I’m curious to know if some of you update their dioramas as time passes and new ideas, new products, and new accessories become available. Also, how often?
Would you consider dioramas forever done and final or would you consider them to be transient in nature?
What a strange question; surely a diorama’s purpose is to capture a fragment of time, of an event, or rather, modelled to that effect.
Once modelled, why would you amend it? I mean, if subsequent info comes to light and you realise you’ve goofed on some uniform details, then all well and good, have fun painting awkward places on figures that are secured to a base!
But to alter the moment in time? Why not build something afresh, even sequential if you like, so you can almost filmstrip it, though I’m not sure where one would stop.
My purported dios often aren’t meant to be dios at all; they’re the way they are mainly to showcase a vehicle type; I just feel that a model environment does this to the best, even if say, just a stretch of German road portrayed, and therefore a lot of my stuff aren’t dios at all. Some may view that differently, but I just see it as setting the vehicle, AFV or softskin, in context. if it tells a story then great, but as I say, that often isn’t the aim at all.
No I’ve never updated a diorama, but then again I’ve only done 3 or 4 in all my modeling years.
I’m of the feeling that once a project is done, it’s on to the next. Vehicle or diorama that is, I don’t redo vehicles either. I see some on this site have done that. Carlos (Stikpysher) is in the process of redoing an old Tamiya M5 Stuart.
I tend to agree with @BootsDMS and @metalhead85, in that once the build is done, well, it’s done. I have found that I really like building dios, and like taking final pictures, but then, I am stuck with a generally large model of something that may or may not look that great, which over time, are subjected to some fairly undignified neglect - first comes a uniform coat of dust, then parts getting knocked off or broken, and I’m stuck with big objects taking up space.
I worried about this for a while, then I read an article about a photographer, Lori Nix, who btw makes remarkable projects, but, noted, she is first and foremost a photographer, and not a model builder (and evidently not that sentimental 
) as when she is done, the projects go to the trash! I have found that I like building things, but don’t feel any need to look at them that often once they are built.
So, every few years or so, some of my projects make their way to the trash too - I’ll pick off interesting bits and pieces, vehicles, and figures, and when I can, reuse them. I’ve recently taken a different approach - tearing the whole thing apart and even reusing walls and the base, or some portion of it, even on different scaled builds. For example:
yeah…what was I thinking??? I built a giant fabrication shop and packed it full. I really loved building it, but when it was done - that was it - and off to collecting dust. Now, 12 or 14 years later, well I’ve been recycling it - with parts of walls going to various projects (the original was 1/35, and new projects 1/48, 1/35, and 1/24), and the base now cut in half and used on two others:
The pictures with the blue truck are a project where the walls and framing were very useful to have around and reuse. Half of the original base and a segment of a wall used on the two smaller pictures for another.
The brick work in the lower left, and the yellow fence and gate were on the original. While hard to see, many shop tools were reused in the upper left, and even small items, like the bank of conduit and shop lights in the upper right found new homes.
I realize this approach might not be ideal for others. I have kept a few, one for sentimental reasons as it has many figures painted by a friend who posted here years ago, and others I just like - but, I am yet to have updated a dio.
Cheers
Nick 
Thank you for your answers. I guess my question is with respect to marginal add-ons, not a whole revamp of the diorama or vignette.
My question was prompted by my random find of some accessories that I had thought of while building a vignette. I didn’t want to build them from scratch at the time, but now that I know they exist, I feel that they would be a nice addition.
Perhaps the answer is that my vignette is in fact not finished, and won’t be until it feels so in my head.
Still, I’ve seen people repainting models or repurposing bases, so the question remains somewhat open.
I have yet to complete a meaningful diorama but regularly improve old projects. My skills improve. New parts come along. When I discover a correctable mistake, I correct it.
Directly to the point, I have a Sherman III in a small diorama. The second I settle on a good basing material I intend to rip it apart, take the best parts, and use them as components of a better diorama.
Edit: I am about to add a better M2 machine gun to a Sherman Firefly I “completed” a month ago.
If I lived in a mansion (or Wade’s new man-cave) I probably would keep old dioramas, but because I don’t, I don’t. So it’s partly a space issue, and partly whether I have the energy to build a new one.
I’m about to re-use a smallish one I built last year, turned 180° and slightly modified. Worth keeping in the back of mind when building a new one, whether it could work 2 or 3 times as hard for mostly the same effort/outlay.
@Fanchmodel, Ahh - I misunderstood your question. Sure, it seems to make sense that if you access a part or materials you think would improve the project, why not? I tend to get delayed in a project when I run out of basic materials (styrene, paint etc), so not similar to what you’re describing. However, this can result in a project being left to languish for a while, which naturally compels me to get tired of it and to start something else!
Oh, and don’t be fooled by @Dioramartin Tim’s story about lack of storage - in reality, Tim is one of those guys who builds remarkable projects, and then (gleefully I might add!) blows them up to get good final build/action photos!
Looking forward to seeing more of your builds -
Cheers
Nick
It was asked as a rather broad question, but seeing the first answers compelled me to provide more context.
It’s interesting, and quite startling to me, to read that you dismantle your creations to make new ones! I guess it makes sense given how much and how big your builds are. I cannot imagine doing something like that 
OK guilty as charged, but the major difference being your dios & buildings have stood up to the most intense scrutiny as works of Art…by the time I’d finished with mine, they didn’t stand up…
(No photoshoppery, it was all IED pyromania)
I don’t just build for my enjoyment, I build for competition. But I have a problem, I have run out of storage space for my dioramas, so I have adopted a rather draconian solution. Those that aren’t show winners face a harsh judgement, they will be scrapped. Vehicles, buildings, figures, trees, and salvageable features will be preserved and reused with new construction and design improvements into a new diorama. It isn’t my construction, painting or groundwork that causes me to lose a contest, it’s my composition, which doesn’t always work, but most often, it does. And for those who don’t, they get rebuilt until they are winners. Otherwise, I’d have to stop building. As it is, my pace of construction has slowed considerably, and it may take me a year or more to complete a single project. Free space in our house is at a premium. I blame my wife for the majority of the clutter, but between my large number of dioramas, books, tools, mineral collection and everything else I have accumulated over the years, I am part of the problem too. Hence, this is my M.O.
I have “re-done” a couple of dioramas that I built way back in the '70s with new ground cover / vegetation materials. Back then, I used white glue for most final assembly of the models and figures to the base, so removing those elements was pretty easy. I actually washed the models and figures in warm, soapy water and rinsed well (finally using an airbrush as an air gun to blow excess water off of them).
The bases got a careful and thorough vacuuming and wiping down of the decorative edges. Some small repairs were made, but nothing that changed the original design.
I replaced materials like chopped twine for static grass, lichen as tree foliage for “teased” and painted steel wool and Noch paper leaves. I then reassembled the dioramas back to their original composition. So, “updated” but not conceptually changed or different.
Ah, I like that, Mike. I think that makes sense to revisit a dio after some time, especially since the hobby has evolved tremendously. It’s like the amount of new material and techniques out there come whisper at you that it’s time for an upgrade!
But yes, I wouldn’t change the composition, just modernize the look and add bits and pieces if I believe they upgrade the work.
My question was not too far-fetched after all!
For me,when it’s done,its done.
Completely fair too!
I have been known to revisit a completed project for various reasons. Like if something new comes to my attention. I had done this diorama featuring the Skoda M1917 45cm. siege gun. Much later I found out there was kit of the loading cart available. I felt it was worth the effort to add it, and that it really improved the scene.
This was not the first time I’ve done his, and it probably won’t be the last.
I had a teacher who once said, you can spend your whole life on one painting. (A little overly dramatic to be sure, but she made a good point.)There must come a point when you say, “done”, put the sealing coat on, take what you have learned and move on to the next one.
I’d rather re-do a diorama from scratch than fiddle with an existing one - as tempting as that may be.
Some of you guys should get together and start a new YouTube channel. Scale Model Destruction.
Lol, I’m sure there is an audience for that!
I don’t; if my dioramas want to know what’s been happening lately they can watch the news.
