Marvel SS/HT diorama. PICS!

rileyreplicas · Aug 3, 2016

Hello everyone! New guy here! here is a bit about myself, I am a full time artist, mainly prop replicas and tradeshow booths but I also do dioramas from time to time. That is actually how I got into doing my art was making dioramas 15 years ago for Toyfare magazine, mainly twisted toyfare theater ( I am sure some of you older guys know what I am talking about!) LOL

I was recently commissioned to make a diorama for a client that has close to 30 sideshow / hot toys Marvel figures. The only requirements were that it be a generic scene, nothing specific to a movie and have lots of room to display the figures in various positions. The piece is 4 feet deep by 10 feet long and close to 4 feet tall. I went with a generic building on the left, a coffee shop in the middle and a theater on the other end.

With this display I wanted it to be fun! Even though it will have tons of action once the client puts his collection of figures in it, Marvel has a way of making their movies fun and not filled with doom and gloom so I wanted to make sure to bring that into this piece. Simple things such as newspaper boxes that have headlines about the various super heroes ( and even other movie franchises) to the theater that had to be named EXCELSIOR for Stan Lee! The theater has letters that can be changed out so the client can have whatever movie he wants showing and I also provided 8 different posters so he can change them out as well!

Thanks so much for looking and enjoy! If anyone has any questions about the build feel free to ask away! By the way the 3 soldiers are just there to show the scale of the display.

hoodonit00 · Aug 3, 2016

Hey it looks great. Really like the fire effects. Ask your client if he can send you pics when it's done so we can see it.

SF Officer · Aug 3, 2016

I remember your work in Toyfare. It was always impressive.

What types of materials did you use in the build? Are the props hand-made? Or did you find them in stores?

rileyreplicas · Aug 3, 2016

Thanks for the kind words guys! Yes, I will ask the client if he can send pics of the diorama once it is set up. Right now it looks kind of like a ghost town without all the figures in action! I have a HT Groot and Rocket but they did not look right in this set up

As for the props I usually just find what I can first and then what I can't find I make. The newspaper boxes I made along with the signage. Little things like the AC unit hanging out the window, street grates etc. I made. The cars are 1/6 th scale cars that I found online that I then destroyed. The hydrants I was lucky and found the correct scale. Other things like the "port hole" windows in the doors of the Excelsior theater are the round grommets that are put in the tops of desks to run wires through. Most of this build is made from wood or foam. The theater is wood so that the client can attach supports to it and then have the figures "flying" above everything. Other things that were repurposed items were the marquee signs, those are light up signs from Michaels craft store. You buy the letters and write what you want on them, those worked perfectly for this! The movie poster frames are actually picture frames that I used. Those are backlit like real movie posters are.

Lumos · Aug 3, 2016

Hooooooooly &#%$.

:thud:

I wish I had the space for something like this. This is....no words. But I'm eventually hoping to have diorama bases in my IKEA shelves. I want dioramas for my figures. They look fine just standing there, but...eh. Bit boring.