How To Make Dioramas

Making Dioramas is a wonderful hobby that can exhibit an extraordinary wide range of creativity. You can make a diorama of almost any scene your mind can imagine. Here are tips, tutorials and example dioramas that will help you to make your own dioramas. There is also a tutorial of "The battle for the treasure". It is a wizard battling three skeletons for a treasure and in this tutorial I take you through all the steps of making a really great looking diorama. There are lots of pictures and a clear explanation of everything you need to do from start to finish including wiring it up for lights!

How to use cork to make great looking rubble on your diorama
This is terrific for battle scenes, or broken down and run down towns and areas of your diorama. Cork is very useful and looks great. Here is the complete tutorial including painting tips and a video. Rubble Diorama

Make a cemetary Diorama
This is a nice spooky diorama with gravestones, a creepy fence and a small mausoleum. I show lots of tips on using everyday materials like popsicle sticks and toothpicks. I also have a video with this tutorial. Cemetary Diorama

A Wizards Tower Diorama that I also made a video game of! This is a tutorial on using foam to make dioramas. Here is where the tutorial starts and here is the video that also shows about a minute of footage with me playing the video game. I have to get into the tower, get the fire staff, and slay the dragon.! Fun, multi-discipline project.

New Project: I used the motor from a ten dollar remote control car to automate the drawbridge. It goes up and down. Neat project and I show you how to do it. I also have a video that shows it in action. Motorizing a Diorama Tutorial

Making Rubber Molds

How to make rubber molds for your diorama. A great way to make rocks, cliffs, cliff formations and castle walls. Easy to do with latex rubber. You just brush it on. How to make rubber molds

A Miniature tree How to make miniature trees for dioramas and model railroads. I show you the traditional way to do it and I show you some improvisations so you can make trees with materials found around the house. How to make miniature trees

A user submitted creative suggestion. Being creative when using materials to make landscapes. This diorama landscape came out superb. I have more pics and suggestions on being creative with your diorama making here. Creative Diorama Making

New Tutorial: (July 1, 08) How to make trenches in your diorama. Particularly good for military and battle scene dioramas - Just plan ahead and build the structure around the trench. Video shows how to do it.

Frodo Diorama

Are you a collector of Miniatures and Dioramas? Sideshow Collectibles has some beautiful Dioramas for Lord of the Rings. I have a page with pictures and information here: Sideshow Collectible LOTR Dioramas

Some tips on building a diorama like this awesome halo diorama. This isn't my diorama. Somebody asked me for tips on how to build one like this. I lay out some solid help that shows how to make the base using sculpting foam. Nice looking diorama and really sets a great scene. Here is the tutorial on how to do something like this

I am currently working on a diorama of the Battle of Thermopylae where the 300 Spartans made their last stand. I have also transformed it into a tutorial that shows all the basics of how to make a diorama. It is not complete yet but there is quite a bit of great diorama making information there. The Battle of Thermopylae Diorama

A Video of my six foot Medieval Castle Diorama - This video shows my diorama which has a working waterfall and lights in both the castle and the evil mountain. Medieval Castle Diorama Video

A guest artist has combines his love of painting with the art of Diorama making. He has put together a nice tutorial on how to take a painting and transform it into a shadowbox style diorama. But this isn't as far as he goes. He also shows us some really nice trick of the eye techniques for making the diorama extra special Dioramas from your paintings

Ocean Diorama

This is a unique little ocean diorama shaped like the porthole of a submarine and made out of a cookie tin. I have full instructions and artwork for you to print and make. Easy and fun project. A new take on the ocean diorama. Imagine looking out the porthole of your submarine and discovering Atlantis! Now you can. Ocean Diorama

New Project: The FireFly Diorama

Firefly Diorama

This is a great little shoebox diorama that uses tiny blinking lights as fireflies. Battery operated and you can make it. See the project tutorial and the video of it in action Firefly Diorama

Here is a seven foot Diorama complete with castle, waterfall and working lights and sound. You can see more pictures of this diorama model here.

This model diorama is part of a free tutorial on how to make dioramas. It is complete from start to finish. It shows you how to design it, create the landscape shell, add the terrain and trees then add the miniatures. This tutorial has all the basic steps to making a model diorama. See the tutorial

A Shoebox Diorama - See the tutorial on how to make this nice diorama of a knight battling a dragon. The dragon is suspended in mid-air. One of the unique things about this diorama is that the shoebox is in the vertical position. This tutorial has everything you need including all the art work that you can print and color. A fun project.
ShoeBox diorama of knight and dragon battle

A Shadowbox Diorama project - This is a nice project that gets framed and hung on the wall. You can show off your miniatures in this shadowbox.
The Shadowbox tutorial

Painting Miniatures

Painting Miniatures Tutorial: If you are making dioramas and you have miniatures, whether it be military miniatures, Dungeon and Dragon Miniatures or just Fantasy Miniatures you know that painting them is one of the most important parts of the process. I have put together a tutorial on how to paint miniatures. Miniature Painting

Arabian Knights Diorama

Check out these dioramas submitted by a visitor to the website. They are a great example of creative use of materials.

A Thousand and One Nights

Model Dioramas

Check out the Diorama and Miniature store

Want to take your diorama making to new heights of realism? I have put together a selection of materials you can buy from amazon.com. These are great materials that hobbyists use to make really life like dioramas. The trees you see here are one of the kits. They look real don't they?

Woodland scenics Trees and more at Amazon.com They have all the materials you could need.

Diorama making is an extremely rewarding hobby and if you are looking for a way to learn even more and expand your skills to new heights here are a couple of books on the art and craft of diorama making.