiny Oz" on some amazing non-motoring dioramas (or at least, not many cars are involved), and not only am I re-inspired, I've got my confidence back. As I watched the TV series, I saw that their expert diorama makers were using many of the same methods and tools that I use. I found mine on YouTube videos mostly, but it seems like I am not that far off the mark, for a newbie to the many fine arts of dio making.
It was back in 2016 that my wife's elderly mother started to have a whole range of new and serious health problems, and all my spare time got gobbled up taking her to appointments, then slowly but surely taking over the management of all the other details of the old girl's life. She's still going strong, 93 going on 94 now, and she's now safe in a well-run nursing home enjoying a very good quality of care.
It's Mothers Day today, so I won't be making a start on the diorama today, I'll be visiting her instead.
But at least I've dusted off all the photos, found all the models and components stored in little metal boxes, and I am ready to get back into some Art Deco style diorama making again.
It's the Titania Palast, built in the 1920 as a cinema and entertainment location in the southern Berlin district of Steglitz, where I grew up and which belonged after war to the American Sector of the divided city. 
