Building The Diorama

My ‘day job’ is not having opinions on the internet (honest), it’s actually Publishing and selling scale modelling books at Inside the Armour Publications.

If you follow my other activities like the Sprue Cutters Union, you will know I spent most of 2022/2023 working on a secret project, which was revealed at Scale Model Challenge 2023, and is the subject of my new book “Heroyam Slava (Glory to the Heroes)”

This diorama represents a distillation of many things I have been learning through meeting some of the world’s best modellers on the podcast, and ideas and themes that have been engaging me for some time.

Lets have a closer look at the diorama, and the ideas and themes it attempts to address

The Title and the Intent
For those that don’t know, “Heroyam Slava” literally translates as “Glory to the Heroes” and it is a traditional response to “Slava Ukraine”: “Glory to Ukraine”.

Over the last few years, I have come to know many Ukrainians via scale modelling. Ukraine is a powerhouse of model kit production. When the latest phase of the war (which started in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and Russia fomenting insurrection in the east of Ukraine) commenced, with the full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, all of them became in some way involved in the war. Some volunteered, immediately, for military service, many had previously served and returned to service, and those that could not serve volunteered to support their friends who had taken up arms. Everyone became active in supporting the military resistance to the invasion.

So, to me, these guys are heroes.

The Diorama

The dio began as a way to pay tribute to the friends I have in Ukraine, and to the fighting men and women resisting the invasion. But it also became a way for me to develop my understanding of scratchbuilding, composition, sculpting, storytelling and painting and finishing.

Along the way I had to learn about T-72s, MT-LBs, BMP-2, BMP-3 and a more about other vehicles that didn’t make it into the diorama at the end. I learned about economy and concision, and the importance of eliminating items to improve the ‘signal to noise’ ratio. I learned about how to use light and colour to direct the eye, and about presentation, how the model is viewed and how to direct a view.

It cause me to think about my modelling in all three dimensions, not just how to make it, and what to make, but why to make it, and how it will exist in the world outside of my head, and my bench.

The Book

The book is a description of the model, how I made it, and why. But it is also a discussion of the ideas that made it and changed it along the way, and an acknowledgement of the people that influenced it and helped me make it.

I hope you will order it and follow this process and model making experience. Click on the image below to order today.