One of the grandfathers of the figure modeling/military miniatures hobby in its current form, MFCA Grand Master Ray Anderson was making box dioramas even before Sheperd Paine, as that artist himself has noted. Trained in mechanical engineering, he worked for 30 years in the automotive and aerospace industries before retiring and devoting himself to modeling. Ray had a prolific output through the ’70s and ’80s and published a book entitled The Art of the Diorama through Kalmbach in 1986. At the age of 91, his interests shifted from physical modeling to computer animation; an example of his work in that field can be found here. Though some of his methods are dated compared to what others are doing on this site—Ray worked with scaled-up Historex figures, approximately 60mm tall, converting them and sculpting using tissue paper and scrap plastic melted in cement, and he used fluorescents almost exclusively for lighting—his ideas on composition, unique perspectives, colorful outer boxes, and many other aspects of box diorama-building remain inspirational. This sampling of his work comes from the Internet Craftsmanship Museum, and some of his pieces are on display at the physical museum in Carlsbad, California. Ray died in California in 2018, having nearly made the age of 100, though his work lives on; click here for a recent review of his classic book on box dioramas by enthusiast Nicholas Kalis.



Also see the following articles by or about Ray Anderson: