Just a question to you all,
Is it a good thing to add and use real rocks and/or small stones to a diorama ?

Franky

yeah, they can be used and can look very good, however you have to be carefull when choosing them, too rounded can look out of scale, I prefere stones from around the street, they usually have a chipped, sharper arearance than beach rock or those found in the dirt. Also make sure to try to match the stones to the colour of your soil. Good luck!

I agree with the previous post - sure no problem - just watch scale

another good source, coal chunks. light weight and easy to break down, even the edges look good for soft corroded slate. just paint and wash.

Grab some concrete and a hammer. Smash to appropriate size. Pick and choose good pieces, wash and such to color.

H2H,
Cuhail

There was a How To on this forum some time ago about building stone walls. The procedure was basically taking drywall compound, putting a thin layer on a plastic or flexible lid, and letting it dry. After it was hardened, it was broken up and the pieces were assembled into a stone wall and finished. The results were quite stunning. It may be something that could be adapted for your need.

On the purchase side of things I have used Woodland Scenics Talus which is rock debris that can be stained or left natural. I like the Fine grade, Natural finish, their p/n C1282

On the free side, try a couple screen sifter/strainer type devices and sift regular old dirt. First, run it through a really fine one to get the dust and really small stull out.. Use a couple sizes bigger mesh to get the larger grains sifted out that are the more useful size.

The again, if you mean stones to represent large rocks or boulders, stones laying around outside are plentiful and free. There's a gravel pit across the highway from where I live and there are lots of neat rocks around it. The hard part, to me, of finding stones like that is that any visible texture or coloring, like speckles, could end up looking un-natural in a diorama when scale is taken into account. I never tried it yet because I haven't built a diorama in some time, but a friend had some shrubbery landscaped in what I think was crushed white marble. (I have seen this stuff in places like Lowes and Menards and other landscape/garden shops) I wondered how well it would stain. I has a nice grain and is smooth for the most part. The broken edges would scale quite nicely I think.

cat litter works surprisingly well (clean unused of course ), my one real tip, is don't forget to paint any stones or rubble you add, nothing look less convincing than a well built model on a base of natural material that hasn't been painted it just look odd.

HTH

Keith