Hi all,
I finally started my first dio which is a very simple one, greek countryside, 3 germans under a tree ( made of metal wire ) resting, a fence of barbed wire, some tall grass and perhaps a donkey? beside the fence.The metal skeleton of the tree is ready, figures are painted and ready for weathering ( the difficult part ). For ground work I will use real dirt. Of course there is no historical truth to this dio but I shall make it in order to excersise in technics you all describe, and see what I can achive.
For the next dio I had an idea taken from the kit of AIRFIX 1:72 A CHECK POINT. ( it has a destroyed stone wall farm house ) sandbags barbed wires machineguns etc and I wanted to copy it in 1:35 (scratch building) but now I see that is similar to MATTOMLIN'S idea for his last dio. Can I proceed in making that dio or it will be considered as a stolen idea? Also , do you think that beans in different sizes woul be apropriate to simulate stones on a stone wall?
Sorry if I became tiresome with all the above , but right now I need to talk to someone.

Your first diorama sounds good, nice composition and fun to build.
I wouldn't worry about the historical accuracy of the first few dioramas. Build them to have fun and increase your skills.

I think diorama building is similar to an art. And many artists have painted houses and come up with different ways of doing it. I find it interesting to see when two builders do a similar project. Each has thier own style and flare they put into it. If you genuinly came up with the idea then build away. You and Matt can share questions and answers too.

As far as beans for the wall, it may work. Be careful of the size as you mention. You can search on line for a free scale calculator. Then check the scale of the bean and see if you think it would be the size of a rock that someone would pick up and build a wall with. Many time I will go outside and measure the real thing to get a 1:1 perspective.
Don't forget to seal the beans very well so they don't decay.
Personally, I would try to use pebbles or clay to build the wall, but that's just me.

At first i want to welcome my fellow countryman IGI for coming along in Armorama family.(Kalosirthes filarako, na ginoume 2 edw pera epitelous na ta leme !!)(that was greek to you )
As far concerning the dio as said before whilechacking on different techniques dont worry about the accuracy not only because the scene was not written in history books, but cause probably the scene you discribed has happened and you probably dont know it and we will never know.Most of our dioramas come with a mixture of reality and imagination, unless you try to copy a picture , which is something different. As for the beans used for the stone wall, having lived many years in the country side of Greece and in islands with lots of stonewalls i think that beans are too much rounded to similiarize this . Maybe using plaster and your own molds can create a block of the wall , and then scribe with patience the stones, over it. Another thing would be to build the main block of the wall with the beans and then with plaster adding to randomize the look of the stones, and tear off their round ending.
Feel free to ask anything you like and i ll be happy to assist you.
Costas