Kronos (1957)
I'm not exactly sure why I decided to make a diorama based on this1957 science fiction film about an alien space craft that drops off a gigantic energy vacuum cleaner but I thought it would be an interesting project.
The story is simplicity itself where an alien threat is thwarted by the likes of 50's black and white sci-fi regulars Jeff Morrow and Morris Ankram among others. The film shot in two weeks (and it shows) is pretty cheesy on several levels, the most obvious being the cartoon animations of Kronos traipsing about the Mexican countryside seeking power plants from which to suck up their energy to bring back to the alien planet some how (one assumes). The aliens are never seen although some of the characters is taken over telepathically to aid Kronos in its quest for power. There is one silly scene where some Mexican peasants are supposedly squished by one of Kronos outer legs which begs the question why they couldn't out run a machine they could clearly see a half a mile away? I imagine this scene was added to satisfy the more bloodthirsty of the viewing audience (like me).
Anyway, the Kronos robot (if I can call it that) was simplicity itself being composed of basically some boxes, columns and half a sphere and a couple of dodads on the top.. All that I really needed were the readily available on Thingaverse, my go to source for all things 3D. The dodads were from my scrap box. I cast a clear cube with 5 minute epoxy and square stock for one of the dodad ends and the other was made with a 10mm LED mounted on a stack of washers. To hopefully copy the film, I added some fine wires I painted fluorescent blue to simulate the electric bolts emanating from the dodads to extract energy from the power plant.
To add a little more interest to the scene, I 3D printed a power plant under attack by Kronos in which, in the film, explodes but not in this diorama for obvious reasons. I ran off a transmission tower and also 3D printed a number of military vehicles (tanks,troop carriers and jeeps) which I posed in a futile effort by the Mexican army to thwart Kronos. For the tanks firing and explosions, I used my regular source of all things exploding which is expandable insulating foam. It's billowing nature provides convincing explosions which I painted clea ryellow and orange from rattle cans. I prefer using spray paint for this effect because the merging of the two colors presents a nice effect. I finished with adding small tufts of cotton to the tank muzzles to simulate them firing at the giant machine.
As for the base I used a 3/8” piece of plywood roughly 9” x 16”that I picked up at the craft store. I mixed up a small batch of Sculpt-a-mold for some low hills and the plowed up areas Kronos creates while moving. These furrows I painted dark brown to look like freshly turned earth. I drew a rough outline of power plant's 'foot print' on the base and around these I laid down a layer of Mod Podge for my grass and bushes to stick to. I also added a short section of roadway to service the plant with a yellow thread down the middle to look like a lane marker. Finally, I resin printed the military vehicles to populate the scene with explosions and other stuff along with the nameplate.
A black and white shot of the diorama to match the film format.
A so-called God shot of the scene from the rear.
A shot of the scene from a different angle.
This build 'grew' over time as new ideas came to me. I had intended that is be just Kronos on a simple base but that was just as dull as the film. I then came up with the idea for adding the power plant under Kronos' attack and from that the Mexican army fighting back which is where I ended up. All in all, I'm very pleased with the final result which cost me less than $15 for the whole thing. 9/6/23