Hate to have to agree with you but you're right. The concept of the technique is a good one. The material you used as the 'weave material' is to uniform and thick (IMHO).
Do you know if they used inidividual 'leaf' netting?? If so, you could try snipped paper bits sprinkled on top of the raw netting. use white glue to hold it down. Another material could be parsley.
If the long strips are the things you want then maybe kitchen foil weaved in. It's very thin, it's plyable. Once painted it would not show like foil.
On to the good stuff - this diorama is very well done. I love the walls and debris and detail EVERYWHERE. Nicely done, good rope detail, wire detail. I like it a lot.
Couple of things I see, the ladder in the back is a bit overscale for my taste. The figure with the Jerry can next to his head is a bit odd (IMHO). I would say that if someone had a Jerry can up that high they would be putting it up onto something, SPG, wall, truck.... They're heavy and carrying that much liquid is hard that high. NOW I just had a thought, if he's shaking it to see if it's got more in it I would drill out the opening add a styrene lid on a thread teather to show that it was open and he's checking it. Maybe another open one on the ground next to him showing he's scavanging for more.
Lastly, I can't tell from the photo if the shells on the ground near the loader are empty or not? If not I would organize them in a neat pile. If they're empty, leave them alone.
Nice job, you can be proud of this one.
