Lite and Narrow Column - 10
A
good couple years after doing the first diorama set for
the Subway commercial, a call came from the movie
company again. They had another commercial to shoot
and wanted another diorama to use as a set!
This set was to be larger, both in size and scale, with the same
western theme. Instead of an open spaces type of set, they
wanted a western town in a larger scale than HO: we settled on
S scale.
There had to be two key structures on the set: a church and a
saloon. Everything else was left to my discretion.
In the two years since I constructed the previous set, more mate-
rial had become available to allow easier base construction of
the diorama. This time, I used rolls of large vinyl mats from
Woodland Scenics® in desert sand. These large mats made the
project less expensive as well.
I constructed a framework of 1” x 2” lumber and covered it with
¾” foam board glued into place using foam board construction
glue applied with a caulking gun. I attached the vinyl mat using
the same glue. I did leave a three inch loose edge of material on
the front of the diorama to avoid an abrupt edge on the front.
I found the structures to be the most time-consuming part of the
project, with me building a total of seven buildings from crafts-
man kits. I purchased four structures fromWild West Models
and three from BTS.
Larry Smith shared how he built a model
diorama for a TV commercial in his last
column – now, he gets to do it again! ...
Building amovie set, take 2
MRH-Oct 2014
