by: ricardo

In my 18 years of buliding scale models and diorama, this is a first for me. A first in sharing my experiences of my passion on the web. This is also the first time i did a project with this magnitude paired with a not so realistic time frame. In this Blog, i would share with you the challenges and experience my team and I had.

The Challenge

A few weeks ago, we embarked on a familiar but challenging task– commissioned to fabricate a diorama (familiar) and fabricate it in a much bigger baseplate than the usual (challenging). Bigger in every sense of the word: up to more than five times the physical size of the base plates that we’re used to and at least 26 different popular sites and historical spots of Cebu. The challenge is not mainly delivering it within the six-week work schedule  (which is usually how much time we need for every detailed models and

diorama) but starting  work without even the concept and necessary data. For starters, data here means, the dimensions, plans, elevations, perspectives, photos or any graphical representation of the structures / site which can be used to accurately build a well proportioned and close-to-the-real-thing replica.

We were tasked to make a big diorama composed of a collection of Cebu’s Heritage and tourists sites. We initially identified at least 25 of the more popular sites of Cebu.

Most of what we did  before, whether architectural scale models or diorama or anything which closely resembles to it were based primarily on plans, photos and other data furnished by the client. This is the unwritten protocol followed by most if not all scale model builders we’ve known, unless of course we were commissioned to do the concept. In this project, we were, after i asked for the plans to be used for fabrication.

“Bringing down or blowing up any of these in scale might destroy the whole concept and inadvertently over emphasizing one or two and visually decreasing others. Hence, it’s a delicate balance between showing the crucial details, determining the ideal size to fit  each and every site alongside the other equally important sites and positioning each to complement the other.”

The Solution

The plan was simple and straightforward. Identify the sites, make it look as close as possible to the real thing and find a way to place it side by side “artistically” making a “collage of Cebu’s tourist and heritage sites”. The first logical solution to data problem: identify which sites included in the diorama are documented by institutions, individuals, professionals. All of whom are possible sources . Second, there’s no better way to get data (provided we have the time and energy to spare) but to document it ourselves. For the next few days, we started documentation on sites, churches, tourist spots Research thru the internet was very helpful. Research / data gathering  and formulating the whole concept of the diorama was a back and forth exercise. We started as soon as we have a few data on our hands as time was a precious commodity. We’ve committed six weeks on this project (mainly because the client can only give us that much time). The further we progressed, the more we understood how tedious and crucial the data gathering was for this project—there were far more details than anticipated. This made it more interesting and challenging. We’ve also learned that the few weeks we’ve committed on fabrication was quickly eaten up by data gathering alone. And so we employed a tried and tested system as our solution: Simultaneously refining our concept / developing it and further gathering data we lack.

 Concept

After a grueling couple of days, we came up with our concept. A collage of all these sites’ diorama. The challenge being, structures and sites are at contrasting physical sizes. Bringing down or blowing up any of these in scale might destroy the whole concept and inadvertently over emphasizing one or two and visually decreasing others. Hence, it’s a delicate balance between showing the crucial details, determining the ideal size to fit  each and every site alongside the other equally important sites and positioning each to complement the other. Each site is in its own right is a separate project worthy of discussion in terms of detail and intricacy.

More to  Come

In the next couple of weeks, we will try feature a site or two. We begin by discussing the “hows and whats” of each site diorama. Check us again on this feature!