Mountaineer Diorama in a Tin

For a few years I like to climb with my partner. Right with rope, harness, belay device and so on. Every summer there are nice memories of good climbing routes. But what can you really take away from a nice climbing tour or hike, besides a few photos?

See this: Climbing Camera

Today I'm making a small and handy climbing diorama for my partner, who belays me superbly on all my tours.

Thick cardboard (back of a sketchpad)

Flat tin (fish)

Mini-figures e.g. from railway model making

Thick yarn (as rope)

Computer with printer / pictures from outdoor magazines

Glue/ superglue

(Acrylic paint)

First the hard part: The can must be emptied! You really have to like fish.

Then wash the can out well with hot water and dishwashing soap, dry it off (be careful of the sharp edges) and let the moisture dry in the cracks for several hours.

Of course, you can use any good rocks and mountain landscapes as images. But I want to illustrate a very specific climbing route, the "Hurrah die Gams" at the Schmitt-Zabierow Hut near Lofer in Austria.

If you want to use a real image, it should have a background (landscape) and a foreground (rocks). Of course, you can also freely combine an image. Make sure that the perspectives fit together.

The background can be blurred. This increases the three-dimensional effect.

I measure the width of the can (here about 14,5 cm). I paste the photo I took on the climbing tour back then into a Word document. Here I can use the rulers and adjust the size of my picture. Then I print out the picture three times on normal paper: Once for the background and twice for the rocks.

Put the can on the paper with the background, mark with pencil and cut out a little smaller than the mark. Carefully place the background in the tin. If the size fits, you can fix the background with a few drops of glue.

Note: The glue should not wet through the paper. Try it out first!

Use another printout to design the climbing rock: glue it onto cardboard and cut it out. The rock should be a little larger than the original on the background cardboard.

We glue another piece of rock together to increase the 3D effect. Behind the two rock parts I stuck some cardboard to make the rocks stand out more.

Now you can try everything together in the can. Add a small piece of cardboard between the background and the rock so that the foreground stands out a bit.

Does everything fit? Then you should prepare a small strip of cardboard as a base. For a climbing diorama gray cardboard is ideal.

You can even highlight the 3D effect of the climbing rocks. But use a fine felt-tip pen for this, not a pencil: the graphite shines unwanted on the paper!

The next step depends on the figures you have got. Use a normal universal glue or superglue to attach the figures to the rock: one at the top, the other at the bottom of the "stand". Use the glue with care!

Now try to fix the thick yarn as rope between the climbers. Use a color that is easily visible on the rock, such as red or orange. The belaying climber always has more rope with him, note this when attaching the rope. I rolled up the rope a little and fixed it with superglue.

It has its charm, but if you don't like the fish tin, you can also paint the outside with acrylic paint.

The diorama can now be hung on the wall, placed on the window sill or ... a cardboard cover on it, wrapped in gift paper and given to your climbing partner on the next peak. What a surprise!

This climbing tour you can really take anywhere!

[The diorama doesn't stand up well? The can itself is not magnetic, but with two mini magnets you can give the tin a better stand.]