Hi everyone,

I was wondering about this. If your dio includes a tank or any other armored vehicle, do you attach the vehicle on the diorama or do you just put it in the dio as a loose object?
And if you attach it, what kind of method do you use for that?

Thanks

Dolf

Thor
That depends on the dio. I'd say 90% of mine are just 'set' in place. If it's an 'action' setting you may have to secure it in some fashion. For instance in a ditch, water, overturned etc.
The figures I put in my dio's are the opposite. 90% of the time I 'fix' them in place.
Figures I use post and whole and glue. I add a small brass rod into thier foot and drill a whole in the base. Add a bit of glue, usually white glue and that's it.
The armor I usually just glue down with while glue. Shep recommends drilling up from the bottom of the base into the hull.

You do need to work on placing your armor IN your dio not ON your dio. Make sure you have tracks in the ground and some 'sink' spots to show the weight of the tank. Knock down grass, weeds in the armors path. In urban settings push rubble out of the way.

The armor and the ground work are not two separate items. Plan the dio with thoughts of both together. However the tank is attached is a style deal.

Since my dioramas are usually in areas accessible to the public, and get moved from location to location, I fix everything in place... again, drilling a small hole into the model (figure , armor, whatever!) and then inserting a rod with glue into the model and the base. This way - there is no excuse for things to come loose. Glue alone will often dry out and crack after many years... but as long as the rod is in there, you should have a lifetime of viewing pleasure without any mispositioning.

Good point KFMagee - consider where they will be displayed. My dio's make it to my personal shelves and there they stay.

Even on that case fix everything to the base. Believe it will pay when moving it for around cleaning ( your lady or mom ) or other ocasions.

I have had one tank flying and kaboom ...... the dio base has suffered nothing I have taken it with great care but I don't expect that it has loose pieces.

What I wanna know is,if you do "fix" the behicle in place on a dio,where the hech do you put the rod?Im just gonna guess the bottom of the hull in the center?

I guess any spot that is unvisible would do...all you need is a drill with small head...
I will be facing the same dilemma with figures to be attached to soft ground from their toes...

Toni

Thanks for the tips you guys
Ill do some testing with an old model on a piece of wood or something to see what the best place for attaching would be. I was thinking about using the small holes that already exist in the tracks and put needles or small nails through them (only on the inside of the track, behind the wheels). Then glue them into holes i drilled in the diorama' s base. That way you dont have to drill in your model (i hope).

Dolf

Though I don't model dioramas specifically, I do mount all of my models to display bases with ground work. I use tiny spots of 5-minute epoxy. Either under each point of the wheels or along a track run, to secure the model to the base. If you put too much, you can dull it back down with Dull Cote. The 5-minute epoxy is super-strong - never had anything fall off after setting it with that...

Gunnie

There are lots of ways to do this. As Slodder wrote, Shep Paine recommends screwing or bolting the model to the base, but I find that only neccessary when you have a model with rubber-band style tracks on uneven ground. Careful, though, if you try this -- if you tighten it too much, the stress can crack your hull.

I usually just use CA glue to glue my models to groundwork. With big, heavy models -- like those that have resin conversion parts (especially turrets that make 'em top-heavy) -- I make pins from stiff wire (the same stuff I use for figures). You can find good, stiff steel wire in any hardware store or hobby shop. You'll need some good wire cutters to cut this stuff, as it is very hard (use cheap sidecutters and it will ding them up bad).

The secret to making them stick well and sit well is to impress the tank tracks or vehicle tires into the groundwork while it is still wet and soft. Let the model sit until the groundwork has set a bit, then carefully pull it up from the base and let the base finish drying. This will "key" your model to the base. Depending upon what you use for groundwork, you may not be able to pull the model up from the base, so you may consider just leaving the model as-is and painting around it.

I think that is a pretty good idea. I'll try it when I build a tank dio.

I know that this might be abit late but heres' my contribution!
I have surplus lead from my roof lying around so i spray some primer over it then carefully wedge it in the kit and trust me it ain't movin for anything!
#:-)

I always attach loose objects by drilling into the underside and sticking a pole right into the dio.
Whatever you decide good luck.