I am building a a dio with 120mm figures. The basic story is a warrior woman is taking bath in pool in an old ruined temple behind her is troll sneaking up Behind walking in between columns I plan to place a trip wire bewtenn the two columns basically the surpriser gets a surprise. My question should I show what the booby trap is going to be ( i was thinking of sharp stakes embedded in pieces of wood behind each pillar ready to spring when tripped by the wire. Or should i leave it to the imagination? I plan on entering it in competitions so I wonder if I do leave it to the imagination it may not "qualify" as a dio.Any input or other ideas for bobby traps?

Hello Godfather,

if you want your dio to really tell the story of the surpriser being surprised, I would certainly include the boobytrap.
The trip wire would not be visible enough to make this story instantly clear to most viewers. You need something that can take a clearer place in the composition of the diorama, and the trap itself is perfect for this.

Try to make both the woman, the troll and the trap visible to the viewer from the front of the dio, and make it visually clear that the trap is meant for the troll. Good dio's tell the story as clearly as possible. If you have to look around the dio for 5 minutes and do complex reasoning to figure it out, most viewers will not understand it and lose interest quickly.
If you can then make the woman look as if she knows that the troll is near but doesn't show it to make him walk into the trap, you should get a killer dio!

Good luck with the project and best wishes!

Marijn

I agree with Marijin - you need to let the viewer see the "surprise." Another device might be to place the troll so he is just starting to trip the wire and the trap is just starting to spring. Might add a sense of drama.

I'm looking forward to seeing your piece. Good luck with this.