HI EVERYBODY!!! This is my first post in this forum. I like to use my spare time building dioramas for my Pinkys to make spectacular photos. So I’m going to show you some of my creations the following days.
Please, be patient with my text. I’m from Barcelona, Spain, and the English language is not my best (my boyfriend is helping me writing this).
In this post I’m going to explain step by step how I am building my favorite diorama: The Gothic Cemetery.
The first thing to do to build a diorama is an information research to picture the look it’s going to have and also decide the main distances of each zone in the diorama through a draft layout or plan.
I used a notebook sheet of paper, which has a pre-printed grid, to design the main distribution because it is very handy to take some measurements without having to use a ruler. In my case, one square of the grid means 1x1 cm (0.39x0.39 inches) in the real world.
The next thing to do, once you have the idea of how it is going to be, is thinking about the materials you are going to use to build it. It’s false thinking that the more money you waste on the materials the more cute it’s going to be. I always try to recycle as much as possible using anything that is going to be thrown to the garbage bag.
01. BASIC VOLUMES. To do the basic volumes I used flat expanding polystyrene plates aka EPS (like the one used to pack TVs or fridges) and chalk (same you use to write on the school’s blackboard). They are cheap and easy to find materials. The tomb structure is also made in EPS.
02. BRICKS. 
- I used a cutter to cut the chalk like bricks, to build the walls.
- I polished the cut extremes to make them flat.
- Using a wet kitchen rag, I cleaned the bricks of chalk dust and rounded the edges.
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I placed the first bricks where I needed the wall to be finished to continue.
03. 1ST VERSION OF THE SQUARE. When I finished placing the first bricks, I decided to start the zone of the square, which is surrounded with stairs and has a kind of stone bench.
- At the very beginning I tried a black putty I bought in a modeling store to model de floor tiles, but it was a cr*p… I left that because it didn’t work as good as it said in the box. It would be better if I had used Supersculpey putty…
- Then I tried to fix it using a plastic cover of an old notebook (the floor tiles would be simple squares cut out with scissors).
- Finally I varnished the floor to make it more compact.
the result was not too convincing .
04. THE PORCH. 
- To build the columns of the porch I used chalk again, but this time, with a rounded profile. It was a little bit short compared with the height of a Pinky, so
I added a wood stick (you can find wood sticks at any handcraft store, with different profile shapes and sizes).
- I also bought the roof tiles and the stair bars in the same place.
- To decorate the porch
I modeled spiral shapes from a welding tin wire ,
(very easy to bend) using rounded pliers for the smallest parts. I painted them in white, which contrast on the black columns.
05. THE TREEThe tree is one of the most difficult and creative parts of the scene. I wanted it to have some kind of
Sleepy Hollow look.
I went to have a walk around a little forest near home and I gathered some
dried branches and roots .
- I cut the branches and I kept those that I thought that might be useful.
- To build the trunk I chose the couple that best fitted each other. I stuck both parts with glue and I hollowed the EPS floor to place the trunk in the hole. That way, the floor itself was the support and helped to keep it straight.
- Then I modeled the roots out from clay. When I was happy with the profile of the roots I covered them using the crust of the branches I gathered.
- The branches of the tree were made more or less in the same way. It took me a while, but having some patience… I got the base of the “Sleepy Hollow’s miniature tree!!”
06. FLOOR TILES- I finished
the wall using the chalk bricks.
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I marked the tile’s shape using cutter and ruler.
- I painted a first layer with enamel paint in gray, which was the base color of that zone. I also painted the lowest part of the scene using the same color.
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I built another wall, this time using stones instead of chalk bricks, to have more variety in the scene. I “borrowed” the stones from my mom’s garden, and the grass was a gift of my boyfriend, who bought it in a modeling shop.
My Pinkys check the work progress!! ^___^-
Yoshiko and the piano -
Artistic photo -
Group photo .
- I used ink to stain the tiles and darken the edges. Ink gives a gradient touch and gets a kind of depth sense. In this zone I painted the chalk bricks in black and the railing in white. I also added a transparent stone on the wall to use it as a shelf
NOTE 1: I had a problem with the paint. I used as a base color a dissolvent based paint which repelled the ink, so the first try was a disaster. Finally I changed the paint for a water based paint to fix that mess.
[i] NOTE 2: I had an incident while I was painting that you should keep in mind if you ever try to build a diorama like mine. I spilled a dissolvent pool over one of the tiles, which is made of EPS. What a mistake! The dissolvent ate the EPS floor like acid and I got a very deep hole, just like a well. Y_Y Thanks God, The stain only affected one tile, so I could replace it cutting another part of EPS. In cases like this one, is better to relax and don’t loose the nerves.
07. ARC ZONE-
Draft sketch and first bricks with chalk to distribute the space.
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I thought how was I going to shape the arc while I went placing the chalk , this way I had an idea of the heights.
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I did the railings and the arc. -
Photo : I painted the chalk with gray Chinese ink; I also painted the railings in white and then I glued some mosaic ceramic.
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Photo : Last arc stones and ink layer.
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General plan My Pinkys check the work progress!! ^___^
Arc from the inside Arc from the outside Yoshiko and Moe Nori and Maki at the porch Unfinished tomb .
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OK now!
The diorama is much more advanced, but my boyfriend is tired of the text translation… I will keep posting the progress. Check out how did I remodelled the square, modified the porch, finished the stairs and the most important part, the creation of the tomb and the cemetery zone!
See you!
Author
It's so detailed and really looks like the real thing! 
If you make more Dioramas, I can't wait to see them! I'm already a fan of your work! 
But I have not finished them already. These customs are for my Gothic Cemetery and I have more spectacular surprises about them… 
hehehe But first I must finish another pinky’s works. 
