I recently started out in the hobby of model railroading by laying some track on my desk and being pretty happy with running my trains through an imaginary landscape. That's really good enough in most cases but why stop there when you could be running your model trains through an appropriate miniature model landscape instead of an imaginary one? Creating something akin to those miniature dioramas you might see in a museum never really seemed like an easy task, though, so it was to my delight when I found Kato's Diorama-kun Mini Diorama Kit.
This is a starter kit with all of the items you would need to make a small, N-scale (around 1/150th scale) diorama that you can run a model train through. These kits come with a track piece, laser-cut wood base, paint, glue, clay, and other materials such as diorama grass and structures. I did, however, supplement the kit with diorama supplies I bought separately in order to try out some techniques for future projects. Additionally, you'll find instructions and a hardcover, children's-style book to guide you through the diorama-making process. The part that really excites me, though, is that you can link up multiple of these mini diorama modules to create a small train layout when you're done.
Getting started is pretty easy and I immediately felt like I had something substantial just from putting the wooden base together along with the little paper kit bridge pieces that go on either side of the track. I also roughly drew where I would want the water element before moving on.
I then worked on putting together some of the other objects that would go on top of the diorama terrain such as this cardstock railing. The instructions want you to cut out a separate, yellow-and-black striped layer which will be glued to the top of the cardstock layer. I figured drawing the black stripes directly onto the cardstock was good enough, though, and would save me some trouble of cutting out such tiny pieces.
Shaping the clay and imagining what kind of features you want (such as hills, pathways, etc.) is a lot of fun and seeing it on top of your base is exciting. It makes you feel like you are on your way to a finished product. I also experimented with placing some objects around the diorama to get an idea for where things might go and if there were any adjustments needed. You may also notice that I glued on a corkboard siding to the base, which gives me a bit more surface area to work with and a nicer look for the sides of the diorama. I put some masking tape on the sides to keep it relatively clean while working
The train tracks piece was gone over with some ground brown "Mr. Weathering Color" and I painted a quick layer of brown paint over the clay. If you're following the kit instructions, ideally this would be done more thoroughly, but I had a different plan...
Tamiya's "Diorama Texture Paint"! I could have used real dirt as a lot of diorama modelers do, however the Tamiya paint seemed like a nice, speedy alternative for this size of working area. It looks a bit worrisome when you're first applying it, but once the paint dries, it looks amazing.
The next step was to grow some grass on top of the dirt. I mixed a small bit of the yellow flower powder with the grass powder before sprinkling it over the terrain. This gave a nice effect of making it look like there were some little flowers growing in random spots of grass. I also added some rocks to the bed of where the stream would be...
I didn't let the glue for the rocks to fully dry before sprinkling the grass onto the diorama, which was a bit of a mistake. I thought about trying to clean it up but I thought it kind of looked like moss growing on the rocks, so I left it. I also went ahead and created a mixture of PVA glue, water, and a tiny bit of dish soap. This was applied to the grass and rocks with a plastic dropper in order to secure and and act as a bit of a seal for everything
Painting the water for the stream was very fun. The instructions have you applying the included blue paint straight from the tube but I mixed it up with some white paint to give the water a light, more pleasant look. I let it dry slightly then dabbed some white paint into the center of the stream for that shiny or white, moving water effect that you see in real-life.
The trees weren't the best part of the process but they weren't as bad as I expected. The kit comes with some tree trunk bases that have branchs which you can twist and bend as you wish. Once you get a shape to your liking, you apply some glue to the branches and put on a spongey, green material for the leaves. It is surprising how realistic these trees can turn out to be. I did have to apply some drops of the glue-sealant mix to keep everything together and harden it up a bit, otherwise the leaves would just keep flaking off when touched.
I'm not sure, though, that the effort is worth it considering you can buy trees of similar or better quality instead, for not too much money. It is nice to look back and say I made the trees on my diorama, but I also didn't necessarily do anything elaborate (especially considering there are other, more complex ways to make your own trees).
I had been excited about creating a realistic looking water feature since before getting the kit. I looked around on Youtube and found some recommendations for a product called "Clear Fix" which is actually more of a construction grade adesive than a diorama-making material. I think it came out alright, though next time I'll be able to use it better now that I understand how it works.
Once the Clear Fix set, I applied gloss Mod Podge to the surface of it in order to give it that glassy water appearance. It goes on white and will dry clear, though I did kind of like the white, frothy water look.
The bushes for the diorama were made using the same material as the leaves for the trees. I sprinkled some of the flower powder on top then used the glue-sealant mix from earlier to keep it together.
I brushed some of the Mod Podge onto the black-and-yellow railing and it ended up darkening and dulling the color of the yellow a bit too much. That wasn't quite the effect I was going for so now I know for the future, at least. You can also kind of see the overhead catenary pole which I painted with a silver Gundam marker to give it less of a plasticky feel
This might be the last time I cut out such tiny pieces of paper. The effect is great, but this is another one where I might prefer to buy a premade object rather than doing this myself.
With everything mostly done, I started placing the objects I made earlier onto the diorama. Another thing the kit came with are these wooden faces that I used to line one of the paths that I shaped into the terrain.
Getting the trees, signs, and catenary pole onto the diorama really gave it more of a three-dimensional effect with the verticality of the objects. Before, it looked rather flat even despite the hills and undulations of the dirt and grass hills.
One last problem: On removing the masking tape from the sides of the base, I realized my mini diorama looked like a cookie sandwich.
I thought of a few other ways to fix it but settled on just painting the offending parts in black along with the wooden base and corkboard sides.
All that was left was to get a train on it to complete the effect. It was here that I discovered the signs and yellow-and-black railing were way too close to the track. That was easy to fix, luckily.
And, while I was at it, what really makes a diorama come to life is the little people.
This whole experience of making a miniature diorama was a lot of fun. It seems daunting at first, but it's actually quite easy and there's a lot of creativity you can showcase even with a pre-arranged kit like this. I used this kit as a way to test out some methods and effects that I wanted to try out for other projects I have in mind and it ended up being a really great format for doing that. The size of these kits means you aren't committing a lot of time and effort to finish an entire module. This gives you a lot of freedom to experiment with different things and not feel too bad if you mess anything up since it doesn't take a lot of time to finish one of these dioramas.
The other great thing about these kits is that they give you some basic materials that will last beyond the one miniature diorama you make from the box. Once you are confident with your abilities and have at least a few additional supplies of your own, you can buy individual packs that include just the wooden base and track that the kits come with. You can also go off and start making larger dioramas, of course, as the skills you will learn from this experience will definitely help with other types and sizes of diorama projects.
It's time for a short break but I am very excited to continue making more of these modules and also have ideas for other layout sizes.
