Sergio Leone Movie Set Diorama

[JohnReid]

I almost finished the interior ceiling ,the only thing left will be to do some shading with pastels after the sides are finished.I used some long thin coffee stir stiks and painted on some very thin nimbus gray /raw umber mix (95% gray,5% raw umber).I then glued them on with carpenters glue to the underlying cardboard roof that was pre-painted burnt umber .I left the boards really rough and warped for the aged look.When dry I took a pin and created holes in the wood in a random fashion, as though somebody had quickly nailed them up there at some point in the cars history ,for insulation purposes.I then used a ordinary HB pencil and twisted some graphite into each hole to represent a nail head.With a small brush I then took some very thin raw umber and put a small drop on each pin hole to swell the wood level again and add a little color.Next I mixed up a very thin wash of raw umber and with a stiff bristle tooth brush I flicked on some of this onto the ceiling.You could also have handy a thin wash of the gray and flick this on if things get too brownish.The trick here is knowing when to quit and not cover all of the underlying wood grain.
The next couple of steps require that you be subtle in your work and don't over do it.Take a thin burnt sienna wash and with a very small round brush randomly put drops onto the nails to represent varying degrees of rust.Rust you say!! in the desert? Well like I said earlier this car only ended up here.
Let it dry ,and then you can come back with another small brush and soften the rusty edges using a little burnt sienna chalk pastel.Also the ends of the boards tend to soak up a little color too.Now stand back a take a look If your not happy with the look you can always come back and flick on some more gray or raw umber if you want more color or to slightly change a shade.Here again you can play with this all day if you want.Have fun! The pics in my photobucket covers each of the steps involved.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Here we are getting close to the finished product.I added a little shading using black pastel applied very lightly with a small soft brush(kind of a miniature make up brush).Try to be very subtle about this ,try not to overdo it.
If you blow up the picture(all my pics are 2 megs at least) you will see that the underlying wood grain is still there which is most important for this technique.Each piece of wood retains its individual pattern and color ,no two are alike.
When I come to doing the luxury hardwood stuff on the other car, I will use no paint or stain just the natural colored wood, hand selected for grain,pattern and color.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

This is the opening scene from the movie and is from the film set that I am constructing now.It looks old and chaotic but everything here has been purposely selected for maximum impact on the viewer.Nothing is square or at right angles to the other.The colors,the lighting,the textures,even the old clothes line wheel, all have a role in creating the scene.The drama is created by the anticipation of who is behind the door ?What better way to open a film than the opening of a door ?

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

This is about the most you ever see of the other side of the set,taken from a camera high angle near the water tower.The wicket /WC (every station needs one)was created with original parts of the model.On the inside of the window was the old telegraph machine that got on everybodys nerves and was ripped out by a baddy.On a old railway car bench on the outside was where the now famous "fly on the face" scene took place.Next up will be the shed to be built over top of the old car.This should be fun!

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

I have a choice for set #2 ,Morton's car.I can use another passenger car like the one I am doing now or use this Bachmann passenger/baggage car.I am assuming here that they adapted an already built car for movie making purposes.It probably never happened this way but I like the idea ! This car will be on its wheels and a set built around it.
If I use the baggage car I will use one side of the already built car and adapt it to my purposes.It will not be the exact car from the movie but my interpretation of it.The passenger car section and part of the baggage area will be movie set.The rest of the baggage area will be a staging area.
I like the paint job as is ,except I will be modifying it .Most of the green I will keep but will matte spray it with acrylic sealer and then finish it using pastels.The roof area will be matte black including the area with the RR letters,I will replace them with something more appropriate. The car will be broken down and gutted so only the shell remains.The interior will be in Victorian luxury style with elements from the movie and the Disneyland train.I will install the unique brass tubing near the ceiling that Morton used to move around the car.On the prop side I will put a backdrop of Monument Valley to add to the atmosphere.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

I have doubled the set side of the train station /shacks width to be more like it is in the film.At first I thought it maybe was too wide but I set everything back up on the 40 inch circular table I use for reference at it looks fine.A mock-up cardboard roof has been added to work out the dimensions and angles.Because the cars roof is blocking any view of the shacks roof interior I can fake the roof and use well lacquered cardboard.I want to build it with a slight curve in it and then sheath the exterior with wood tongue depressors.The set side of the roof will be faked with only the ends built to a point where max camera angle would reveal it as such.

[JohnReid]

You know the modern dioramist (word?) is soo lucky ! I am surprised that more of us haven't really used all the tools available to us for research and especially for visual playin' around.Sitting here at my computer I have available to me, in my own home,all the possible visual reference I could ever want.I can scan for the minutest detail and teach myself things that only a few short years ago you would have to go to film school for and even then it would be filtered through a teacher who has his own biases.
This is really the golden age for visual artists who want to take advantage of all the tools now available to them.
I never in my wildest dreams thought that this level of research was possible until just recently.When I was a kid going to the Saturday movies, my buds and I would come home and act out what we saw in the movies.Endless hours of childhood arguments over who did what or how, can now be solved instantly.
This may or may not be a good thing for our childhood imaginations but now at least we can get on with playing the game.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Moving on to the shack portion of this RR diorama I am starting to put up the roof rafters and boards.I want to make both the cars roof and shack roof detachable for ease of working on and any future maintenance that may be required.
I want this roof to look old so I put a little sway back in the beams.The wood was bent by simply steaming it a while over a stove top pan,then I took an old curling iron ,heated it up and hand bent it over the round tip.The center beam and rafters were then cut to length and installed right on the model.For this I used extra thick crazy glue to tack it all in place.Generally I don't use a lot of CA but for this tacking operation it really is the best way to go,from here on I will use the yellow carpenters glue as I am sensitive to the CA's fumes.
This shack is a lot of fun to do,it is easy in one aspect as exact standards are not required due to the nature of what I am building but then again you really have to study your references to make it look right.

[JohnReid]