This is the diorama that I have always wanted to do. It was very hard to plan because although I had the image of what I wanted to create in my head, it was hard to put it down on paper and because of lack of space at home I couldn't create it beforehand.
All I could do was plan how much steck I would need for each tower, building etc. and make sure I had all I needed.
In the end it went together surprising quickly and was more or less how I had imagined it.
To give the impression that the castle was surrounded by rocks and high up, I used an 8x4 foot board on top of tables and used underbed storage boxes with another 8x4 foot board on top of these and built the castle on top. One problem with this was that being only 5'2" I couldn't reach to put things in place. Luckily Damo was around on Friday to carefully climb on the tables and put everything in place.
There are lots of photos because I wanted to show all the different parts of the castle and village...
First, Hogsmeade Village...
The Hogwarts Express in the station...
A later photo taken when Gorden had taken his carriages home...
The Owl Post Office... (One of the things visitors could do was to count the owls in Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.)
The Three broomsticks...
The Hog's Head...
The Shrieking Shack...
Hogwarts Castle...
Hagrid's Hut...
Harry Ron and Hermione with Hagrid in his pumpkin patch...
The Whomping Willow...
The giant squid in the lake...
Professor Snape in one of the towers...
Professor McGonagall, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle...
The tower containing Professor Dumbledore's Office...
The Owlery...
Flying lesson...
Inside the castle grounds...
Hogwarts staff and students...
and finally, Hermione, Ron, Harry and Hagrid...(can you work out how I made Hagrid?)
Hope you like what I have attempted to create.
I'm planning on taking this to Knaresborough so hope to make more of the other shops in the village by then and make more students and teachers, so watch this space!
Elaine
