UMS "Agram" : CSSR 1986 Diorama part 1 < Articles < Hobby

CSSR 1986 Diorama part 1

Marko Paunović, 10th April 2025

In this series of articles, we will follow my work on a new diorama, another in the 1986 series. This time, we take you behind the Iron Curtain to Czechoslovakia.

As always, everything starts with an idea. This time, the idea came from a toy car I bought at a fair. It's a Skoda. A sports car. And a van, albeit a Polish one... The choice of vehicles meant that the diorama's setting needed to be placed in an industrial setting. The original idea was next to a factory, the entrance to it.

I measured the dimensions of the cars (as shown in the drawing), and then using square paper (5 x 5 mm) I arranged them in a layout that I found acceptable. I was guided by the idea that the diorama should be viewed from multiple sides, so there should be interesting details on each side. The position and dimensions of the vehicles also determine the size of the diorama. Originally, the dimensions were A4 paper (a frame of that size). When I placed the cars on the frame – there was way too much empty space. Luckily, I found a wooden base from Bucomodelbases that was perfect in shape and dimensions.

Satisfied with the dimensions, I took graph paper and drew a more detailed plan, this time in 1:1 scale (diorama). Then I placed it on the base and added the vehicles..

Notice that I still have the factory building drawn. A few weeks later, I was ordering some things from the RT diorama site and spotted a transformer station in the right scale. So the factory building was dropped because this would speed up the process of building the diorama a lot, and I wouldn't lose any of the atmosphere or the level of detail. Trafić has that Central European-Balkan flair. There are still such stations all over Croatia today.

The set consists of 4 walls cast in plaster. Very high quality. Only minor repairs are needed in small areas. In addition to plaster walls, the set also comes with several "sprue" 3D resin parts. Roof in two parts, doors, windows, manholes plus electric distribution. Perfect level of detail.

The assembly could have been easier if I had PVA glue. However, I didn't and I was in a hurry so I used superglue for all the parts. This caused some small mistakes in joining the plaster walls that I will have to fix later. The cut parts stuck together easily, after a little trouble with separating the parts from the sprue. I have to admit that despite my care, the window frames cracked. But nothing that couldn't be fixed with a little tinkering with superglue.

That's it for this week. We already have a nice outline of the diorama, and next time we will continue with making the other parts of the diorama.

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