Whether you are a fan of wargaming or urban and railway recreations, choose a diorama from Scientific MHD to complete your collection.
What is a diorama?
A diorama is a presentation and staging device that has existed since the 19th century. There are several types of dioramas. Originally, it was an artistic technique in the form of a large-scale painting animated by light effects. Technically, the nativity scenes we see during Christmas time are a form of diorama, but they can also be educational reconstructions, such as those found in natural history museums.
Today, the diorama is an essential part of the model-making and modeling world, used to create miniature scenes and gaming environments. A true “mini-world,” a diorama can include entire landscapes and even depict a frozen moment from a historical event.
The goal of a diorama is to recreate real-life scenes using miniature scenery, which may include figurines, animals, and vegetation. This miniature world brings a model to life and places it in a military, everyday, or historical context, aiming to create the most realistic environment possible.
How to choose your diorama?
Creating a diorama requires gathering all the necessary materials for your reconstruction. Scientific MHD offers dioramas suited to all types of recreations.
We cater specifically to wargaming enthusiasts by offering 1/48 scale models. This allows you to recreate the most memorable war moments with high-quality models.
Our range of materials and dioramas also includes model kits covering various themes: city, school, farm, or iconic monuments. In this category, we offer dioramas in 1/35, 1/48, and 1/72 scales.
Scientific MHD has also selected pre-assembled and painted diorama models available in 1/48, 1/72, and 1/144 scales. Complete your diorama with all the essential elements to enhance realism: wooden crates, barrels, fences, painted craters, stone cottages, and bricks in various colors.
After choosing the essential elements for your diorama, select your base. Start with the background of the diorama, as it is always built from the back to the front. By beginning with the frame, you can define the overall ambiance of the scene, which you will then refine based on your research.
To complete your diorama, explore our Model Kit category, where you will find all the essential elements for an authentic recreation: figurines, environments, and accessories made of wood or plastic, available in the scale of your choice.
As specialists in model making, miniatures, and dioramas, Scientific MHD caters to all enthusiasts of modeling and historical recreations. We offer a wide range of assembled and painted model kits, as well as kits for self-assembly, available in multiple scales.
Dioramas provide an alternative way to engage in model making. A diorama serves as a backdrop to accurately recreate a historical setting (whether urban or otherwise), allowing you to integrate models into the scene to bring it to life. Dioramas are primarily intended for historical reenactment enthusiasts. We offer a wide selection of dioramas that allow you to faithfully recreate precise historical environments in which your models can take shape.
The evolution of dioramas: increasingly accurate historical recreations for your models
Dioramas present history from a specific perspective, making it more vivid and accessible to a wider audience. The concept of historical diorama reconstruction gained momentum in the late 19th century. At that time, more and more museums incorporated dioramas to provide the public with visual representations of historical or natural scenes. Dioramas thus serve as a depiction of history or nature, evolving alongside our understanding of past events and our growing knowledge of the world around us.
Since their inception in the early 19th century, dioramas have been the ideal medium for reconstructing historical scenes and buildings. The dioramas we know today became more prominent in the late 19th century, incorporating increasingly detailed elements to ensure more accurate recreations of historical events. The evolution of dioramas mirrors the progress of historical research, providing us with new details about past events.
On our website, you will find a vast selection of model kits and decorative elements to integrate into your dioramas, enabling you to create highly realistic historical reenactments. We specialize in historical recreations and offer numerous model buildings, including ruins, to help you depict specific historical events such as the Battle of Stalingrad, among others.
What scale should you choose for your diorama?
Choosing the right scale for your diorama is crucial for accurately representing your subject. A suitable scale is essential to ensure the overall visual coherence of the diorama and to achieve a realistic depiction of the historical or natural scene you wish to create.
The most common scales for dioramas are 1/35, 1/48, and 1/72.
These scales allow for the creation of realistic dioramas with a high level of detail, including numerous accessories and scenery elements. To choose the ideal scale for your diorama, consider the following factors:
- The type of scene you want to represent: The nature of your diorama will influence its scale.
- The level of detail desired: The larger the scale, the more detailed your diorama will be.
- The available space: A large-scale diorama requires significant space, especially for ambitious historical reenactments.
- Model availability: Choose a diorama scale that matches the available selection of accessories and models for the historical or natural scene you aim to recreate.
With a well-chosen scale and the right elements, your diorama will become a stunningly realistic miniature world, bringing history and imagination to life.
