Just thought I'd share with you my new recent diorama. It's abit of a change this one, I've re-built an old diorama I made in the 'early years' of my model making. Obviously a lot of dead space and too simple a story, but one of those ones you're happy with at the time.
So the idea was to add another building, improve the bomb damage in both, add some more interacting figures, including civilians, add another smaller vehicle and some character to the town, i.e. the water pump. The story would be British forces having just liberated a Normandy French town in July 1944. Firstly I repositioned the original building, giving it more an angle. The inside was totally gutted, I didn't really want to touch the exterior. Some of the road was taken up to allow for the new building, and the pavement was to be redone.
The bed, flooring, front doors, picture frames,bookcase & desk were all built from plastic. the wallpaper made on computer, and rubble made from cat litter, bits of wood, crumbled plaster, brick dust & pigments.
The additional building is the VLS Italian Shop Ruin. Different country I know, but the locals won't mind....
I had earlier ordered Italeri's Village Fountain, which is simple but does the job. But then VLS's shop came with it's own fountain...typical, so one for future builds. The bench is Plus Models park bench, the pavement is all from plastic card. 
The water in the fountain was made from 'Deluxe' Solid water, a stretched clear plastic sprue then made to immitate the water pouring out of the tap, unfortunately hidden in the photo below. The tree was just a root, with the addition of dried thyme to simmulate leaves, then spray painted. The bench was easy to make and with the additions of oil paints came up well.
The Shop Ruin from VLS was a joy to make. Simple to constuct, although the top left hand story wall feature didn't align unlike the rest of the building. The inside was fashioned in the same way as the first building, I wanted a collapsed interior with most of the rubble almost reaching the first floor. Clear plastic was put into the window frames for the glass, and the notices and signs were again made form plastic card.
So that's it for now....I've got the last few bits n' pieces to add, and then I'll add them to the rest of this post. Any comments and critiques most welcome, thanks for looking and I'll get them pics up soon....
Cheers for now,
SIMON
