Water makes a lot of landscapes look better by giving them a sense of life and movement. In this diorama by Tom Simon, water is used to great effect in enhancing the look of the scene. In particular, the color gradient of the river and the widening flow of the waterfall are techniques that warrant imitation. With such great irrigation, I wonder why there are no crops in the field.
After I built my US Army Dodge WC54 ambulance, it deserved a proper historical context — a Battalion Aid Station in a ruined farmhouse courtyard.
In the US Army, Battalion Aid Stations are the first line of medical treatment after battlefield first aid by medics or fellow soldiers. Wars of the 20th-century saw many conscientious objectors serving as non-combatants in the American armed forces, often as medics. Army medics served heroically, charging into battle alongside their armed comrades. Eleven received the Congressional Medal of Honor as a result of their actions in World War II.
My Battalion Aid Station is based on historical photographs from the Western Front in 1944 and 1945, after the Normandy Invasion on D-Day. Naturally, I had to convert a couple of the more immersive shots into black and white:
Though the muddy lane with the M3 half-track and hedgerow was an afterthought — one that nearly emptied my bin of plant pieces — I’m quite pleased with the result:
Because the subject matter fascinates me so much, I built a great deal of detail into this that you can’t see in a single photo. Check out the photoset on Flickr for more.
(I’ll be discussing some of the build process for my improved ambulance separately, because I think the role of constructive criticism in improving one’s models is something that deserves its own post.)
I was going to delay posting this to leave the 5th birthday post at the top of the page for longer but decided that we are here because we highlight cool LEGO models. Marco Tagliaferri (Tagl) demonstrates a lovely addition to the popular moonbase standard in the form of this transit spine standard. It feels so real.
And he has instructions to boot.
Matija Grguric made some quality buildings for the City Diorama at Kockice Expo 2010. The brightly colored structures really added a liveliness to the city. I recommend checking out the diorama by clicking on the picture below.
Being a minifigure in lolas‘s word has its ups and downs–but I daresay there are certainly more downs. How could there not be? He calls this the Land of Eternal Bad Luck!
This diorama includes some of his previous works, each just as lovely as the next. The Leaning Tower, Cape of No Hope, and After the Storm all help make up the larger work.
I’m a sucker for landscaping. I like when it adds to the scene, and helps amplify it. Johnathon Gilbert‘s creation does just that for me:
It has a sense of action, and makes me wonder what would happen if they lost their balance on that log! The implied movement in the water tells me it might not be pretty…
A group of Japanese builders including MisaQa and Kotaro “EARL-0″ Ono constructed this epic fantasy world. And if this much work went into a sketch of the project, it shouldn’t come as a surprise the awesomeness of the finished work.
Igor Krainovic and Karlo Toth built a pirates diorama for the Kockice Expo. Not shown in the pic are more ships and islands, which you can see in the full gallery on MOCpages.
The construction and presentation of this hornet battle bug arrangement by Lino Martins called Protector of the Great Queen is pretty fearsome. Lino keeps rewarding the viewer with fun techniques hidden in the foliage like Jar Jar heads as the base of a plant.
Ever wonder why creations with the LUGpol logo are so awesome? If you are in Warsaw on July 10 and 11, you can stop by the Museum Of Technology (Muzeum Techniki) to see the best LUGPol creations in person and mingle with their members. The exhibit lasts until the end of September and features creations from varied themes and includes large city, castle, and Star Wars dioramas and much more.
There’s something about the controlled chaos in Kevin Fedde‘s Rogue Castle that just grabs my attention. Good guys, bad guys, unsuspecting sailors, and fantastic work on the architecture of the castle itself. It all just works for me.
Perspective can be the difference between a decent photo of a good creation, and something fantastic. Take the photo below by Mike Yoder, for example. He’s taken a photo of his diorama from a perspective that makes it feel truly immersive. There are a few elements in the close foreground to frame the rest of what we can see, which is action in the near ground as well as some interesting detail in the distance.
This makes me want to build a diorama to take photos of some of my space ships in. It’s a real encouragement to step it up.
