Link's house diorama from Zelda - A Link to the Past (WIP scratch build)

Hello everyone!

I recently got the sort of general "maker" bug after watching a bunch of videos on YouTube (Adam Savage's Tested stuff, wargaming terrain and train diorama tutorials, etc.) and decided to get started on my own stuff with some fan art of sorts: a diorama of the area around Link's house from one of my all-time favorite games, Zelda: A Link to the Past.

The area captured from the game:

View attachment 849350

I started with the house itself:

View attachment 849349

Started by making a basic digital 3D model and "unfolding" it into patterns in SketchUp, then printed it directly onto 0.5mm recycled cardboard for cutting. Bit of sanding and spackle to smooth things over, then primed with gesso tinted gray and painted with artist's acrylics. The cardboard probably wasn't the best choice since its roughness gets exaggerated at this scale, but I'm pretty happy with the results for a first go and don't mind things looking a little "craftsy" considering the game's cartoony aesthetic. It's also pretty shiny but I'll be applying a matte varnish once everything's properly nailed down.

The scale I'm using is 2 pixels = 1mm, which makes the details very fiddly for a beginner but I figure I'm at least not wasting tons of materials if and when I screw something up, and also want the end result to be reasonably sized for a shelf, it'll end up at 256 mm x 256 mm i.e. very close to 10" by 10".

I've been spending time figuring out how to model all the props like bushes and trees (and to reproduce them with molds so I get some consistency and don't lose my mind hand-sculpting all the 25 bushes etc. since I do want some sense of accurate original detail), and getting supplies and tools and setting up my workspace since all I had to start with were basically the paints and brushes and random scraps of cardboard. But I have most of it figured out now and am getting started on the diorama itself:



The core of the terrain is done (also plopped the house and a prototype tree on top for the photo to get a feel for things), the foamboard will all get covered of course so I could've just made it a cardboard "box" from my 3D model pattern with supports inside etc., but I just felt like going this route for some reason, feels more ... solid and substantive, even if it's all in my head. All my cuts aren't exactly clean but I'll model the actual cliff faces on top and sand/spackle the model sides in the end so it shouldn't really matter.

I'll be posting some progress pics here as I get further along. Feedback, questions and comments welcome!

P.S. I've got a more detailed build log of the house in an imgur gallery that I did before finding(/remembering) this awesome place, would it be poor form to link directly to that or should I format it into a forum post?

Figured out the most workable way (for me, with what I've got around ...) of doing the cliffsides - shaping foamed PVC. Good thing I just bought samples of a bunch of random modeling stuff I might need.

My original plans of using clay and making 'texture molds' to stamp the shapes out just got messy and difficult, had issues with durability and warping etc. on top.



The foamed PVC I got is 2mm thick "cardboardy" stuff but any impression you put in it stays there - which is why things look a little shaky and have little scuffs, but I like the results enough to go with this. The eventual shaded paintjob should amplify the intended shape, and my worklight is purposely stark to catch the detail.

I had some random cheap sculpting tools but they were missing the most useful and simple one for this job, so I made one myself by sticking a ball headed pin in a wooden stick. The shape is effectively "drawn" on with pressure rather than actually removing material so it's still pretty planar but I'm purposely trying to keep the abstracted cartoony thing going with the shapes as well.



I'll fill the gaps etc. with fine spackle that I'll also sculpt to try and make things seamless, but I'll only do that once I glue the hill piece to the base so I can do the seam against the ground in the same pass.

This looks really nice!

I never played a link to the past, but I did play 'A link between worlds'. And if I'm not mistaken... thats the same world. I recognize the area!

Can't wait to see more!

-hopli

EDIT: your first two links aren't working btw. (for me atleast)

looks great! brings me back to playing link to the past. Look forward to more!

As a long-time gamer I'm loving this - well done!

Looking forward to seeing more. Are you going to light it too?

Thanks everyone!
Hoplitespear: For me it's the other way around (haven't played Link Between Worlds) but yeah, looking at screenshots the world is the same in broad strokes. I really should get a 3DS, I hear the game's good.
skiffy: Yeah I might light it in the future, I'm leaving the option open ... it's foamboard so I can just go through the base into the house if I need to, and I can attach the house lightly so I can remove it without wrecking everything to redo the windows and stuff.

Some more progress:

The hill pieces aren't glued to the base yet, but the cliff sides are done, and I added the base layer of dirt using 180-grit sandpaper. I did some tests on the side and it should hopefully be a nice and uniform texture that works with the cartoony flat color look at this small scale. I feel like sand/grit and grass flocking would be a bit "too much" for this. I'll do another layer for the grass with finer sandpaper instead of just painting it on, since I want everything to have real volume and texture.

I made the bit of water in the corner (and consequently the whole base) a little too deep since I was thinking of trying out some kind of resin/whatever water pour, but decided against it in the end - the water's opaque in the game after all, and finding a reasonably priced product to do it with and then having to do practice and it being against the base's corner etc. just made it too much of a pain. I'll just hard surface model the water and do my experiments with the 'simulated' water in the future in other pieces.

For the terrain I still also need to do the spackling for the seams, and model the line of rocks along the water feature's edge and the sides of the slope leading up to the middle "in situ" out of DAS putty and more foamed PVC. The slope's a bit steep but I decided to stick closer to the original (slightly inconsistent when translated to real 3D) grid measurements instead of smoothing the slope out over a larger area, to keep the geometry nice and simplified.

Pretty cool idea. One of my favorite Zelda games.

Done with the grass layer - I cut the edges reasonably close using a hole punch and then did finer adjustment with a hobby knife. I thought it would get really tedious but it wasn't actually that bad. The colors look a little funky since the saturation is the wrong way around and the grass looks more "dirt-y", but I'm pretty happy with the depth and texture.


The patch of dirt on top of the hill looks a bit messy because I messed up and forgot to cut it out before gluing the grass piece, so I had to cut it off afterwards. A bit bummed about it especially since it's right in front of the house which is going to draw the eye. I'll probably try and fix it with fine spackle - fill the whole patch up to the level of the grass and then carve out a cleaner shape. And hopefully paint will help hide the roughness a bit. If all else fails I can just redo the hilltop.

Next up is spackle + modeling clay to smooth and cover all the edges and seams, and to sculpt the sides of the slope leading up to the hill.

Done with the clay + spackle on the base, also added an MDF base from an old unused cheap photo frame for stability since (quite obviously ...) the foamcore couldn't hold the sharp bottom corners. Fixed the hilltop dirt patch as well by replacing it.

Also been constantly working on the side on all the "props" (bushes, stones, trees etc.) that go on top of the terrain. Here's how I did the bushes:

(reference)

I did sculpts of a top and bottom part from green stuff (epoxy modeling putty) and multiple one-part molds of both from "blue stuff". I push the green stuff into the molds and then add a little nub on the bottom of the part by hand to avoid having to do two part molds since these parts will be fixed very close to the ground and the bottom doesn't really matter too much.

(Blue stuff is something I stumbled on accidentally, I think it's a specific brand (bought mine from Green Stuff World), but it's basically a reusable material for making molds that turns pliant in just hot water and sets into a firm but flexible mold in a matter of minutes. I think it's amazing stuff, not sure of its "high end" performance as I'm a beginner but the speed and ease of making molds like this and them being reusable feels like a superpower. )


Then I just clean up the parts with files, poke holes in both the parts and string them up on florist's wire with a little glue to get a way of attaching them to the base more sturdily. The material just happens to be green, I'll still be priming and painting them later on. The results are pretty rough, but I'm pretty happy with it, etc. etc. like I've said before, I don't mind things looking a little less than perfect since this is my first project and I'd like to actually get done with it.

First patchy coat of primer (gesso tinted tan with acrylics), done before the ground detail to help the glue stick since the business side of sandpaper is fiddly to glue. Priming with a brush since I have no indoor space to use sprays and it's too cold outside.

Using screenshots with a grid overlay to mark positions for ground detail (grass blades, stones, flower leaves).

The details are made from green stuff, just rolling thin "sausages" to slice for the stones, and making an extrusion mold to get a profile to slice for the leaves.

Filed the ground detail down to be more level and to take the primer better, then it's just more coats of primer ...

Priming done for the base! Not perfectly uniform, but should be close enough to get an even base color on.

Just found this thread and will be following now! Such a cool idea and I love the clever blue stuff molds

Thanks E Williams!


I had a hard time deciding how exactly to do the water, but decided to just build it in the end (instead of some kind of fancy resin/whatever cast water effect), since the water is fully opaque in the game anyway ...

The piece for the surface was kind of annoying to work out since I was fitting it in after the fact, but I got it to fit well enough doing the finer adjustment with files and spackle. Picked plasticard/styrene since I want the end surface to be glossy, but brushing on my gesso primer will probably rough it up a bit.

I feel like starting to look into airbrushes since spray cans are basically out of the question in my living situation ... but I'm not gonna hold this project up for that.