I think you are doing great! Hey lets see a water feature or some elevation. Do some research and try to recreate a scene from a historic photo. Just make sure you have FUN!!!

Hi Matthew - and welcome to Armorama!

Don't worry, no-one here is going to criticise your work except in a constructive way. In fact this is one of the best places on the net to get some friendly advice and pick up useful modelling tips. As the saying goes: You've come to the right place.

Just a few basic pointers to start with:

1) Your dio has a lot of wide empty spaces. Try to fill these up, or else reduce the size of the whole thing. This one could even be two separate, smaller dios - eliminating all that empty space in the middle

2) Ruined walls will result in rubble on the ground around them. Broken bricks & such like. This would enhance your walls (which I must say look very good).

3) Your base is generally too level, neat and even - much like a lawn or an English cricket pitch. Maybe think about buying a bag of modelling plaster (not expensive, and readily available) to make your own simple, basic groundwork with a few gentle bumps and dips, paint it up with some cheap acrylic paints (again not expensive, and readily available) then coat it in a mix of white glue & water and sprinkle it here & there with grass product that can be found in various colours in most places that sell model railway accessories. Look around on the site and you'll find plenty of tips on how to create groundwork (from simple like I described above, to quite complex), and some inspiring and helpful photos of dios that guys have built.

I have to say that for a first effort, your dio is very good. Much better than anything I produced at 13!

The brickwork is excellent - very well painted and weathered. Your StuG too is very, very good - a nice clean build, what looks like some very nicely done home-made damage to the side skirts, and some washing around the hatches and panel recesses in order to give it some depth. You also look to have done a very good job in picking out details on the halftrack - though the red headlights look a bit "scary" and really they should be clear, not red.

Overall, this is a promising start. Keep going the way you are, and you're just going to get better and better. It's always a pleasure to see young guys starting out modelling, and I hope you'll stick around here and share your work with us. The wife was just passing as I was typing this, and she thinks that for a first dio, it's great work too. So well done from both of us!

- Steve

Beside the fact that the terrain looks like an old 1990's game due to its clean look and the vehicles lacking washes. It's alot darn better than what i did back when i was 13!

These are some new photo of the dio with rubble and a leentu. Suggestions welcome

Surfboard66...Welcome to the hobby..... I'm on the far side of forty and have yet to COMPLETE a decent diorama.....Good For You!

The key is to have FUN with your projects.This is a hobby (for most people) and it's supposed to be FUN!!!

The internet...especially Youtube...is full of great pictures and video you can use as reference material. Look at what you see and try to recreate it in miniature. This site also has many tutorials on how to do groundwork, buildings, ruins, plants, etc. Use all of your resources and maybe you'll be the next Shep Paine!!

Matthew I think you're off to a blazing start. Keep up the good work.

First of all

Nice to meet you because I'm 13 years old too

The only thing I have to tell you is

KEEP GOING

Cheers Nick

Thanks guys it was a lot of help

as whats been said by other members its all about enjoying yourself and you will learn and pick up tips as you go along nice work

Nice Models, especially the damage on the Stug (right?).
The dio could use some more action or just a smaller base.
Those walls are from a Forces of Valor set aren't they?
That's ok, sometimes I use their sandbag things

Evan

Hi Mathew

Great start!

A good way to get started with cheep materials is to try using papia mache or building plaster to get a bit of ground work and features. It is amazing what shapes you can get out of basic paper, wallpaper paste and water. This could be built up on a small board to give you a base and then paint with poster paints and the like. Use more wallpaper paste or spray pva white glue on the base and you can sprinkle dried earth, sand and fine gravel to give you a road.

Start with a small base, a vehicle and a couple of figures and see how they look. As you get better at each you can add to these or try bigger scenes but say in smaller scales like 1/72.

I remember one of my first ever dios I tried when I was your age was with a packet of Airfix 1/72 British Paras taking a small bridge. The base was made from papia mache and card for buildings and was about 300mm square. It worked for me.

Have lots of fun and look on here to see what everyone else triesand see what you like to attempt next. Every one has to get a start somewhere and a few tips from folk who had to learn too.



Nige

hey dude,
i really REALLY like the stug and the half track! good work!

just a suggestion for the U.S. figures, in WW2 the U.S. Army didn'r wear camoflauge (actually some did around the time of the Normandy invaqsion but they stopped wearing it because it looked too much like German camo) they just had greenish tanish brownish uniforms. you can use any form of oolive/khaki/brown and have figures recognizable as U.S. infantry in WW2. they also look a little glossy, so jmaybe go to your local hobby shop, or wherever you buy your supplies adn buy a can of spraypaint flat clear (games workshop has this product and i use it- its kinda expensive but very good) and spray a few light coats over the men, and maybe the half track too.

really likin' it! make some more models so we can see them!!!!

Hey Matthew,
I am 14, and I think you are off to a great start for your first! Your Stug looks very nice! Just remember to not stop trying and to keep building,(its the best way to get better). Just take your time and build. Armorama is an awsome site to ask any question about modelling, so don't be shy to ask the simplest question! Got any ?'s, just ask!!

Later,
John

great start, good luck and be sure to post your progress

welcome to the site surfboard, Start with a smaller base, add a bit of vegation. and remember that the next dio will get better with everybit you learn. You might want to get a book or view some of the post on ground work and dio. The dio looks great alot better then when I was 13 I was still blowing them up after I built um

these are the new photos i have with more obstacles