Diorama: Noktown USA

Forum Member Footloose is best known as a “G.I.Joe Photographer” however he also has some exceptional skills at customizing.  Footloose is a frequent contributor to the Fighting118th often times showing his outstanding photos and competing in our Monthly Banner Contests.  He recently shared his Noktown Diorama which is loaded with details and skill.  Except for his weathered PTE  building,  all of the buildings were hand built from scratch.  Footloose took the time to answer a few questions:

Question #1: What was your inspiration for the Dio Set?

FL: To be honest with you I never intitially planned on building this town. I received a PTE headquarters this past year for my birthday from my fiance. That building kind of got the ball rolling. I wanted more buildings similiar to it. I looked around for some scale buildings but couldnt find anything affordable. While looking I found some other custom dios. People using foam for their dios. This is the one that got motivated me. It is a dilapidated building by Colorsoner on hisstank.com. He gave me a few pointers and sent me some links to a few tutorials. Ive been working on various buildings since. Noktown has been growing since.

Question #2: Is it true that you created all the buildings from scratch?

FL: Yes I built everything in my dio except the PTE building thats in there. I did do all the touch up work on it though.

Question #3: How many hours went into creating this particular Dio set?

FL: Hours? Not sure. Maybe a weeks worth of time. Ill start on a project and completely lose track of time, the small buildings in the dio take maybe 3 hrs from start to finish not including time for paint to dry. The roads take bout 2hrs, the bigger buidling with the steps in front I worked on for about a week. Im sure I could make better time if I planned out what I was working on, but sometimes im just winging it and working with ideas as they pop into my head.

Question #4: What if anything would you have done differently when creating the Dio set?

FL: Laid the roads out a little wider, I’m not happy with the one lane roads, kind of limits the action scenes I can set up for pics. I Would have also used different material for the roads. Currently the roads and sidewalk are level. Thats something id like to eventually change.

Question #5: Do you have future plans to create another Dio set? If so, can you share some ideas?

FL: I’m currently working on another building for Noktown. Its a mechanics shop with a garage. As for a new dio, i have been thinking about doing something with an artic theme, maybe an artic outpost. I’ve been bouncing some ideas around in my head as to what id like to build but really not a 100% sure as to what ill do. Once i have something, ill post it here. I do plan on expanding Noktown and fixing some current issues i have with it as stated above.

You can view discuss the Noktown Diorama Here

Check out the Full Gallery on Page 2!