How to Make a Coniferous Forest Diorama

Choose the location of the coniferous forest you want to model. Plant, animal and bird life differ from one region to another. The Pacific Northwest coniferous forests are home to brown bears; Siberian forests house snow leopards and tigers; and pumas live in central American forests.

Select the season for your diorama. The ground and tree canopies change the with the seasons in northern-hemisphere coniferous forests. Make a sketch of the background landscape, seascape or other water features in the model. Decide on the position of trees and animals.

Choose which plants or animals you can make from scratch and which you need to buy. Use twigs, leaves and stones from outdoors. Make sure that all the features remain to scale. A fox cannot be bigger than a moose.

Apply a pale blue wash around the sides of the shoe box and a pale brown wash on the box bottom. This provides an even background for painting the landscape and forest floor. Draw the landscape features such as mountains, coastlines, rocks and water features on the box. Start the landscape from the back of the box and work forward. Paint the landscape and add enhancements such as shadows or sunlight.

Build the diorama from the forest bottom and work upwards. Paint a river feature blue or silver-blue. Create terrain features by spreading some school glue over chosen areas. Sprinkle fine sand or silt over it to give the impression of stones. Cut pine needles to scale and sprinkle them around the diorama floor for forest cover. Allow the surface to dry.

Use modeling clay to create rock features. Position and glue in place the plastic trees and animals. Use a nylon thread to suspend an eagle or other large bird in the painted sky on the side of the shoebox.