: Published: 21 February 2019

Contra, Super Mario Bros, Tanks - if you were born around 1987, there is a big chance that these games took many hours of your childhood. You are probably familiar with terms 'NES' or 'Pegasus' and maybe still play from time to time.

Important notice: this model is not for sale (in contrary to commercial models), I made it on the basis of 'fair use' to demonstrate skills and model-making techniques. Original copyright owner of Contra game is Konami.

NES Contra model

Today I present model that brings those good times back. I decided to make a 'Contra' diorama, which refers to most recognisable part of the game - first stage simply called 'Jungle'. If you played Contra, I guess I even don't have to show game's screen to remind you how it looks like.

Why Contra is a special game? I can mention about different aspects such as dynamic action, nice graphics, catchy music (as for 80s and 90s), but one word that describes it better is vibe, athmospehere. Despite the fact that it has been over 30 years from Contra release, it still can be a great fun, especially when you play it alongside your friends or family.

Let me tell a bit more about transforming idea into model. Well, when you look at this game you see it in 2D perspective, however in your mind you are able to visualise it in 3D. My goal was to achieve that in a way that doesn't completely ruin square shapes of Contra world.

So there was a need to find compromise between realism and fiction. I feared that if model was more similar to real landscape, it couldn't have given the impression of the Contra anymore. Another thing is color scheme - it had to reflects game's colors well and be bright as you see on TV screen. Maintaing balance in all these aspects let me create nice Contra diorama.

I don't like compromises after all, but in this case I belive it was not only a necessity, but also a reason why it was interesting and challenging thing to do. Anyway, if you would like to see how it was made step by step, check out tutorial.