I'm kicking around an idea for a dio set in Bougainville (Papua New Guinea) around 1945, featuring an Aussie Matilda. Suggestions please on how to best simulate a section of tropical rainforest / dense bush such as might be found in that area?
Cheers

Best bet is to hit the arts and crafts stores (Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Ben Franklin's, etc.) and look in their foliage departments. Wal-Mart also has foliage departments near their craft centers. You'll have to look around, but there's probably some plastic plant that will look jungle-ly.

Since I don't know if you are willing to spend $ on this project, I'm not quite sure how to direct an answer for you. I know of a couple of places where you can buy these items, and fewer places of how-to's. Below are some places you can check-out for ideas.:
linkname http://www.skyboxtrees.com/
linkname http://www.verlinden-productions.com/vp_htm_0001_0400/vp0078.htm

http://www.geocities.com/ztrees/

The last place shows "lichen" being used as undergrowth for such dios. Most hobby or crafts shops should carry this.
I hope this helps a bit. I will continue to look for additional info that might help.

I also did a "jungle" diorama with a matilda once and used plastic plants intended for aquarium.
if you look around in aquaristic supplies you'll find certain "plants" which are quite useful for such
a project. To make the plants not looking uniform
I heated each plant with a "hot-nozzle". this tool looks like a large ball-pen and runs with lighter-gas. the difficult part was to paint the plants realistic...

regards, werner