A Museum for the Museum

Ever since I was a kid I have been fond of museums. My parents often had to drag me away from the military history sections. Specially any exhibition including dioramas.

As I have become older this interest have not disappeared, far from it. The last year I have been so lucky to work at a ww2 museum, a private collection that opened for the public in 1996.

One day at work there inspiration struck me. I had an idea for a small single figure vignette representing a museum. Back home I sat down and made a 1/35 scale display case for a medal collection, and the idea grew.

I found a suiting picture frame for the base, and I placed the stash-boxes in front of me. I wanted the miniature to look as much as possible like the real museum.

A mini medal display being made.

After an attempt or two I settled with this one.

Some objects I wanted to display wasn`t to be found in my spares boxes so some scratch building was called for.

From plasticard I built a large wooden ammo box and a smaller one. A Luftwaffe honorary cup in silver I made from plastic and brass tubes, and detailed with a photoetched Luftwaffe cap eagle. A few objects and a figure were donated to me by members of the forum I`m active on.

I copied the way the wall monters had been constructed, instead just using miniature balsa strips and PVA glue. I wanted to put lights in the monter so I had to make room for some LED lights in the roof.

Thin plastic from a blister pack was cut to fit as security glass. Luckily I remembered to use epoxy to glue it, as CA would "fog" the see-through plastic.

Having started to paint all the objects I soon found it would be difficult to get it 100% true to the full scale museum.

I decided to use some artistic license, making sure to have enough "authentic" objects to make it convincing and familiar. From Construction Batallion I bought a print of marble floor that was an exact match to what I needed. I started searching the net for maps and small photos that could be placed on the monters wall. Some magazines and newspapers from Plus Model were also used. Texts for the exhibition were scaled down and printed on thin paper.

In the monter I wanted several figures but landed on a Soviet Dragon figure, and a German Masterbox offering, flanking a table filled with militaria. Here I put several badges and insignias produced by Cove Models, some edelweiss patches, a Narvik shield and some Luftwaffe collar boards. A radio and an officers peaked cap was painted with great care and secured to the table with epoxy glue.

I sharpened some details on the figures and painted them up as museum mannequins. This made flesh painting a joy for once. I wanted the German to have a "Kharkov-cane". A cocktail stick was cut to length, thinned and detailed with sewing thread and a photoetched Iron Cross, then painted to look like wood and bark. A civilian resin figure from Custom Dioramics was used as a museum guest. His head was swapped for a Hornet one,and I painted him in a blue suit.

I needed to have something in each front corner of the little diorama. On the left side I put the medal collection, a Bren gun and the large ammo crate. On top of the crate I glued a couple of helmets.

After the war a lot of German and allied helmets were used by civil defence forces and was often painted in a bright yellow. The other German helmet has a white H with a in felt 7 on the front,which was the symbol the Norwegian resistance used.

For the right corner I built a smaller floor monter. I used plasticard and blister pack for this, which I filled with tiny memorabilia.

At last I could fix the LED lights in place, put on the roof and glue a few military signs to the top front of the monter.

I found a fitting box and transported the diorama to the museum. William Hakvaag, the founder and manager of the Lofoten War Museum was surprised to see a model of his collection, and was very happy to display it there.

Upon completing my project I`m very happy with the result and I discovered it is a great way to thin out the spares boxes. I guess it wont be long before I venture on to a similar project.

Happy modelling!

William Hakvaag was very pleased to have a diorama of his museum.

My miniature museum on display in the real museum.