Hello, I have only just signed on, and I am very new to building any type of diorama, I normally build scale plastic warships, but of late, become very bored with the same subject, therefore I wanted to combine both warships with a dock - a few buildings, people, stone flooring, wodden quay, the sea - it all seems rather daunting, I would like a method of how I would scale the buildings in 1-72 so matching the rescue boat which doesn't have to do anything except be tied to the dock. Any help would be great.

Firstly welcome to the site Alec. I cannot help with your question however you would more than likely get a lot of help at MSW. Just use the select a site link at the top of the page.

Welcome to KitMaker
From what I read you are looking for tips on how measure and create buildings in 1/72 scale. I figured that the rescue boat is 1/72 and you want to create a diorama around it.

With that in mind you can get some pretty acceptable buildings from RailRoad model shops (I think in HO???), that's one way.
Another way is to get some measurements from a real 1:1 building and run them through a scale calculator (google scale calculators, tons of free ones). Then I would start by using some Sheet Styrene (Plastic Card) or heavy stock paper and transfer the scale measurements to that and work from there.
You can also look in to using this tool
Sketchup from Google

Thank you for the help and advise, at the moment I'm finding it quite difficult searching through this site, its so huge, and my knowledge of computers could be written on the back of a postage stamp. Thank you again.

Feel free to post any question in a thread or you can PM me and I'll be glad to help you find what you're looking for.

Hello there, I'd love to take you up on your kind offer. My 2 houses arrived today, these will form a back drop to my dock (diorama) . Normally, I would simply paint a warship then use some weather master (never really do a good job of this) and for a warship this doesn't look too bad. However, I'm completely stuck where it comes to something like thatched cottage, yes I can paint them no problem, but I haven't got a clue what type of paint to use to make the thatch look like thatch, and the bricks looking like bricks rather than a wall that's simply been paint brick red - Yep, I could really use some help in this area.

Ok - painting the buildings I would use hobby acrylics (Apple Barrel). Thin them down a bit to reduce thier thickness in 1/72 scale.
I would use oil paints for washes in the brick recesses/grout lines. Very thin oil paint thinned with paint thinner dabbed in the cracks will make the bricks pop out.


Making wood - here is a technique you may run into with the dock
Wood Feature

General techniques
Read this guy
Page 2 and 3 -use of cork - dock
Page 8 - washes
Page 10 - before/during/after washes ( use this same technique different colors for a thatched roof - use browns as a base and dark browns/blacks as a wash)
Page 19- pastel dusting
Got'cha Covered

Scratch made thatch roof is here Brave Souls
It's 1/35th, so you may not get the same materials

Hello Scott, I feel like a kid in a sweet shop, I've never seen so many dioramas on one site before, I've sent Robert an email about the wooden fence made from plastic, I've only just finished working nights, and looking forward to my six days off (unpaid). Pehaps its because this is all very new to me, that I get so side-tracked, I set out to ask a few questions and then 2 hours later I can't remember what I wanted to ask. I have just finished my 1-72 thatched cottage, all painted and some amount of weather, its looks okay, but it looks like a plastic model, does that make any sense to you ? I obviously know what I mean, its finding the correct words to explain how I wanted it more realistic, on the flat white walls I used artex so giving it more body, but I can't think of anything else I can do. So, have you got any ideas for me ? Look forward to your reply.