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Cool and Collected

Collecting pop culture toys, comics, and collectibles collections

January 6, 2012 By 18 Comments

Action Figure Photography DIY: Build your own custom diorama

Over the holiday break, I was itching to do something creative that didn’t require sitting in front of the computer. One of my passions is photography, so I thought I would build something to help me take better photos of action figures, since I do a fair bit of that for this website.

I started with two sheets of extruded foam insulation boards, one that was 2″ thick for the base and one that was 1″ thick for the walls. These insulation boards are sold as large 2’x8′ sheets and are normally used to insulate your attic or basement walls.

building a diorama backdrop for action figure photography

I knew that this diorama/backdrop would need to be stored somehow when I wasn’t using it, so I devised a way to make it modular so that it can be disassembled and stored flat. I cut some strips of scrap wood and used liquid nails to glue them to the 2″ insulation board. These will be used to hold the walls. Insulation boards are incredibly light, so I didn’t need to worry about building this with strength in mind.

how to build a diorama backdrop for action figure photography - assembling the walls

I sliced the 1″ insulation board in half so that the walls would be one foot tall. They slide smoothly into the wooden channels.

how to build a diorama backdrop for action figure photography - assembling the walls

Part of my plan had a portion of the wall being breached by an explosion, so I hacked and slashed at one of the walls with a box cutter until achieving the desired look.

how to build a diorama backdrop for action figure photography - making crumbled stones

If the wall was exploded, then the floor would need to be damaged as well. Some more chopping with the box cutter resulted in a nice hole in the ground. Some of the wall scraps and chunks were placed around the blast area to make the damage look realistic.

how to build a diorama backdrop for action figure photography - making crumbled stones

I sprinkled in a bunch of dust and dirt and rocks and other detritus found laying around on the floor, and then poured on a hefty dose of Elmer’s glue mixed with water (50/50 ratio). It ain’t pretty, but after letting it dry overnight, the glue will seal all the styrofoam and dirt, and the glue dries clear.

how to build a diorama backdrop for action figure photography - making crumbled stones

After the glue dried, I painted everything with some ugly brown house paint. There are a couple of reasons for doing this:1. the paint helps to further glue any loose items down, and 2. the paint is water-based acrylic. I knew that I would be using spray paint later on, but spray paint will literally melt styrofoam, which is not something I wanted to do, so the house paint serves as a protective primer for the styrofoam. A great tip is to check the mismatched paint section of your hardware store. You can usually find a gallon of paint for $5, which is much cheaper than the full price.

how to build a diorama backdrop for action figure photography - painting tips

Here’s the assembled walls with a nice fresh coat of grey primer spray painted over the whole thing. It’s starting to take shape! You’ll notice I added some more wooden strips to the walls–these will hold a second floor walkway which can be easily removed or added, depending on the photo I want to take. The walls needed some dimension to make the photos more interesting by casting shadows and providing some visual interest, so I added that little square piece, which is the lid from a clear plastic grocery store strawberry container. After it is painted, it looks like a control panel rather than a plastic lid.

how to build a diorama for action figure photography - DIY tips

That one long flat wall was bugging me so I rummaged around in the recycle bin and found these two food trays. I had to suffer through two cinnamon loafs to make this wall! A little more liquid nails and this wall was about to get much more exciting.

how to build a diorama for action figure photography - DIY tips

Here’s the wall after attacking it with some tin snips and scissors, and then painting the whole thing with primer again. Much better.

how to make a diorama - backdrop for photography tips

I thought it might be handy to have taller walls in some photos, so I glued some 1/4 wood strips to the top of the two walls, creating a channel for the extensions to slide into. The photo above shows the side view of how this works.

how to make a diorama - backdrop for photography tips

In case I wanted to photograph larger figures or vehicles, the floor needed to be fairly clear so I made some simple props that could be added or removed. These columns were made out of an old plastic tube. The tube was octagonal which was perfect, and after gluing a couple of plastic model parts onto the sides, they look more industrial. (I painted these slightly and gave them a bit of black wash after this photo was taken.)

model diorama building tips and techniques

My son got a large package of Pokemon cards for Christmas and I thought the inner packing plastic looked promising.

how to make some props for your diorama

After a coat of light grey spray paint and minor bits colored, it makes for a pretty decent prop.

large diorama for action figure photography

And here’s the final result. The black catwalk was made from an old diecast car carrying case that I had laying around. It’s criss-crossing beams make for some great shadows.

And now the fun part begins — taking some photos!

Action figure diorama building tips and tricks

Toxic Avenger action figure

Mcfarlane Toys Halo master Chief action figure

halo master chief mcfarlane action figure

McFarlane halo Brute Chieftan action figure

i did almost no painting on this backdrop but I did give the rubble a coat of black wash (50% water/50% black paint) and dry brushed the edges with white paint. The results are pretty convincing.

McFarlane halo Brute Chieftan action figure

These photos were taken with just a single incandescent bulb lighting them, and I can’t wait to try out some other lighting setups and camera angles.

This was a fun project to build and was really simple to put together. It would make for a great weekend project if you wanted to make a backdrop for your photos or even a diorama for displaying your figures on the shelf. The best part about it is that you can’t really screw it up, just experiment and have fun.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. GeekChunks says

    January 6, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    I’m so doing this just so I can play with it.

    Thanks Brian!

    Reply
    • Brian says

      January 6, 2012 at 12:54 pm

      You need to build one of these for one of your films! You can be the next Robot Chicken. 😉

      Reply
      • GeekChunks says

        January 6, 2012 at 1:09 pm

        That would be fun but if I had the time to do that I would probably be doing something else. 🙂

        Reply
        • Brian says

          January 6, 2012 at 1:11 pm

          Ha! You mean something useful or productive??? Bah! Overrated.

          Reply
  2. roadsidewonders says

    January 6, 2012 at 1:05 pm

    Holy Frijole …. that is chock full of awesome sauce!

    My little The Tick action figures are staring at me with no small amount of reproof.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      January 6, 2012 at 1:08 pm

      Well, get busy Wendy! All you need is some styrofoam and paint. 😉

      Reply
  3. Jboypacman says

    January 6, 2012 at 1:22 pm

    Just amazing Brian! It looks great.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      January 6, 2012 at 1:27 pm

      Thanks, Jboy!

      Reply
  4. kngfu says

    January 6, 2012 at 1:56 pm

    Really cool home-built play set. Waay better than the cardboard backdrops of my youth.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      January 6, 2012 at 1:59 pm

      Yeah well, as we age, we are allowed to buy a whole lot more spray paint. 😉

      Reply
  5. Murray Breen aka: surfthearts says

    January 6, 2012 at 4:23 pm

    First time I’ve seen you build something – Great Stuff! I also have a lot of household recycled materials which I use for sci-fi and dioramas. Since retiring, I take old stock models from around the world and then build them up. Not many people know about it, but please share my site if you think readers would be interested.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      January 6, 2012 at 4:27 pm

      Consider it shared Murray! I checked out your site and what you’re doing is world’s beyond my little project. 😉 I am definitely going to explore your site in more detail. Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply
  6. bantor2 says

    January 9, 2012 at 12:23 am

    Hey man i took your advice on your DYI backdrop/diorama and it was a lot of a fun and turned out great. Thanks for the tips.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      January 9, 2012 at 8:39 am

      Hey, that’s great! I’m glad it was a fun project for you. 🙂

      Reply
  7. giTom says

    January 12, 2013 at 7:59 pm

    Beginning this project. So awesome!

    Reply
    • Brian says

      January 12, 2013 at 8:26 pm

      Cool! Send me some pics of the finished product!

      Reply
  8. Snooter says

    February 15, 2013 at 9:07 pm

    I’m going to attempt this for my son’s birthday present. I saw you mention the original walls were 1′ high. Could you tell me how long you made them and the 2″ base dimensions?

    Reply
    • Brian says

      February 15, 2013 at 9:19 pm

      I didn’t really use any measurements for the walls. I drew an angled wall and then made a 90 degree intersecting line at the back–those were the dimensions! The bas board was an 8′ long piece of 2″ thick insulation board. I kept the whole 2′ width and 8′ length, but only used about 3-4′ of it for this project. I figured I might want to add to the diorama later so I left the rest intact.

      Sorry to be so vague with the dimensions, but it was really just something I put together on the fly. You really can’t go wrong with these materials, because it’s easy to adjust anything — just have fun with it and make it work for the space you have available. Have fun!

      Reply

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