Viewers may remember that my second diorama (see the posts regarding Modeling 2.0) featured a section of pavement, whose bricks I painstakingly set, one-by-one. I didn’t mind the work and I was pleased with the result. This time around I decided to some save time by purchasing a slab of resin with a cobblestone pattern. Once I’d primed the surface and brushed a reddish acrylic wash over it, it came out looking just fine.

One funny thing is, the resin came with a sewer cover – which I promptly misplaced. After scratching my head over how to replace the cover, I came across an English six pence piece (dating from 1956): it was a perfect fit!

To either side of the cobblestones I set plaster of paris sidewalks that I purchased online. Painted with thinned feldgrau-color acrylic and dirtied up with whitish acrylic powder, the result resembles the urban scene I intend for the diorama. More on that as things progress . . .

The diorama’s background will be a French movie theater. During the Occupation it became a “Soldatenkino,” a cinema that was restricted to German military personnel. I am constructing the building from thin pastry box cardboard. The theater’s ticket office and doors will plug the big hole in the center.

Here is a view of the building’s “interior.” You can see how much bracing was required to stiffen the walls and make the edifice stand up straight. After the entrance and ticket office are in place the interior won’t be visible and I will paint the interior flat black.

It won’t be long before I put up the next post about this project, so stay tuned!