UMS "Agram" : Scratchbuilding a vignette with a medieval inn < Articles < Hobby

Scratchbuilding a vignette with a medieval inn

Ana Polanšćak, 4th August 2020

In May 2017, UMS Agram held a Diorama Building Workshop. The topic was how to scratchbuild a vignette with a medieval building on it. The tutor was Marko Paunović and this article follows the steps done during the workshop.

BALSA WOOD

First task was to draw the outlines of the walls on a piece of 4 or 5 mm thick balsa wood (you will notice a little later in the article, that there was a blueprint made for the workshop with all the dimensions), then using a scalpel blade cut out the wall pieces. Make sure the wood grain is in correct position relative to the position of the wall on the vignette. Using superglue, fix the walls together. Next up was carving the wood planks using a simple ice pick. Once done, carve the 1mm thick balsa wood into several 5mm wide planks and glue them in place using superglue. To finish the rough part of building the inn, add the texture of the façade using PVA glue and chinchilla sand (smallest grain sand you can find).

PLASTER

We then proceeded to make the base and stone parts of the building. For the base, we needed a mould that we made from clear plastic foil and some 1mm thick balsa wood leftovers glued with superglue (just to speed the process). When the mould was dry, we mixed some plaster and cast it into the mould. The stone wall was cast directly onto the balsa wood structure of the building and once the plaster was dry, it was carved again using a simple icepick. The building was then glued to the base using PVA glue.

DAS CLAY AND SAND

Using DAS air-drying clay we made stones for the cobble stone path. The blobs of clay were glued in place using PVA glue and sprinkled over using sand in two different sizes.

CARD AND PINS

Final, metal parts were done using ordinary card (or thicker paper) and some metal pins.

PAINTING

To paint the vignette we used PEBEO DECO colours: White, Antique White, Ash, Ocre, Brown, Grey and Black.

ROOF AND VEGETATION

Straw roof was made from 12mm long beige static grass. The vegetation used was: 2mm, 5mm and 6mm tufts; flower tufts and poison ivy on the walls.

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