"They're Just Kids"

"They're Just Kids"

Just some kids messing with matches.

The fire men are here to sort it out.

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This diorama started without me knowing where it was going to end.
I found the files for a dumpster and wheely bin on thingieverse and started printing them out.

The dumpster was a great little model and printed out in parts to be build for a better model.

It also allowed me to paint the parts easier.

I painted the lids a dark charcoal and then gave them a little orange block to represent a warning or operation instructions label or something of the like. I cut one pair of lids in half so i could have that side of the bin open. 

I painted one of the dumpsters green and the other yellow. I chose these colours as they are the colours ive seen these bins painted in real life.

I put a yellow/white warning label on the bin as well, this was just to add realism to the bins. 

 

The 4 little wheely bins i printed were painted colour of the wheely bins i see around my home town and given a little gold/silver detail on the front and top to mimic the council logos on some bins.

At this point I still didnt know what way the diorama was going, so I got my box (more like a briefcase) of minipeeps and started looking through the options i had. I found a firemen set and this one fireman had a little hose holding pose and I got the idea of a bin fire.

Looking through my other minis i found a few children, some running and some who are meant to be on swings. I chose a couple of these kids, the ones i chose looked like they were running away from something and or shocked and scared. These two minis will be my firestarters. 

The Wall behind the bins was 3D printed hollow so i could put some sort of electrics in to give the fire a realistic look (if i could figure out how to do it)

On the subject of making the fire look more realistic i found a flickering LED tealight and took that little sucker apart to get the bulb out.

I cut through the EVA foam base that the diorama is on and drilled holes through the bottom of one of the dumpsters. These holes will allow for the wires to run from the LED to the battery inside the brick wall box behind the bins.

I found a few tutorials online that say using cotton wool balls around LEDs work quite well for fire in dioramas. I grabbed some of my wife's cotton wool balls and started making smoke plume shapes, i painted the base a mixture of brown, black, yellow and orange to mimic smoke and fire.

Below is a video and a photo of how the flame LED in the cotton wool looks in complete darkness, it looks brighter in these than it does in real life.

I painted all the bins with a wash of black and brown to weather them and make them look like bins. The yellow dumpster was painted with more greys and blacks to look like soot and smoke/fire damage.

I put one child running away and one hiding behind another bin to make it look like they may have been playing with matches.

The posters i put on the brick wall are to give it a more realistic look. Also as a little easter egg (if you know what the posters are for)

Above is a little video showing the diorama and some of the details.


Thank you for looking and if you have any questions or comments please pop them below and I will try my best to answer them.