Winter Village Toy Shop, Bakery and Post Office: my very first diorama

[lamascherariposta]

Greetings to all forum members!

This is my first post, but I'm lurking the forum since a year: it was roughly one year ago that my "dark age" ended and I got into Lego again, after more than 20 years (I'm 37!)

My name is Mosè and I write from Venice, Italy. It's a pleasure to meet you! :-)

I was attracted towards Lego again mainly thanks to the modulars: in a few months I bought them all, apart from the first three (but I'm getting also those, one day or another!) I also bought some other set, for example the whole Kingdoms line and some minifig-scale creator expert sets, including the Winter Village sets.

I have just finished my very first diorama, based on the first three Winter Village official sets: the Toy Shop (10199), the Bakery (10216) and the Post Office (10222).

The diorama is built on six baseplates, three 32x32 and three 32x16. I've put the main buildings around some kind of square, where in the center there is the Christmas tree included in the Toy Shop and next to it the gazebo coming with the Post Office. To the left, there is the frozen little pond included as well in the Post Office, and a big tree around which there is some sort of short ski run, with also a small slope acting as a play feature. Together with the big tree (which is unfortunately a bit too coloured because I don't have enough brown arcs), the thing that took me most of the time to build was the road passing through the landscape and ending in front of the Post Office. I've also added a small doghouse next to the Toy Shop and a fence with the Christmas tree sold by the little stand coming with the Bakery. The buildings are practically unchanged, except from the studs added to the floors in order to keep the minifigs in position.

I would really love to hear some comments from you. This is my first attempt in building a small diorama, so I probably did a lot of 'mistakes' and there is certainly a lot of room for improvements.

I add three pics here: if you want to see them all, you can go to the full album. Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I took them with a smartphone :-)

[Captain Braunsfeld]

I think this is a perfectly fine diorama. You have left enough free space so that the viewer does not get overwhelmed with houses, trees and minifigs.

Instead, everything has its place.

Nice job, Merry Christmas!

[Off the wall]

Nice work. I agree with the previous comment. Your use of open space is the way it should be. Too many similar type projects don't have enough open space, resulting in a cramped, crowded look.

Yours achieves the right balance.

[lamascherariposta]

I think this is a perfectly fine diorama. You have left enough free space so that the viewer does not get overwhelmed with houses, trees and minifigs.

Instead, everything has its place.

Nice job, Merry Christmas!

Nice work. I agree with the previous comment. Your use of open space is the way it should be. Too many similar type projects don't have enough open space, resulting in a cramped, crowded look.

Yours achieves the right balance.

Wow, thank you! I actually never thought to put more things in it: I have a very small apartment, probably my house is so cramped that I wanted at least the diorama to be more 'open' :-)

Looking at the other projects, I noticed that it's a very common habit to expand the original buildings: I've never done that, it almost seems like a heresy to me, I need to learn to overcome this feeling :-)

Thank you again!

Mosè

[Off the wall]

I wouldn't chnage one thing on it. It's very nice as it is.