Here is a simply fantastic diorama made by a web visitor (Toby) and my thanks go to him for letting me know about this project and for sending the pics and information about it. As you can see it depicts a scene from the Lord of the Rings (The battle of the Five Armies). And there a couple of things about this diorama that make it pretty special. First off he did an absolutely terrific job with the terrain. He made the mountain ot of plaster cloth and the figures are game pieces for the lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

Isn't that a terrific way to make use of a game? Turn it into a diorama, or use some of the pieces for a diorama. If you want to see more of this diroama you can check out his blog here:
https://nissesummit.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/diorama-the-battle-of-five-armies/

One challenge that you face when making a diorama of a scene from a book or a movie is the challenge of scale. To do something like this accurately would mean a diorama the size of a house! Well, not many of us can build a diorama of that size so we have to tinker with the scale and size it down. And this is what Toby did here. You don't need to build the whole mountain! You can build enough to give you a good sense of the scene. And then have some space for the battle. Voila! The whole magic of dioramas!

Let's take a look at the Armies!

The Elven Archers

Humans, Goblins and a Warg

A Painted Elven Archer

A Painted Dwarf

Want to see another Lord of the Rings Diorama?

An Amazing Lord of the Rings Diorama -with a Christmas Theme (Gandalf is Santa!) I absolutely love this diorama submitted by a web visitor. It is stunning and was 280 hours of work. If you are a fan of dioramas or of Lord of the rings you have got to check this diorama out. The Lord of the Rings Christmas Diorama

Spring in the Alps Shadow Box Diorama

I love shadowboxes. They are so unique. Frank has made a wonderful one and you can check it out right here: Spring in the Alps

The Water Wheel Diorama

I love dioramas with water effects. And Frank has done an amazing job with this one. He used a lot of common materials to make it including the water and the waterfall. Check it out here.