• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

Cool and Collected

Collecting pop culture toys, comics, and collectibles collections

April 17, 2012 By 7 Comments

DIY Forest Diorama for Action Figure Photography — Part 2

In the first part of this series, I showed you how to make the diorama base out of styrofoam insulation board, glue and paint. The fun continues here with the addition of the trees…

diorama building tips - planting trees

Insulation foam is a great material for dioramas because it is so easy to work with. After doing a little yard work the other day, I saved a pile of branches that would look like scale-sized trees on the diorama. Drilling holes is a simple process, and if the hole is slightly smaller than the branch diameter, you won’t even need any glue.

diorama building tips - planting trees

One tree does not make a forest.

diorama building tips - planting trees

That’s better. I lined two sides with a thick growth of trees and left the front two sides fairly open. Since the trees are not glued into the holes, I will be able to remove them if needed for a specific photograph.

diorama building tips - planting trees

Hey, it looks like a forest! I could add some scenery moss or dirt, but for now, I’m going to see how things work without it.

So let’s see what we can do with some better lighting…

thor action figure

Not bad. In the next post, I’ll show you some other photos taken in my fake little forest.

 

Filed Under: Other

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Murray Breen aka: surfthearts says

    April 17, 2012 at 2:13 pm

    Forest looks good! I need to build one for three Star Wars Walkers I just cpompleted. I’m an artist who took up modeling dioramas a few years ago. Not always up-to-date, but my blog at http://www.surf-the-arts.com may be of interest! Also m y Flickr model pics – lots of Japanese Sci-Fi: http://www.flickr.com/photos/surfthearts/collections/72157626511106317/
    Regards Murray, aka surfthearts

    Reply
    • Brian says

      April 17, 2012 at 2:24 pm

      Amazing work Murray! I really like that Buck Rogers Marauder ship you built!

      Reply
  2. jboypacman says

    April 17, 2012 at 4:51 pm

    Fantastic work!

    Reply
  3. actionfig says

    April 17, 2012 at 7:13 pm

    WOW!Just the terrain alone was doing it for me but the addition of the trees puts this over the top!I like the fact that it’s universal and pretty much any line of figures will look great with it.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      April 17, 2012 at 8:16 pm

      The next post I put up shows this exactly–I have photos with small scale figures as well as large scale, and the backdrop seems to work well with both.

      Reply
  4. kngfu says

    April 19, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    Lighting makes all the difference, as seen in your pics . Great work.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      April 19, 2012 at 12:23 pm

      Thanks. Lighting really does make a world of difference.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • “Did you say ‘Youts’?”
  • Marx Marvel Tricycles
  • Here there be dragons
  • Vintage Batman Toy Collection
  • Batman Pinbacks

About Cool & Collected

This site is devoted to us crazy few who go to great lengths to acquire items for our collection. Read more.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Support this site:

If you enjoy reading articles on Cool & Collected, I would greatly appreciate you clicking on this eBay link before you do your shopping. I will get a few pennies from any purchase you make, but those pennies can add up. Thank you for your support!

Footer

Submit a Product for Review

Want to have your product(s) featured on Cool & Collected? This is how you can submit something for review.

Recent Posts

  • “Did you say ‘Youts’?”
  • Marx Marvel Tricycles
  • Here there be dragons
  • Vintage Batman Toy Collection
  • Batman Pinbacks
  • Monkeying Around
  • Current View
  • A drawer filled with Joes
  • It’s all good, man.
  • Feeling Green

Topics

  • Art and Photography
  • Books
  • Collections
  • Comic Books
  • Games
  • Other
  • Pop Culture League
  • Shows & Events
  • Toys
  • TV & Movies

Pages

  • About Cool & Collected
  • Blog
  • Contact Cool & Collected
  • Privacy Policy
  • Submit a Product for Review
  • Tips for starting (and enjoying) a collection

Copyright © 2023 Big Fish Design. All rights reserved.