Like most folks, I never watched the original Ghost in the Shell film when it was released in theaters.  And like most folks, when I first watched it on VHS from my local video store, I foamed at the mouth and couldn’t get enough.  Written in part by Masamune Shirow (who also created Appleseed) and directed by Mamoru Oshii (who did Patlabor, Jin Roh and Stray Dog), Ghost in the Shell became the anime film for the mass audience and a heroine in “The Major” Motoko Kusanagi unlike any other anime released yet.  Akira can be argued as the greatest anime ever made, but it was made for a very specific audience.  Whereas, Ghost in the Shell was something that most folks could enjoy without getting into too much philosophical arguments.  Let’s see, there’s a super bad-arse female cyborg cop who beats criminals down in her panties.  There’s her more-muscle-with-equal-brains partner who’s just as cool as she is, and then there are the villains.  The integral part of what makes Ghost in the Shell work so well is the fact that the villains that Motoko and her Section 9 crew face seems to get more worse as they appear.

As fans of the series know, it took a really, really, really long time after the first film was released before Mamoru Oshii and his production company began to remotely revive the series.  And obviously, when he did, the World was waiting with all eyes and ears – waiting for the return of The Major.  Oshii gave us Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, a completely brand new TV series that had no beginning or ending and no connection with any of the films or the comics.  Each episode started as a segment in the lives of the members of Section 9, their battles and investigations, etc. and when the episode ended, that was it.  Then the next episode would start up anew.  Many folks will tell you that the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is one of the most ingenious animes ever made.  You didn’t have to get caught in the middle of an episode and you didn’t have to follow last week’s episode to know what’s going on.  Although a few of the episodes did get linked and continued to one another.

Batou here sports a completely custom head.  I sat down and sculpted his head over about six different sessions using Apoxie clay.  The body is Hot Toys’ new 2.0 body, heavily customed by adding lots of muscles around the abdomen and arms as you can see.  The pants is from some military figure and the shirt is custom sewn by me.  His jacket is from a Word War II figure made by Dragon.  I think it was from the General Patton figure if I remember correctly.  I have so many of these loose military parts I could make a whole army.  All of his guns are from the Takara Motoko Ghost in the Shell figure.

“See, that wasn’t so hard” was what I kept chanting to myself after I completed this diorama.  Standoff at Baghdad is my very first diorama.  I’ve thought of doing dioramas and bases for my figures before, but was always afraid to because it looks so complicated.  To tell you the truth, they’re a lot easier than making the figures themselves.

I’ve been quite hooked on dioramas lately.  Ever since I saw some awesome display bases at the Wondercon 2004 convention in San Francisco, I’ve been going mad researching, reading, trying to think of ways to do my own dioramas and bases.  Dioramas bring your figures to a whole different level.  It greatly enhances your figure from cool to super badass.  There was a Predator figure I saw at Wondercon that was pretty cool.  While it was a resin statue and he wasn’t very moveable, he looked pretty good due to the paint job.  Then there was another Predator, exactly the same, crouching on an 8-inch diorama display base.  The diorama was of a skyscraper gargoyle and the Predator was kneeling on top of the gargoyle, looking down, prowling for its next hunt.  The exact same predator next to it, without the display base, simply looks like he’s getting ready to take a crap.

I realized that dioramas and displays can drastically alter the mood and setting of your figure.  In the case of the Predators mentioned above, it can make your figure seem like he’s had one too many bean dishes or he’s on the hunt.  Besides making your figure all that much cooler, dioramas can act as a display base so you can just pop them on any shelf without worrying if they should go inside a glass case or not.  They can be displayed anywhere.

Anyways, on my way home from the Wondercon, I stopped by Michael’s Arts and Crafts to see what I can come up with to start a diorama.  I’ll start off with something easy, something that doesn’t require any real work, sculpting, painting, etc.  That way I can at least understand the mechanics of a diorama.  Everyone, at some point in their lives, has done a diorama.  Whether it’s your third grade science project or a college presentation.  From the dioramas that I have seen done by other customizers, I remember they always used some sort of wooden base.  I looked at the pictures of Hirano-san’s dioramas over and over again to see how he did his.  You can check out his website here:  Hirano’s Website

Don’t try and take the easy way out by buying a diorama unless you find a really nice one or if the price is right.  Some custom dioramas are extremely overpriced and expensive.  Most will run you anywhere between $100-400.  You can build one yourself for under $20 if you give it a shot.  The one you see here took me about six hours and $25 to make, but that’s primarily a result of the materials and not the actual cost.  I can reuse the glue, sand, etc. on at least five or six more dioramas before they run out so the average cost is probably $15 to make a diorama to your liking.  The wooden display base costs $9 at Michael’s.  It comes unpainted and sealed in plastic.  I stained it with a dark cherry color and glossed it with a sealer bought at the local hardware store for about $5 (for both the stain and the gloss sealant).  The big stone wall was made from styrofoam which I found in my recycle bin (part of the packaging from my new DVD player).  I cut out the styrofoam and poked lots of holes and scratched it up with a blunt screwdriver.  I then spray painted it with a cream-colored spraypaint called “Stone Creations” made by Rustoleum ($6).  This paint basically gives you a stone effect and makes the surface very course.  Once the paint dried and the sealant on the wood dried, it’s time to start the groundwork.

I used paper / framing tape to cover the side of the wood base and spraypainted a single coat of the Stone Creations paint directly onto the base.  Before the paint dried, I scattered some model sand ($2) over the base as well as some real dirt onto the paint.  That way, it will stick and become part of the paint when it dries onto the wood.  Once the base ground was dry, I used regular Elmer’s glue and glued the styrofoam wall to the wood base.  Detailing work then started with tiny rocks, branches, grass, etc. that I found around my backyard.  I just glued it with Elmer’s glue directly onto the wooden base.  For the final touches on the stone wall, I watered down some acrylic paint and touched up the wall and surrounding groundwork.  I didn’t know acrylic paint can also paint dirt and rocks too.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with my first attempt at a diorama base.  It wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be to make one nor was it hard or time consuming.  Now I wished I would’ve started doing dioramas sooner.  They are fun to do and you can come up with basically any scenario you want to.  I need to research and look into doing more sci-fi bases and gothic themes with intestines falling out and skulls getting ripped off with brain particles . . . sorry, got a little carried away there.  I need to find a way to do more harder and cooler gothic and sci-fi themed dioramas.  In any event, try your hand at doing a diorama.  It’s not hard at all and all of the supplies and materials can be found at your local hobby or craft store.