General design and costing for Christmas diorama

[Andy D]

I am starting to consider my design for my Halloween and Winter Village dioramas for 2015. I have been purchasing lots of bley for Halloween, now starting to consider the Winter Village diorama. This year it was a collection of the official sets arranged on a white table covering with plates to fill in, but not full.

I estimate my display area to be about 240 x 80 studs or 19,200 studs in area. Estimating the cost of using plates to cover 19,200 studs comes out to somewhere around $200 to $500 depending on the size of plates I choose. This seems like quite a bit just for the base.

I would like to add some texture to the diorama and a continuous base of studs seems the easiest way but... It seems costly.

Any ideas on a diorama base that would be less costly? Or where to purchase plates to cover 19,000 studs? Or should I just bite the bullet and turn my credit card loose? What would you do?

Andy D

[Stefaneris]

If you are a member of a LUG I would consider buying baseplates over LUGbulk, however this takes a long time with shipping. Otherwise, since the plates are "just" for the base, you could use used plates and cover them with white bricks (snow or so) as you planned.

[Andy D]

If you are a member of a LUG I would consider buying baseplates over LUGbulk, however this takes a long time with shipping. Otherwise, since the plates are "just" for the base, you could use used plates and cover them with white bricks (snow or so) as you planned.

Unfortunately not a member of a LUG (none close-by). I have considered using 5 48 x48 BP, 7 32 x 32 and 1 16 x 32 for the base, then covering with white plates and trying yo add some texture in the form of snow drifts and such. It just seems costly, however if I want o do it, it just may require unleashing my credit card.

Any other ideas?

Andy D

Edited January 10, 2015 by Andy D

[Meiko]

My best suggestion would be to use baseplates and cover them with white bricks. You can likely secure some baseplates for cheap prices at yard sales if you don't want to buy them in bulk online for a retail/pick-a-brick price.

Also, there are actually quite a few LEGO User Groups in Southern California as that's where your profile says you are located:

• LUGoLA - LUG of Los Angeles
  
• SandLUG - San Diego LUG
  
• OCLUG - Orange County LUG
  
• LBLUG - Long Beach LUG
  

[Andy D]

My best suggestion would be to use baseplates and cover them with white bricks. You can likely secure some baseplates for cheap prices at yard sales if you don't want to buy them in bulk online for a retail/pick-a-brick price.

Also, there are actually quite a few LEGO User Groups in Southern California as that's where your profile says you are located:

• LUGoLA - LUG of Los Angeles
  
• SandLUG - San Diego LUG
  
• OCLUG - Orange County LUG
  
• LBLUG - Long Beach LUG
  

I tried contacting LUGoLA and SandLUG, I got no response so I assumed that they had disbanded. I didn't know about OCLUG, I wil try to contact them, not for LUGbulk, but for social aspects of a LUG.

Thanks for the info...

Andy D

[Meiko]

I tried contacting LUGoLA and SandLUG, I got no response so I assumed that they had disbanded. I didn't know about OCLUG, I wil try to contact them, not for LUGbulk, but for social aspects of a LUG.

Thanks for the info...

Andy D

Nope, none of those have disbanded. You can see a map/list of current LUGs at http://lan.lego.com/lugs

[Andy D]

Nope, none of those have disbanded. You can see a map/list of current LUGs at http://lan.lego.com/lugs

@Meiko

Seems like this thread got changed to info about LUGs. It appears that OC LUG may be the closest to me. I tried to find contact info but I keep going in circles.

How do I find contact info on someone in OCLUG so that I may see about participating in the LUG?

Thanks,

Andy D (MyPlasticBricks on Flickr)

[Meiko]

@Meiko

Seems like this thread got changed to info about LUGs. It appears that OC LUG may be the closest to me. I tried to find contact info but I keep going in circles.

How do I find contact info on someone in OCLUG so that I may see about participating in the LUG?

Thanks,

Andy D (MyPlasticBricks on Flickr)

The easiest way I see would be to join their Facebook group and post your questions like how do you officially join and when the next LUG meetup will be. You could do the same in their Flickr group.