I am doing a diorama, and I thought about doing an "open-faced" building. Well, I have several questions: First of all, who makes "open-faced" buildings, and what are the quality? Second, if it's a bit too much for them, how do I make a building like that? Oh, blast! I forget to give the rough description of it: It's a two-story building, Russia, '44. Maybe some windows, definitely a door, maybe two. And if possible, maybe even a staircase leading up to the second floor on the outside. Interior, I have no idea. I figure to get the outside figured out first before I do anything else. Any information would be helpful. Thanks for your time.

By "open faced buildings" are you referring to structures without front sides? or do you mean a building with three sides, with the viewer able to look inside or through the building as part of the display?

In either case, you can build the building using any of the methods described in the features section under dioramas. Lots of good methods there.

For interiors, the hardest part is furniture. The aftermarket furniture stuff is pretty expensive and there's not much to choose from. The alternative is to scratch build, which is cheaper, but more aggravating unless you're a good sculptor or have a set of tiny carpentry tools and a lot more patience than I have.

One thing that may be helpful is if you can find ANY photo reference either in a book or on the internet of the style of building and see if you can share that.
I don't know what an 'open faced' building is, so I can't really point you in an AM direction or even in a good scratchbuilding direction.

One idea is to look at Tourist Websites and look through thier photos of the region you are interested in to get references. I have done this with a pretty good success rate. Even if you don't get exactally what you're looking for, something close will get everyone a better idea. From there the help will be easier to offer.

Maybe something like this?

MODERATOR (Eagle) COMMENT : Faust stated : The Link you had between the IMG brackets contained the Http twice

Ok - cool. Scratch building that would not be out of the question. I would use plaster or hydrocal (woodlandscenic). I would make one big blank wall first. Then carefully cut out the windows, door, and balcony holes. I would then pour three smaller wall blanks a bit bigger than the recessed balcony walls. I would then cut the details out of those. Then using resin and pins/holes I would connect the walls together.
The detail rocks/stones can be added with styrene, wood trim, or sculpy clay.
The balcony detail can be purchased AM through VP, they have some iron fences in PE that might work. If not you can try RR fences or scratch build it. Plastruct has fancy plastic cards that are roof shingles of various shapes.
The interior is up to you. Take a look at the windows and figure one or two windows per room. Then you can build in walls on the inside.

This is a start, If you want I can go into more detail.

Hey, go right ahead. There's no such thing as too much detail. :-)

( Hey Faust, Thanks for posting that picture for me! I VERY computer illiterate! )
Thanks for your time.

Ok - here is more....
Here is a version of the method I mentioned in my post

I made two blanks using hydrocal plaster. I made a balsa wood boundary and taped it to a floor tile. I sealed it with tape to keep the paster in.
I then measured out the window and door locations making sure to stay level 'around the corner'. I used a tiny drill bit and drilled pilot holes at each corner. I then used the back of a blade and scribed guide lines from hole to hole. Then when open enough I used a razor saw to cut out the rest of the windows and doors. I used a file and sand paper to clean up and square up.
I sanded the inside (not perfectly beacuse I was going to wallpaper and add battle damage).
To connect the walls I drilled holes in each side, then snipped a paperclip into three pieces and then used two part epoxy to hold it all together.

To add the detail I used sculpy clay rolled flat. I then cut out rough details and baked it. I then cut each to fit using epoxy to hold in place. The details are over the windows at the roof edge and along the corner.
The window and door frames are basswood cut to size and held in place with white glue.

For your building you'll have two big blanks. Then you will cut out a big square to make almost a U shaped front wall. Then you will have three small walls that will be joined together with the clip/glue method that will form the balcony opening.
I would make all the openings (doors windows etc) on each blank before epoxying together.

More later......

Thanks for posting that! That will definitely help! Oh and,

Always appreciated.

Balsa Foam would definately be the way I would go... it is so easy to work with, and you can do all the textures and the detail carving on a single sheet without having to monkey around with Plastruct, foam, plaster, and everything else. I'm working on a very similar building right now... photos to come!

Though i am not as experienced as the guys posted before, i used a method of joining walls in my last Vietnam dio. I made the three walls of the ruined house and i carefully measyred their base dimensions and digged out (with a router or anything else you have handy) a dike (trench) along the length that the wall had to be located on the base. So i did this for each one of them and at the end i had a Π digged out about 2, 5 cms deep. It is obvious that this has been precalculated in the walls molding with plaster so i had made them equally taller so as when sticking them in the trench the remaining height would be the right one. i dry fit them and they stood there perfectly tight even with out adhesive. Then i took out i put a generous amount of white glue in the trench and put the walls in position firmly and tied them with pins and white glue between them. After this a light coatong of KRAFTS acrylic putty to hide the seems and joins and left to dry. Thats it after 3 days i lifted the whole dio base from the walls mounted on it this way . I hope i helped a lil