These Dioramas Are To Die For

There are idiots that will jump at anything NPR finds newsworthy.

I guess it gives credence to "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".  I just don't see this.

 

Ed

Disturbing.

That is not art, it is disgusting and only appeals to people who think it is art. There is a sucker born every minute and this trash proves it.

Not my cup of pumpkin latte but it was mildly amusing.  There is not much layout humor out there.  CTT did an article sometime back of really amusing scenes on a layout.  Dick Christianson's, I think.  A kid hanging onto a kite on a water tower comes to mind. 

What's wrong with a dose of reality on your layout?  We want accurate horns, whistles, locomotive sounds, smoke, rivets, paint schemes, car details, building details and on and on and on.  You are not from this planet if you have never heard of murder and mayhem.  I find them a little humorous.  Probably would not put one on my layout even though I do live in the Detroit area.  We have all seen various scenes on layouts from car accidents, train wrecks, bank robberies, graffiti and even the action accessory of the woman being tied to the tracks. That is part of the fun in this great hobby.  In case you have forgotten, this is make believe.

Yeah, it's not like Lionel would try to capitalize on anything like that...

 

 

Rusty

Big difference between zombies, i.e. Night of the Living Dead or the grim reaper (not real) and serial killers and/or canniballism, i.e. Jeffery Dahmer or Ed Gein, (real).

 

I don't see anything "graphic" about the Lionel boxcar or grim reaper figure.

 

I always find it interesting that as long as something is called "art", theres no boundaries concerning bad taste, its "art".

 

Having said that, if your a young "aspiring artist" that no one gives a rats a** about, what better way to draw some attention to yourself.

I've got to disagree on this one POTRZBE. Just check out some of the scenes shown on the forum by Lee Willis, Perry, Frank53, Don Klose, etc. Some is very obvious, but some is very subtle and very ingenious. Even the masters such as Frank Ellison and John Allen used humor.

 

As far as subject matter is concerned, I guess my "Yogi's Revenge" is a little on the dark side, even if it is well received by most visitors.

 

 

 

 

Lots of other examples on my layout can be found in this Run 242 magazine article available in the OGR Digital Library for Premium Members:

 

 

Jim

I heard the thing on NPR and thought it a bit macabre, but okay - different strokes and all that.  Dioramas, or as I called them, "vignettes" are fun.  I enjoy making mine a lot and visitors to my layout enjoy checking them out.

She knows somebody......

I'm not into the Lionel halloween trains etc because I go for prototypical equipment. The only exception is I have a Gazabo and have Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy watching the concert with the Homies, remember Frankenstein was a music lover in the Bride of Frankenstein. But those scenes are gross and not for my layout which is based on a era when you didn't have to look around before putting out the trash.

There was a woman in the 1930's in Baltimore who made Small dioramas depicting true crimes. From the dioramas one could solve the crime. They were used to teach detectives. I have a book about them.

This lady is just making Fictional scenes no diffent than TV,books or movies. Artists have used scary themes in thier work forever. Look at Goyas paintings of canibalisim and firing squads. Picasso's  bombing of Guernica. Rodin's sculptures of ****. This persons work is of course no comparison but still you guys seem steamed becuase she's using "your" material.

Really?  I find the grim reaper gatehouse somewhat disturbing. 

 

The diorama's are no different than the Saw, Texas Chainsaw, Friday the 13th, etc. movies.  Some folks get off on this kind of stuff and there are folks willing to supply them.

 

Personally, I don't care for zombies, grim reapers, most Halloween c**p or the other end of the spectrum depicting fantasy gratuitous violence or gore.  So I don't buy any of it nor do I go looking for it.

 

But, as I've been told, it's a free country, so one man's art is another man's garbage.

 

Rusty

I couldn't agree more with you, Jim. 

 

In fact, there's a recent photo spread that was in OGR (or CTT?) that featured a scene on, I believe, Mr. Bramlage's layout, wherein there was a multi-level parking lot for female drivers.  There were several 'disasters' on each level, needless to say, that were humorous (albeit a bit 'controversial' around our house!!) in their own way.  But I nearly split a gut when I saw the roof-top guys' spectator bar on the adjacent building!  What an absolute hoot!

 

On our store HO layout we sprinkled a bit of humorous absurdity about...a nun waiting on the station platform with her charge of a waddle of penguins, a circus clown riding around in an empty gondola (Hey, what's that clown doing riding around in that gondola!?!?), The Grim Reaper lurking behind a tree adjacent to the roadside sandwich bar, et al.  THOSE are the things that most people comment on with a smile and a chuckle when looking at the layout. 

 

You're right.  John Allen...the roller-coaster-riding free spirit and iconic model railroader...had dozens of humorous vignettes sprinkled around his layout...his switching Stegosaurus, Emma, the exceedingly portly road hand standing at the middle of the roofwalk of a swayback car, the 'necktie' party beneath the trestle, etc., etc., etc..  To be sure, his layout, the Gorre and Daphetid, would leave you, at the very minimum, wide-eyed and slack-jawed at it's presentation.  But it was the bits of humor scattered about that would create the smiles.

 

Plenty will disagree.  But, IMHO, such humor is as necessary to the healthfulness of the hobby as is the running of trains, the bouquet of ozone and smoke, the inescapable cacophony of steel wheels on steel rails and solenoids energized with AC power, and fellow hobbyists getting together at a train show, TGI Friday's, club open house, et al.

 

          ...KD

 

 

On our store HO layout we sprinkled a bit of humorous absurdity about...a nun waiting on the station platform with her charge of a waddle of penguins

 

  Oh, that is hilarious!

 

And this proud 1972 graduate of St Anthony's School in Hawthorne NJ is pretty sure Sister Francis Imelda, the best reading teacher the world has ever seen, would laugh heartily at your scene!  I need to re-create that scene somewhere on my layout....

!!!  This takes the innocence out of the hobby.  I also will stay away from the Halloween-themed stuff.  Yes, I would like to include Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and/or Batman/Superman on my future layout, but absolutely nothing this graphic!  The murders that take place in the British crime shows I've seen are significantly tamer than this. (Their American counterparts, on the other hand, are pushing their limits.)  Some scenarios are best to leave out of the picture, especially if one has lots of first-time visitors.

 

I personally see nothing humorous about murder in any form, much less cannibalism.

 

Aaron

After reading the article I find this very entertaining. I like the humor and see the creativity that has gone into them. I agree this is not for everyone so that is fine also.

A local "high end" store that sells hand crafted items has small "shadow box" frames that contain nice scenes made from materials and "O" figures that we use. I think they cost near $100., but they are very well done.

Aside from the subject matter, the ones discussed here are NOT very well done, IMO. In fact, they turned me off even before I noticed the "gore".

Pretty much echoes my sentiments.  NPR = Not Particularly Rational (especially with my tax-payer $$$  .

 

George