Handmade Fiat 500 dioramas by Pierre Schenk

Building Fiat 500-themed dioramas

When we found Pierre Schenk’s contribution to our ongoing “Fiat of the Month” competition in our email inbox, the entire Axel Gerstl team were pretty astonished: It took a second, very close look to realise that it was by no means an ordinary repair shop photo we had been sent. No, it was rather a little masterpiece, whose beautiful details immediately fascinated us: a Fiat 500 in a miniature garage featuring even a lovingly designed miniature parcel with the Axel Gerstl logo – as if a new parts delivery had just arrived! And it did not stop there with this diorama, as “the creator” Pierre Schenk told us.

The idea had come to Pierre Schenk during the Covid-19 stay-at-home order when he found two unused wall racks while cleaning out the attic. He soon decided to build a miniature garage for his Fiat 500 L model, which would offer a great nostalgic ambience. “This sparked off my new bad weather hobby,” Pierre Schenk told us.

In the meantime, he has built three different dioramas:

Diorama A

... is themed “Repair shop in a half-timbered building with a small platform accessible via stairs”, featuring a red Fiat 500 L model, scale 1:24. “Here, all elements have been attached to the rack; the walls and floor are made of plaster,” Pierre Schenk explained. “The LED lighting is powered by batteries located in the ‘air tank’ at the top right of the landing.”

Diorama B

... is themed “Repair shop in the countryside in wooden construction with a large window”. It shows a white Fiat 500 L model, scale 1:24, “repainted outside and inside according to the original”. The diorama has interchangeable window motifs (repair shop in Germany, the USA, or Tuscany). It has a double rear wall so that the interior is a removable module. “In the cavity behind, an LED light source to simulate daylight, and the battery holder and the electronics for a motion detector are hidden,” explained Pierre Schenk. The ventilation pipe at the ceiling above the workbench serves as a holder for the motion detector.

Diorama C

... is themed “Repair shop in a half-timbered building with office desk on the landing, accessible via stairs”. It presents a Fiat 500 L model in red, scale 1:24 (alternatively a Ferrari model). “I converted the lower shelf of a simple bathroom cabinet in the guest bathroom into an eye-catcher,” said Pierre Schenk. Here, too, the interior is designed as a module and can be removed. The LED lighting gets its power from the bathroom cabinet.

Pierre Schenk made the building parts, furniture and other objects in the dioramas from plywood, pine strips, balsa strips or using a 3D printer. For the colour elements, he used acrylic paint, brushes and an airbrush. He found the wall decoration on the Internet and printed it. Yet, Pierre Schenk still would not consider his dioramas a “finished project”: “My dioramas are actually never finished and I regularly embellish them with minor details. Sometimes I add a pallet, sometimes a box, sometimes a can, etc.”

We hope that Pierre Schenk can enjoy his dioramas for a long time to come – and that he might create some more dioramas for us to enjoy!