completed this about 4 or 5 years ago now, I am starting a new one and figured I would post my previous work. Thanks for looking, any and all advice welcome. I usually build race cars so this is a bit out of my expertise area.

Really good effort for a 1st. It looks like you have got some basic weathering/dust happening, I'm sure more experienced armour modellers can tell you how to improve this area.

The trick with scale vegetation is to find something which accurately represents the real subject, but is not too recognisable for what it actually is! These days you can't get away with lichen any more as 1: it doesn't really look like trees/bushes and 2: everyone knows it is lichen.

If I can help you with any specific foliage for your next diorama, please email or PM me.

Chas

hi tom not a dio man myself but the tiger looks ok bit of weathering on the main hull but hay it could of just rolled on to the battle field.and if you do build any more german afv the rubber on the road wheels is not black its a dark grey. but i like it all the same

Nice first diorama.
Advice-well lets start here.
The base is well done, not just a square block. The road is angled giving visual interest,.
Composition is good, easy simple and effective, recon unit reporting back. There isn't a ton of empty space.
The builds look good, nice and clean, not gaps, or major flaws.
If I were to suggest anything I would suggest a dusting pastel in a light dust color. This is an early Tiger, in gray color so it's more than likely in Russia and these guys got used a lot and got dusty all over. I would use a very soft very large brush to apply the dust coat. I would unify the ground and the vehicles using this dust and dust everything.
As Chas mentioned, better foliage would liven this up. If all you have available is lichen, I would get some spray glue and parsley and at least add a touch of the glue and sprinkle parsley on top. Lichen alone tends to look like a railroad layout from 10 years ago.

Lets see the next one come to life. Ask any questions you may have.

Thanks guys for the comments, I am starting another so will probably be asking some questions here soon. I had problems finding reference pictures when I built this one. My next on is set during OIF so there are plenty of pictues as far as that goes. I did'nt want to take the weathering to far as I thought it was set early in the war.

I wasn't sure what to do with the bushes either,I thought linchen was the only way to go when I built this. Thanks for the tips.

ok, heres some constructive critisism;
1 like ppl before me said the vegetation shows as being obviouly lichen. i use spagnum moss (do u have that in the US).
2 invest in a bag of static grass and a bag of 'flock'. mix them and use randomly aroud edges of plants, roads etc. make sure they don't look too uniform.
3. you say you usually model cars. i hate to say it, but it shows. the models are insanely clean. read up in the forums and generally on the web about weathering. a few tricks will double how good this diorama would look.
4. having said that, well done. it's a lot better than my first dio.

Thanks guys for the advice, I beleive you guys are right. I am so used to trying to build squecky clean builds that it is hard for me to dirty them up.

I think rather than diving head frist into another dio I am going to build up a couple of builds just to practice my weathering techniques and what not.

Again thanks....