Diorama Design is a practical guide to design theory for modellers who like to build dioramas. Award winning modeller Ivar Kangur explains key design concepts and shows how to apply them, using actual dioramas as case studies. Diorama Design will teach you how to think like an artist and increase the visual impact of your dioramas. Fully illustrated with colour photographs.

Learn everything you need to know about making your dioramas look real! This fantastic revised edition will show you how with new projects, new photos, and expert tips. Includes painting, weathering, and detailing tips for figures, aircraft, vehicles, and more! By Sheperd Paine.

This book brings together in a unique perspective aspects of natural history dioramas, their history, construction and rationale, interpretation and educational importance, from a number of different countries, from the west coast of the USA, across Europe to China. It describes the journey of dioramas from their inception through development to visions of their future. A complementary journey is that of visitors and their individual sense making and construction of their understanding from their own starting points, often interacting with others (e.g. teachers, peers, parents) as well as media (e.g. labels). Dioramas have been, hitherto, a rather neglected area of museum exhibits but a renaissance is beginning for them and their educational importance in contributing to people’s understanding of the natural world. This volume showcases how dioramas can reach a wide audience and increase access to biological knowledge.

This book presents the history of natural history dioramas in museums, their building and science learning aspects, as well as current developments and their place in the visitor experience. From the early 1900s, with the passage of time and changes in cultural norms in societies, this genre of exhibits evolved in response to the changes in entertainment, expectations and expressed needs of museum visitors. The challenge has always been to provide meaningful, relevant experiences to visitors, and this is still the aim today. Dioramas are also increasingly valued as learning tools. Contributions in this book specifically focus on their educational potential. In practice, dioramas are used by a wide range of educational practitioners to assist learners in developing and understanding specific concepts, such as climate change, evolution or or conservation issues. In this learning process, dioramas not only contribute to scientific understanding and cultural awareness, but also reconnect wide audiences to the natural world and thereby contribute to the well-being of societies. In the simultaneously published book: “Natural History Dioramas – Traditional Exhibits for Current Educational Themes, Socio-cultural Aspects” the editors focus on socio-cultural issues and the potential of using dioramas to engage various audiences with – and in – contemporary debates and big issues, which society and the natural environment are facing.

The author of Ship Models from Kits “has brought nautical scenes to life in his latest book” (Daily Record). This book is about the art of displaying waterline models. By their very nature, ship models that do not show the full hull and are not mounted on an artificial stand cry out for a realistic setting. At its most basic this can be just a representation of the sea itself, but to give the model a context to tell some sort of story is far more challenging. In a diorama, the composition is a vital element and this book devotes much of its space to what works and what does not—and illustrates with photographic examples why the best maritime dioramas have visual power and how to achieve that impact. Individual chapters explore themes like having small craft in attendance on the main subject, multiple-model scenarios, dockyards and naval bases, and the difficulties of replicating naval combat realistically. It also looks at both extremes of modelmaking ambition: the small single-ship exposition and the largest, most ambitious projects of the kind meant for museum display. The book concludes with some of the most advanced concepts of how to create drama and the illusion of movement, and how to manipulate perspective. David Griffith’s book is “compelling and inspiring . . . littered with practical examples of work in progress, simple dioramas to the most complex . . . I highly recommend it to all ship modellers without hesitation” (Scale Modelling Now).

The most impressive LEGO models often take careful planning (and lots of pieces), but with some inspiration, a little imagination, and a number of tried-and-true techniques, you too can turn bricks into a masterpiece.In The Art of LEGO® Design, author Jordan Schwartz explores LEGO as an artistic medium. This wide-ranging collection of creative techniques will help you craft your own amazing models as you learn to see the world through the eyes of some of the greatest LEGO builders. Each concept is presented with a collection of impressive models to spark your imagination—like fantastic dragons, futuristic spaceships, expressive characters, and elaborate dioramas. You’ll discover some of the inventive techniques that LEGO artists use to: –Create lifelike creatures from unusual elements like inside-out tires and minifigure capes –Design sleek cars without showing a single stud –Add ambience to dioramas with light bricks or LEDs –Craft eye-catching textures to create cobblestone roads and brick walls –Build sturdy, detailed, posable mechs and other figures –Add depth with forced perspective and interesting silhouettes Interviews with the talented builders behind many of the book’s models reveal their thoughts on the design process and what inspires them most. Even if you’ve been building with LEGO since you could crawl, you’ll find new inspiration in The Art of LEGO® Design.