What do you guys and gals use to make the litter in urban streets you see in pics in places like Bagdad and the like? I mean stuff like spare tires, buckets, trash, etc.

My dio is of a Marine patrol with a hummer and the dusty/rocky road is a bit plain.

Also, what is a good way to recreate the barb-wire rolls used along checkpoints?

Webfoots,
All you need are two things; photos and imagination. Armed with those, you should be able to make darn near anything that you want. I'm serious. You can make the stuff and then you not only save money but you have the satisfaction of making it more unique.
Ciao for now
Rob

You can pretty well raid your spares box for the debris of war. Throw in some paper bits, even wad up some pieces and throw them around. Cement rubble can be made from crushed plaster scraps dyed the appropriate concrete color. Bits of wood, plastic shapes, painted like rusty metal add to the effect.

For modern barbed wire, I use fiberglass window screen. Lay out a 2 -3 foot section on a board and with a sharp hobby knife, or razor, with a straight edge cut down along the side of a horizontal line. Cut the verticles to about an eighth to a sixteenth of an inch on both sides. Once you have freed the strand from the screen you should have pretty fair barbed wire. Use the gray screen, it looks like the current barbed wire and it accepts paint well.

Give it a try.

Excellent idea on the window screen, I'll give that a try.

Thanks for the replies

cat litter can also be used as rumble and broken plaster stuff will do perfect concrete or cement pieces. empty boxes broken pieces of wood and also even cutted randomly from transparent plastic sheet

Costas

Faded billboards and grafitti add to a scene like this. If buildings are not totally destroyed, clothes drying on balconies adds to the clutter of urban life. Pushed-to-the-sides barricades is another great addition. These could be made from barrels or if you can find some 1/32 cars .. damage them and show them burned out, to hide the scale difference. Even suitable sized toy cars can be touched up to use. As tipped earlier photographs or news scenes are the best sources for ideas here.

Plasticbattle, looking at your pics I have to say the sandbags in your "Hold your fire" dio are great. Any tips on how it is done?

Try the doll house section of craft stores for furniture, appliances, window frames, curtains, wood stoves, bicycles, etc., etc. As long as you're going to use them as trash you can pretty much "destroy" any excess to bring them to scale. Also, broken flashlight bulbs make good glass debris.

Art

Even a few leftover pieces from your scrap box, like pieces of armor or vehicles will add just a subtle hint of realism. It's the kind of thing that has people will see when they look twice.

Sealhead

some plastic bags from grocery stores could be cut up small and crinkled for different pieces

Thanks webfoots. They are made from milliput ... use the redand white box as its coarser, cheaper and gives a better texture. I roll out the milliput into a long sausage around 1cm thick. thencut into blocks of around 1cm long. This gives a nice size. Then shape into a long oval and pull out the corners. Placewith corners hanging down and make the stitched seam with a wet cocktail stick. I stuck a piece of rubber mesh from an old kit onto a wooden dowel. This i pressgently into each bag to make somewoven texture. Go to roadkill´s site, a member on here. In his tips section is a good explanation of this ... this is what I did.
Roadkill´s site