Lighted Book Store Scene

I created this scene with a lot of inspirations from my mom and others, too. Previously, my mom created little coffee house diorama out of cardboards with some details using 3D Printing. Therefore, I decided to make another diorama with lots of details, too. First, I made in Tinkercad for the whole diorama. It is very simple and easy to make it virtually. But, when it came to a decision to print it physically, I was facing some problems. I found a good solution for solving my problem.

The problem that I encounter during this project is mainly the size and measurement. When I made the base and wall for the diorama out of cardboards, turnout, the wall is shorter than the windows' panes. All the windows' panes are 3D Printed. They are certainly impossible to waste because 3D Printed took a long time to print and especially, the costly filament.

Also, I have limited PLA Filament, too. During the COVID 19 issue, there are a limited amount of filaments to be purchased. So, I decided to make the wall and the base from cardboards instead of 3D printing. The reason is the wall and base consumed the most filaments than the others.

Moreover, I wanted to make a diorama with some lights, so the diorama will look lively. For this matter, I face another problem because I do not have any electronic circuits or components to be used. After thinking and thinking, I used circuit assembly and choose glow in the Tinkercad. For more information, click here. I used 3 LEDs. If I only used 1 glow circuit, the light was too dim for the diorama. I tried many colors for the LED, which were green, blue, red, and yellow. First, my choice is green. Turnout, green LED is not so bright to light my diorama. After trials the light, I found that the yellow LED is the best. Luckily, I have enough amount of yellow LED for this project.

I will share and provide the link for my Tinkercad project, so you can remix as you like. So, in this project, I will not mention the size and measurement, because you can see all of the dimensions in my Tinkercad project.

For whomever that wants to make this diorama but lazy to make, I will share mine in Cults3d , Thingiverse, and myminifactory. So you can just download and make this project as well. And I will attach the texture and other details in pdf format, so you can print it without searching again.

Total hours of printing for all objects in this project is about 9 hours. Mostly for printing small items, I used medium quality.

No more procrastinating, let's start this project.

Supplies

Tinkercad

3D Dremel Printer

PLA Filament (Wood, Green, Yellow, Red, Blue and White)

Acrylic paints (black) and paint brush

Green Marker

2D printer

Some white papers

Cardboard

Hot Glue

UHU Adhesive glue

Elmer's Glue

3 LEDs

3 CR2032 Coin cell batteries

Transparency film

Tweezers

Skewer stick

Step 1: Base - Floor and Walls

In Tinkercad, first, create the base for store by using some boxes and roof.

For making the bookstore physically, I use some cardboards for the base and cover them with floor texture and white paper as white walls, but you can print them if you have enough filaments. Glue them together as shown in the pictures.

Step 2: Books

For making books, drag and drop box to the workplane. Export to stl files and print them. I print 59 books for this project. All the books, print with medium quality, no support, infill: 20% and use raft. I use medium quality because the books are very small, otherwise they are failed to print. Find some book covers in Amazon books. Print them with front and back cover. Cut and glue to the book that you already printed before. I use Elmer's Glue for gluing.

Step 3: Book Shelves- Pt. 1

Next, make some book shelves. The shelves are made with some boxes. Some boxes are designed by rotating them. Arrange them nicely as shown in the pictures. For drawer knob, use some spheres. Group them together. Export to stl files and print it. I used high speed quality, no support, infill: 20% and use raft.

Step 4: Book Shelves- Pt. 2

It is time to arrange the books into the shelves. Glue one by one with hot glue. Do not forget to use tweezers because it is too small to hold with your own bare hands. I made some improvisations when gluing the book, so it is not the exact same as in Tinkercad.

Glue the shelves to the diorama.

Step 5: Picture Frames

For making picture frames, just use box. The measurement is the same as book. Only in this picture frames, I made the list for the frame by using box hole and group them together. Find a nice picture from the Internet. Make sure size is correct. Print the pictures. Export to stl file. Print it. Glue the picture to the picture frames.

Display the picture frames on the shelves and the wall.

Step 6: Cashier Counter

To make cahier counter, I used my mom's creation in her Little Coffee House. Print and glue to the scene.

Step 7: Couch and Table

To make couch and table, simply use boxes and cylinder. Arrange them as shown in the picture. Export it into stl file, print, and glue it into the scene.

Step 8: Book Display

To make it, use boxes and roof. Group them together. Duplicate so you have 2 displays. Export to stl and print it. Glue some books to the display. Finally, glue it to the scene. I glued it one outside the store and the other is inside the store.

Step 9: Newspaper Display/ Hanger

For making this, drag and drop roof to the workplane and cylinder hole. Group them together. Export stl, and print it. Get the skewer stick ready. Cut it into 3 pieces with the same measurement. Glue one by one to the hanger.

Step 10: Other Details

Make other details to beautify the diorama, such as flower vases, ball and dice. For vases, just use paraboloid. Use spheres for making ball, half spheres and dice from basic shape for making dice. Export to stl file and print it. Glue all of them to the scene. For the tree, grab a paper. Color it with green marker. Cut it and glue them together. Lastly, glue the tree to the vase.

Step 11: Glow Circuit

Export and print 2 glow circuit. Make 1 lamppost for outside the store with remix the glow circuit and make the pole. Export and print it. Glue the lamppost to the scene. Set aside for a while for the rest of the glow circuit. We will assembly these lights later.

Step 12: Window Panes and Doors – Pt. 1

For making these, just use rectangles and wedge. Arrange them like in the pictures. Export to stl files and print them. After printing, take transparency film. Glue the frame to the film and cut it. Glue them one by one to the scene.

Step 13: Window Panes and Doors – Pt. 2

Make door handles and glue them to the door

Step 14: Roof

Create the roof by using rectangles. After printing, glue transparency film to the roof. Cut hole for placing the glow circuit. See the pictures.

Step 15: Store Logo

To create logo for the store, just use box and text from Tinkercad. Enter the name of the book store as you desire. Export and print it. Glue to the wall frame.

Step 16: Finishing

Take the glow circuit. Input the coin cell batteries and LED to the glow circuit. Just remember, cut a little bit the LED length, but keep the positive side longer than negative one. Insert the lights to the rectangle hole in the roof that you have made in previous step. Add one more base for the floor to make it sturdy by using cardboard. Paint it in black paint.

Step 17: Result

You are finished creating book store diorama in Tinkercad virtually and bring it to life. Here is the result of the book store diorama. I hope you like it and enjoy making it.

For more project idea, visit 3D Printing Center.