Serious help needed please

[Guest]

Like Neil, I've just found this thread....I too thought about the huge size of the base and indeed the whole project.

This is a massive undertaking for anyone to attempt and I'm afraid your initial budget will be well blown out of the water.

I hope the following might be of help, but I suspect you might be too far advanced for it to be of any use but here's a few tips.....

As Neil points out, I too have a concern about the size. It will surely have to be transported at some stage, so sectioning it is a must. A good trick is to put in numerous streams and the like. Then once these are in and painted, but before any grass is added, get a jigsaw and cut along the stream beds close to the bank. Then butt up the dio, finish it and then it can be taken apart easily and when reassembled the joins will not be seen.

Ian's tip about things in the garden is very valid. I use nothing else.

To buy trees and grass for you dio. would cost a vast amount of money .Have you thought of using moss?

It costs nothing, is readily availably in the garden and looks good in any scale. After a few months it will die, when it does just paint it green to bring it back to life!

I'm at a loss as to the best way to get enough modern armour in 1/72. You are going to need quite a few to make it look good, and at anything from £5 to £8 it will be an expensive model.

For 1/72 figures, Caeser Miniatures make some excellent modern figures and are of the highest standard. (about £8 for 40 figures)

For modernish buildings try a firm called Dapol. They make nice plastic ones and are cheap to buy and easy to put together. Also, you can get buildings made of card which you glue together. These are made by 'Superquick'

Ebay is a good place to get all this.

Polystyrene slabs make good quick bunkers ect.

Cheers,

Ron

I'm building it onsite, so I won't be needing to transport it. I have been given £30 to spend on materials such as grass, trees, streams, and other natural things. I have worked out how to build trees. We had a Christmas tree, and cut off the ends, dip them in PVA, and then in the grassy stuff, this makes perfect looking trees. Can someone please recommend some grass I can buy, some water for streams, and some thing I can use for tarmac?

[spanner570]

Steve, as you're on a budget and I use these methods anyway, can I suggest the following?

For streams...

Mark out where you want them on the diorama then paint the 'bed' with various water colours/ shed paint, browns, greens and black in a mottle style. Let the paint dry and then coat with cheapo household gloss varnish (2/3 coats) works a treat and costs very little, and is just as good as any so called 'Water' you can buy.

Tarmac...

Again, because cost is a issue, simply mark where the roads are to go on the base, and paint them grey/black. When dry, give the surface a very well diluted coat of P.V.A., then sprinkle sweepings from wherever on to the surface...I get mine from the driveway or garage floor. Job done!

I hope this is of some help to you.

Good luck with the project.

Ron

[Guest]

Steve, as you're on a budget and I use these methods anyway, can I suggest the following?For streams...

Mark out where you want them on the diorama then paint the 'bed' with various water colours/ shed paint, browns, greens and black in a mottle style. Let the paint dry and then coat with cheapo household gloss varnish (2/3 coats) works a treat and costs very little, and is just as good as any so called 'Water' you can buy.

Tarmac...

Again, because cost is a issue, simply mark where the roads are to go on the base, and paint them grey/black. When dry, give the surface a very well diluted coat of P.V.A., then sprinkle sweepings from wherever on to the surface...I get mine from the driveway or garage floor. Job done!

I hope this is of some help to you.

Good luck with the project.

Ron

Thanks for the info. So far I have painted the entire thing in 3 coats of green shed paint. Can you recommend what I should get for grass? Also, do you think £30 will cover the natural features?

[Guest]

Cheap grass! Go go a poundshop or similar, buy some paintbrushes, ones near me do a 3 pack with horsehair-type bristles rather than the plastic bristles.

Cut the bristles to length according to scale & scatter on a thin coating of pva glue . Sorted!

Patrick

[spanner570]

Good one Patrick....

Failing that try this:-

It's very difficult to get convincing 1/72 scale ready made grass. When you do it will cost a small fortune to coat your large area....

Get some grey floor tile adhesive ,a 5kg bag (powder) mix with water to a stiffish consistancy, then spread it thinly where you want the grass.

Let the mixture stiffen up a bit, then with a wire brush gently dab the stuff. Once painted it will give you the same look as your photograph.

Cheers,

Ron

[Guest]

I'll definately pick up some floor tile adhesive next time I'm near Focus. I'm going back on Tuesday, so Tuesday evening I'll post how its coming on, and some pics hopefully.

[Guest]

Here's a cheap way to get greenery that's the right colour as in nature , florists sell dried moss for flower arranging, not the type of sphagnum that you use for hanging baskets ( altho it might also work) but the stuff that grows round tree bases & on old logs etc. it will have been heat treated to kill bugs, Hobbies stores sell it in small bags at £2.50 but you don't need to spend any money if you can collect your own.

Collect the sort of moss you see on the woodland floor & peel it up into a bag, shaking off any obvious woodlice etc.

Take it home & microwave it, it needs a bit of experimenting to see how long it takes to heat it up enough to kill any bugs, then get your electric blender ( if it's not yours then ask permission )& use it to shred it into tiny bits, you can end up with a bucket full at no cost & like all dried plants it will last for donkeys years. As an ex pro model maker I used this quite a lot, now retired I'm using it right now on something I'm currently working on.

Use PVA glue to coat up the section you are doing, as your scale is 1/72 then you might need to put your shreddings into a kitchen sieve & swirl it around with your fingers so the finer stuff goes through, If your diorama is already in situ then you won't need to worry if it's not stuck properly.

[Guest]

Thanks, I'll definately be using moss instead of forking out loads. I'll post some pics later of how it's looking currently.

[Guest]

I done a small F1 dio some time ago and used fine sandpaper (the black coloured one) as tarmac. Seemed to work well.

Good luck with the dio. I wouldn't even know where to start on this one :shocking:

[Guest]

Also, hanging basket liners, when pulled with a wire brush are good sources of bushes. They can also be used as the base of the dio.