The diorama started with the "Innsmouth Fisherman" bust by Romain Van Den Bogaert, and grew from there. He looked like he knew some tales, and that bit of octopus tentacle in his sleeve and thoughts of H.P. Lovecraft led to the rest.
For those who want to know where it all came from:
The Innsmouth wharf was built with the HO scale Wharf District set from Scientific Models, available through MicroMark, and dressed up with accessories from Downtown Deco. The figures are from various Preiser sets, and the octopus was scratch built with Aves Apoxie over a foil & wire armature. Groundwork is painted Cell-u-clay over a foam base, with rock outcrops from my trusty old Woodland Scenics rock mold. The boats were also supplied by Micro-mark, and dressed up with basswood and styrene sheet. The Ford Model Ts came from Interaction Hobbies in Canada, as did the Innsmouth Harbor Light, which is their Crossing Shanty. LEDs came from Evans designs.
The bust was painted in oils over acrylics, groundwork with Liquitex, and most of the detail painting was done with Vallejo, Weathering was achieved with oil washes and ground pastels.
A big thank you to my wife for letting me focus on this for the past three weeks!

Excellent work and painting, looks great

Mobo

That's taking basing to a whole new level! Excellent result.

Talk about a bust-a-rama!!! A terrific piece of work.

Really great concept, I love Lovecraft, so I appreciate the inspiration and the whole atmosphere. Great!

Cheers Borek

Amazing work Matt! Lots and lots of details. Very creative.

Cheers,
Ken