Itty Bitty Pretty City

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Itty Bitty Pretty City Teeny weeny city sceney.

Some painter's tape and our handy dandy drywaller's T square and we've got a space of the same dimensions laid out on ou...
10/12/2026

Some painter's tape and our handy dandy drywaller's T square and we've got a space of the same dimensions laid out on our very rough and ready workroom floor right next to our diorama where we can start roughing out placement of buildings while we wait for all that paper and glue to dry.

Look carefully at the diorama table and you can see the group of trays where we've already gotten our planned buildings sorted by section.

We always knew that the four inches of aluminum sheet which serves as the back of our diorama wouldn't quite make for a ...
10/11/2026

We always knew that the four inches of aluminum sheet which serves as the back of our diorama wouldn't quite make for a tall enough line of hillside to feel convincing.

No biggie. Tear some scrap cardboard into something suitably picturesque.

Staple and glue it to another piece to make it tall enough to sit on the back of the diorama making table.

Clip it into place.

And then lay enough glue soaked cocktail napkins over it to hopefully settle it permanently into place.

Tbh, seeing it done the whole thing felt a weensy bit precarious. So we're thinking of adding some glue soaked paper towel on top to make it a smidge tougher. With more torn green cocktail napkins laid on top of that.

Laying down more torn up pieces of dollar store cocktail napkins, dipped in a mix of water and glue. And just like that ...
10/11/2026

Laying down more torn up pieces of dollar store cocktail napkins, dipped in a mix of water and glue. And just like that the entire tiny world begins to feel considerably more like a real place.

Isn't it wild how early in the creation of a diorama it sometimes becomes something where if you just squint a little fe...
10/11/2026

Isn't it wild how early in the creation of a diorama it sometimes becomes something where if you just squint a little feels like you're looking at an actual valley and hills?

And now it begins. The work on creating the first diorama has begun. We apologize for how much at the moment it mostly l...
10/11/2026

And now it begins. The work on creating the first diorama has begun. We apologize for how much at the moment it mostly looks like crumpled up mounds of wet toilet paper. đŸ˜‚

Adding the beginning of some geography to our up until now featureless plain. Note the use of empty Japanese coffee cans...
09/30/2026

Adding the beginning of some geography to our up until now featureless plain. Note the use of empty Japanese coffee cans to lift the left segment to a more interesting angle.

At long last our diorama building platform is finished. All six feet by two feet of it. Which hopefully will be enough.A...
09/30/2026

At long last our diorama building platform is finished. All six feet by two feet of it. Which hopefully will be enough.

And our first base plate to build a diorama on is laid on top and ready to start getting filled in as well.

As you can see, our backdrop frames aren't in place yet, or proper lighting. And there's so much other work still in progress. So there's certainly quite a ways to go.

Wish us luck. It's been a very long path getting to this point. Now at least we can get back to doing dioramas. But this time on the scale and in pretty much the kind of setup which we had intended in the first place.

09/26/2026

Okay, computer printed sheets of paper may not be our own personal preference for how, ideally, to do this sort of thing. But we do feel the need to admit that what this approach has made so much more possible here is undeniably kind of freakin' amazing.

We figured that since we're all set up to do these diorama base panels anyway and now we know a little more then we migh...
05/30/2026

We figured that since we're all set up to do these diorama base panels anyway and now we know a little more then we might as well do another. This time first we cut two sheets of netting to size. Then we indeed did a second panel, but a little less improvisational this time.

Note the pinking shears, the kind of scissors designed to make a zigzag cut. They're an old time trick to keep a piece of fabric from coming out as vulnerable to unraveling when a string from it gets pulled.

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Longview, WA

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