Bio Diorama: Jack and the Beanstalk

I have coined this phrase called "Bio Diorama" and it refers to a diorama that also has a real living component to it. In the case of this diorama it has a real beanstalk growing right out of it. This diorama also has a few other interesting aspects to it. I didn't have a miniature Jack or a miniature giant so I sculpted them. (Miniature Giant? Isn't that an oxymoron?) Anyhoo, this is a really fun project and it took me two weeks and eight hours to complete it!

I also have a video tutorial of this project located at the bottom of this page.

Two weeks and ten hours because it took two weeks for the beanstalk to grow from a seed then it took four hours to make the diorama and about another six hours to sculpt the miniature jack and giant.

The size of the diorama will depend on the size of your bean plant! So I recommend that you plant the beans (i put three in this container so I could intertwine them) and then let them grow. Once they are a good size you can use them to figure out what size diorama would look right. In my case the distance between the lower level and the upper level is about 14 inches.

You don't have to sculpt your own miniatures. I am sure you can buy some that are adequate. But if you do want to sculpt the minis I have lots of tutorials on how to do it here: Sculpting miniatures

The completed diorama

Of course you don't have to use a real bean plant for your diorama. I just think it makes it rather unique. You could always buy silk bean plants or make something!

The following picture shows you the completed structure before I added the terrain features and the miniatures. It is just a piece of plywood (9x18 inches), 2 pieces of 2x4, A piece of threaded rod that is 16 inches long , with nuts and washers, and a piece of clear plastic (lexan). You don't have to use lexan. You could use a thin piece of wood.

The diorama structure

The next picture shows you how the base is built. This way you can slide the potted plant easily into it. I simply drilled a hole for the rod and secured it tightly in place with nuts and washers. Add the piece of lexan at the top and you are done. From there it is all about adding the terrain features, the clouds (cottonballs) and the miniatures.

Standard terrain making techniques are used to make the base terrain and if this kind of thing is new to you I have a whole series of tutorials that show you exactly how to make terrain like this (how to make a diorama) but here is an overview:

You paint the base colors

Once the paint has dried you brush on glue then sprinkle on the various textures.

Complete the textures

You continue adding larger and larger textures, grass, bushes, trees, small stones etc. And the base is done.

The clouds are simply a matter of gluing down cotton balls that I tore apart to make cloud shapes.

You can also see in this picture that I have created wire frames for the characters in the diorama. I will use these to help in getting the scale and size right when I sculpt them.

Now it's jus a matter of making and adding the minatures! And of course putting this whole thing in a place where the beanstalk will get sunlight!!!

To learn how to sculpt miniatures I have a whole series of tutorials including Jack and the Giant here: Miniatures

The Video Tutorial

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