Several weeks ago I was contacted by HorizonHobby with a very unusual request: Building a monument valley diorama in king bed size (2×2 meter or 76×76 inches) with a mountain in the middle (80 cm/31 inches high).
Those of you that have been following our blog for a while now know that I always embark in every kind of challenging projects. In most cases the challenge lies in the technique to be used, the small size or complicated shape of parts that need to be made. In this case it was the size of the diorama. Another challenge was to integrate different scale vehicles into the monument valley diorama.
As this diorama was intended for display in a MediaMarkt store, it had to be robust and easy to (vacuum)clean as well. Features that are not standard in most dioramas exhibited behind glass. After a lot of thinking and trying many solutions I have decided to coat (almost) everything with cement. It’s harder than plaster and with a rougher surface when dry. The rougher surface was welcome due to the nature of the landscape for a monument valley diorama.
Transporting the monument valley diorama was also a project in itself. The whole diorama had to be split in four 1×1 meter sections. I also had to make a special construction for my car to place each section on top of each other. I want to give special thanks to Abraham, my best friend here in The netherlands, who kindly offered to assist me with the “delivery project”.
Monument Valley Diorama pictures
A few pictures of the making and the final result as requested by Hobby Horizon
Monument Valley Diorama – Delivery and assembly at MediaMarkt Elmshorn
After traveling 500 kms we arrived at MediaMakrt in Elmshorn. Everything went fine with some minor problems to be solved. After a few hours we finished the assembly.
Monument Valley Diorama location
If happen to be in Germany, in the Hamburg area, you can see the Monument Valley Diorama at Elmhorn’s MediaMakrt on Ramskamp 98, 25337 Elmshorn, Germany.
this is a nice dio! i was wondering where the palmtrees are comming from?are they handmade or can yoy buy them like that?
thanks
Hi Yannick, thanks for the feedback. The palm trees are hand made. I couldn’t find any palm trees that were good enough for me. And as I alway do… if I can’t find it, I build it from scratch.
Take care,
Seb
Really nice !! Is that the Monument valley here in the states ? And why was there different scales ? If you built the mountain to a certain scale (say 1/24) shouldn’t you still be able to use the same scale for everything else ? Or was the idea to have some subjects at a closer perspective ? To look larger because they were more closer . Just wondering. But still very cool !
thanks
Hi Terry, that’s right the monument Valley in the U.S. served as an inspiration for this diorama, it was the client’s idea. You know I normally do very accurate one-scale dioramas. This case was an exception as it’s purpose is to display radio controlled vehicles in a store. So it’s not about the scale accuracy but much more about displaying different vehicles, in different scales in different areas of the diorama. You’ll also notice all the photo cameras around the diorama. Another purpose of the diorama is to serve as a background for clients wanting to test and purchase photo equipment. That’s why scale accuracy was not relevant in this project.
Thanks Seb. I understand but it all looks awesome !!!