Make a cheap diorama
Peter Marriott up-cycles a piece of old flat-packed furniture into the basis of a diorama.
Peter up-cycles a piece of old flat-pack furniture for his latest diorama.
Flat-packed furniture – it’s the bane of most of our lives. It’s difficult to assemble, isn’t very robust and still seems pretty expensive.
Like many people, I had an old Ikea bookcase that had seen better days. I dismantled it with a view to taking it to the local tip… but then I realised that one of the shelves could become the basis of a small, cheap diorama.
It goes to show just how expensive this hobby can be – I spent nearly £100 on four Sommerfeldt catenary masts and wire, Woodland Scenics Risers and Shaper Sheet, Peco track, Noch trees and a station building, not to mention adhesives, paints and scatters and other assorted scenic items. Obviously, I could have saved money by using as much second-hand material as possible, but sometimes the quality of second-hand scenic items can be a bit questionable and I wanted this to look as good as possible. I also spent a bit more on some detailed specimen trees from MBR, two Noch Profi trees and various station accessory and detailing parts from Bachmann Scenecraft.
I’m really pleased with how my little diorama turned out. I only worked on it sporadically, so it took about a month to complete but, despite not being the cheapest project I could have undertaken, it was fun and has given me a quality little backdrop against which I can take photographs of my collection of rolling stock. Plus, I felt really good about recycling a piece of furniture that otherwise would have ended up in landfill.
If you have a piece of flat-packed furniture that seems destined for the tip, see if you can use it for a diorama – you’ll be pleased that you did!