RuinedTower Diorama

This is an easy project to make.

I make dioramas of all sizes as a hobby: This is a smaller display diorama meant for use with 3 3/4 inch figures. This one started out as a cardboard disc that came with a frozen pizza. The tower is made from foamboard.

I cut out the foamboard using a very sharp hobby knife then used tacky glue to join the edges together, reinforcing them with wooden toothpicks: I used the toothpick to gently poke a hole through both pieces of foamboard, then pulled it out, put a drop of tacky glue on the tip of the toothpick, then pushed them back into the hole. I then set it aside to dry overnight. After it dried I cut off the excess toothpick.

The figure is for scale.

I used the same glue and toothpicks method to attach the tower to the base.

To make the "Stone Blocks" I cut out rectangular pieces of posterboard roughly 1/2 of an inch tall and 1 1/2 inches wide and glued them to the face of the tower. I later trimmed the posterboard around the upper window.

Once the glue dried I gave the tower a base coat of dark brown acrylic paint, both back and front. The disc I used four different shades of brown then swirled them together to imitate the varied color of bare dirt.

After the paint dried I used two different shades of brown on some of the "Blocks" on the tower to make it look older and weathered.

I added a lighter brown "Roadway" curving in front of the tower, for interest. I also cut up floral moss into small pieces then glued it onto the tower to give it the look of a ruin that had been there a long time. I used photographs of real moss-covered buildings as a guide to place the moss.

To make the grass I spread white glue on the base in a "patch" to resemble real grass: For the grass I use Oregano and Parsley Flakes mixed together and sprinkled onto the glue. I then set it aside to dry.

Here is the final diorama with a few figures on it: I used photo manipulation with this pic to isolate it and put it on a background. I also added a foamboard door and chest to this pic.

This is an inexpensive and easy to do project, and can be used with any set of figures.