1:35 Roadside shrines

Roadside shrines in 1:35 scale from RT-Diorama

The accessory 1:35 Roadside shrines comes from the range of RT-Diorama, a brand that has long devoted itself to buildings and scenic elements for military dioramas. It is not a kit of a vehicle or a model of a machine in its own right but an element of the setting that is placed into the scene around models and figures in 1:35 scale.

What a roadside shrine brings to a scene

Roadside shrines and wayside crosses are among the classic marks of the Central and Eastern European landscape. They stood at crossroads, beside field tracks and at the edges of villages, so in a diorama they establish the place of the action at once. Next to a column of vehicles or a patrol on foot they act as a quiet counterpoint to the military hardware and tell the viewer that the war has spilled over into inhabited country. It is details like these that set a narrative scene apart from a mere board under a model.

Tips for placing it in the scene

Place the shrine so that it has a logical link to a road, a crossroads or a field boundary. An element set down with no relation to the terrain looks out of place, however well made it is in itself. It pays to turn it slightly off the viewer's line of sight so that it does not compete with the main subject, and to think about the vertical build-up of the scene: an upright element breaks a flat diorama silhouette and draws the eye. A good guide to the overall effect is period photographs from the particular area you want to evoke.

Who the accessory is for

• Builders of dioramas from the European battlefield of the Second World War
• Modelers looking for a strong point of reference in a scene
• Competition modelers working with narrative composition
• Collectors of scenic elements in 1:35 scale