What Is a Nanodream?
It's a silly name for a diorama in a tiny glass jar that's about the diameter of a quarter. The finished effect is sort of like a model of a model—very familiar territory for me.
True story. I was inspired to make them due to an accident: I spilled a small container of model vegetation left over from my last layout project on the floor. As I was cleaning up the little mess, it occurred to me that even these tiny bits of detritus could be useful, and almost instantly I knew what to make: tiny slices of scenery with railroad tracks passing through—places one can envision exploring on a lazy summer afternoon—all tucked inside a miniature glass jar. So, after cleaning up the mess, I headed over to Amazon for some really small glass dome jars with cork stoppers, and soon found a set of 24, eight each of three sizes, for $15. With one day delivery, I was up and running quickly.
I foresaw making the track as potentially the biggest challenge, but it turned out to be surprisingly simple as well as surprisingly realistic. The track is made from wire ties, the smallest I had on hand. First, I sliced the sides off of a tie to make narrow strips of the ribbed part. I then attached these strips to the sides of an unmodified wire tie with packing tape. Doing the cutting was the hardest part, partly because the ties are made from tough, slippery plastic, and partly because I've lost a lot of manual dexterity to age and disease. So, it sometimes takes a few tries to get useable pieces. Fortunately wire ties are dirt cheap.
I think much of the realism relies on painting. First I spray the assembled track with light grey primer. After applying a thinned black wash, I hit the rails with rusty-colored gauche. At this point I have the option to make the track abandoned or active, and while I love abandoned things, I find giving these tiny rails a metallic gleam makes them more eye-catching. This is very easily done by running a pencil along the rail heads.
Many of the dioramas feature roads, which I make from strips of styrene. After cutting the styrene to shape, I spray it with dark grey primer. When that is dry, I make stripes by holding an X-Acto blade backwards and gently dragging it along a straightedge. If the stripe needs to be yellow, I run a yellow Sharpie over the white line.
Scale? Unimportant and totally arbitrary. The wire ties actually established the scale: the "rails" of the finished track are 2 mm apart. Thus the dioramas are around 1:700, or a little less than one quarter N Scale. So, what do we call it then, QN?
Typically it takes between a few hours and a day to make one Nanodream, which is ideal: it keeps me active and engaged for about as long as I can manage these days, and I get to see finished scenes before my interest wanes. That said, I took things to the "next level" with the fourth one of the bunch by making it illuminated. It took several days to finish—I almost quit the project a couple of times, as it was testing my patience.
The Collection
NOTTE: 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 are sold.
- Milepost Zero (A)
- That Stream Just North of Town (B)
- Intersection at the Underpass (B)
- Route 541 Along the River (C) *
- Any Bats In There? (A)
- That's a Long Way Down (B)
- Ran Through Here Somewhere (A)
Sizes: A: 0.75" dia x 1.5" tall; B: 1" dia x 1.75" tall; C: 1" dia x 3" long; *illuminated
With Thanks
... to those friends and asshats who have stood by me and believed in me through thick and thin. You've helped me find a reason to keep that X-Acto knife busy! I know full well that this disease is harder on all of you than it is on me, and for that I am so very sorry.