Shelf Dioramas
Thank you for visiting our gallery. This is the area of our site where you can view some of our past projects that have been sold. None of these were commissioned, but if you see elements that you are interested in please feel free to contact us with inquiries.
All of these scenics and scenic environments are hand made here in our Michigan studio. These are designed to allow collectors to display almost any vehicle or figure ranging from 1/32nd to 1/28th scale.
We have developed these dioramas to fit on standard bookshelves that can be found in most homes and offices. These usually measure approximately 11” Deep and between 24” to 29” Long. Some of these also included hand painted backdrops to give the illusion of depth. We always design large areas that will accommodate figures or vehicles that will be flat or covered with resilient materials to allow frequent re-arranging of the miniatures.
This shelf diorama is set in WWII somewhere along the Siegfried Line. The figure is not included, but everything else is! These show the dug-out with our real sandbags. The SS Shelter quarters have the proper Oak Leave Camouflage with Summer side up, and the Autumn side down. This shelter quarter is made from copper with our Hudson & Allen Decals #9903 & 9904 applied over it. It is completely removable for ease in placing your figures. The German 7.92mm Ammo packing boxes were assembled from Hudson & Allen set #9931. You can see the Dragons Teeth, Barbed Wire, Pig Tails and the German Minen sign warning you to place your figures carefully!
Ever since reading 101st Airborne veteran, Donald R. Burgett's 'Seven Roads to Hell' I have had an interest in building some winter dioramas depicting the area around Bastogne. Two are the muddy roads in and out of Bastone and the third is a low ridge with three dugouts. All of these can be used alone or back to back. With snowfall these roads soon became muddy tracks of snow, slush and later ice. We were able to use all three H&A products to create this look. The tree in the foreground was built with wood and wire and then the trunk was sculpted with bark texture. Notice the white band painted around the trunk to help drivers stay on the road in low light situations. There are a couple more images of the diorama back to back with the ridge unit with foxholes. This adds some depth to the trees and creates a diorama 22" X 28". I decided that a small fueling area would make a nice detail at one end. The 55 gal drums are covered with a camo net with real scrim woven in and rigged with poles and stakes. A box of H&A C-Rations sits on the tool box. The second image has a K&C GI in it for scale reference (not included). These photographs also show the cast concrete power poles often seen in period images. In addition to wooden poles, there appears to be at least three common styles of cast concrete ones. I took photos of some that still stand in the area last time I visited and we thought this would add a further note of familiarity.
This Shelf Diorama is a display showing how the soft ground off road was torn up by the passage of Tigers to the front. Our images are for scale reference, showing some of the 1st Gear/ W.Britain German Heer Infantry and the K&C Waffen SS (Figures are not included). Our resilient "Wild Grass" disguises the bases of the figures, and springs back once the figures are moved. Also for reference purposes we have shown a 21st Century Toys TigerII right out of the box and into the tracks. We modeled this to look like several vehicles have followed one another to the front. As a result we were able to make the tracks a little wider to accommodate other manufacturers scales and models. The second image is a close up of the muddy tracks. Though it looks wet and muddy, it isn't!
