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Every year, I build a diorama and enter into the prestigious Ropecon miniatures painting contest. This year, with this.



I was inspired by the classic Agatha Christie sort of moment, where everyone's gathered in the drawing room, and the detective goes through the course of events. I've always loved those scenes and have even considered writing a series of short stories featuring nothing but those moments. So it's only right I try to make a diorama out of it. The specific impetus for this project came when, while looking for a Sherlock Holmes mini for a project, I came across a pack of Pulp Figures detectives including the Poirot lookalike you see here.

I decided to build a room diorama with one standing wall, depicting the detective as having just arrived, and letting me add some visual interest with a doorway, painting and a fireplace. But then I was struck by an idea. What to do with the flip side of the wall? Just flat black "masked-out"? Could I instead make the scene work from two directions? And, if possible, present a different take on it when thus viewed? The answer was simple, in the end.



Christie has always been popular on the stage, and I had a lot of fun with building the wooden framework to support the flats, and the bench, actors' noticeboard and some pieces of backstage clutter. I kind of wish I'd done even more, maybe a neon "Exit" sign, fire extinguisher or a janitor having a sneaky cigarette.

Incidentally, the murderer is present on the stage, though it's not obvious from this angle.

A bit on the bland side but I love the movie-set materials, etc. Nice execution.

I like it alot!
The meta meta, meta, with a diorama, of a behind the stage, of a kultural kliche is a really nice touch.
Well done.
The only Little thing Im sceptical about is the grey scale portrait.

Both the front and back portions of the diorama look kinda empty, however, other than that I really like this!
Good job.

Cool idea, how did it do?

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Cool idea, how did it do?

In the end, there could be only one. It was Pahvivalmiste with his rather spiffing Highlander dio (he posted his own thread here on Dakka shortly before me). :-P

 Fayric wrote:
I like it alot!
The meta meta, meta, with a diorama, of a behind the stage, of a kultural kliche is a really nice touch.
Well done.
The only Little thing Im sceptical about is the grey scale portrait.

Thank you, I really liked the idea of playing with meta levels by making a mockup of a fake fireplace, etc. :-P I kinda wish I'd gone fullscale surreal with the proportions, actually, maybe something like that Red Hot Chili Peppers video for ".Otherside".

The portrait was a bit of an in-joke, since it's a picture of Conan Doyle and I wrote my thesis on Sherlock Holmes. Alas, my usual methods of colorizing black and white prints didnt look that good on it for whatever reason, and pressures of time forced me to halfass it a bit, as I did with the rest of the scene, lack of furniture &such. Still, it was a lot of fun to build.

Well done!