As my long-time readers know to their cost, several years ago I became interested in creating dioramas (see also Ooh! Another Tempting Diorama Project and Marvelous Mind-Boggling Miniatures). Sad to say, thus far, I’ve only created one of these little rapscallions, but I have plans for more.
My first attempt, which I worked on with my chum Mike Mittlebeeler, was my Caveman Diorama (see also Caveman Diorama Appears in Modelling Competition). The idea here was to create a scene of a cave circa 10,000 BC and present this diorama in a 1950s TV set. One of the elements in the scene is a time portal. Eventually, there will be figures sitting on the rocks around the campfire. One of these figures will be in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt representing yours truly.
Actually, I just ran across two videos I’d forgotten about as shown below. The first video is of the cave itself, while the second video shows the state of play regarding the time portal.
Eeek! I just realized that the second video was made in 2016, which is five years ago as I pen these words. Where does the time go?
Just a few brief notes before we proceed to the meteor diorama referred to in the subtitle to this blog. When I eventually return to work on the caveman diorama, I’m thinking of having a couple of small open wooden cases on the cave floor — one containing tiny cans of SPAM, the other bottles of red wine. I’m also contemplating adding a small TV to the scene. This would be a replica of the TV containing the main diorama. It would have a tiny screen that alternates between showing cartoons of The Flintstones and episodes of I Love Lucy, with a couple of cave kids sitting on the floor watching.
OK, returning to the topic of today’s blog, I just received an email from my chum Rick Curl saying, “Hi Max, I found a YouTube channel called “4thecraft” where the guy makes dioramas, mostly encased in acrylic resin. He used several interesting techniques in his videos that may be useful for your own diorama project.” Accompanying Rick’s message was a link to this video.
O-M-G! This miniature diorama is amazing. It provides an awesome depiction of a meteor clipping a skyscraper. Just to refresh our memories, a meteoroid is a small body moving in the solar system that would become a meteor if it were to enter a planet’s atmosphere. When a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere (or that of another planet, like Mars) at high speed, the resulting fireball (a.k.a. shooting stars) is called a meteor. When a meteor survives its trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it’s called a meteorite.
Actually, this raises an interesting question. Regarding the object depicted in the diorama above, is it still a meteor when it hits the building or does the act of hitting the building transmogrify it into a meteorite (or does it have to wait a fraction of a second until it actually touches the ground before it achieves meteorite status)? This is going to be niggling me until I find the answer. What say you?
I learned several clever techniques by watching the meteor video. The attention to detail is truly amazing.
I wish I knew what kind of UV curing cement and acrylic resin he used. I watched though several other of his videos but if there’s any info there about sources for those materials I missed it. The UV curing cement is particularly interesting. I ordered several types from eBay sellers, but I got poor results with all of them. Does anyone here have any info about this?
Hi Rick — thanks for sharing this video — do you make dioramas or are you wanting the UV stuff for something else? Have you tried posting a comment (question) to his video?
I think any meteor hitting a building should be considered a meteorite. For instance, if a small meteor hits a tall building and is found inside, I’m sure that the result would be called a meteorite even though the meteor didn’t make it to the ground.
That’s a good point, and I sort of agree with your reasoning, but what about a small meteor hitting a plane in the air and being found inside — is that also a meteorite? Now you’ve got me thinking — what if a meteoroid hits the space station and is found inside — does that bypass the meteor stage and transition directly from meteoroid to meteorite?
How about “If it hits anything, it’s a Meteorite”? 😁
That would make sense to me
> “Regarding the object depicted in the diorama above, is it still a meteor when it hits the building?”
Regardless of what you call it, it’s gonna ruin your day….
Especially if you had just painted the building or only recently finished cleaning its windows.