yo troops would love to get into diorams but do not know where to begin.was giving a 1/35 tamiya german infantry mortar team and sand bags and would love some help on building a small dio.links to books on building and hints and tips on starting out would be great cheers

Hi Dino and welcome to Armorama. A good place to start would be to click on the Features on the left side of your screen and go to the diorama section. There are some great articles that lay out many methods for building dioramas. I think you have the right idea: start small and work your way up. Also, the best method to learn is to try the techniques for yourself. If you have specific questions about an issue (such as what to use for a base, making groundwork, trees, etc.), post them here and you will normally get quick answers. Just browsing the old posts is also a great way to learn. Good luck and have fun!

Keith

Hi Dino,
If you really want to get into dio's and figs the best advice I can give you would be to pick up "How to Build Dioramas" By Shep Paine. Its the dio builders bible and is a great first reference book for beginners. Oh and Armorama is a great place for Specific questions as well. Good luck and happy building
Cheers,
Bryan

Hi,

After the very good advices from KBM and Ex-Royal I can only point you to some photos of a mortar pit that's being done by Cristiane.

Campanha INCOMING - the topic it's in portuguese but the photos can give you some ideas.


HTH

Ciao Dino,
Welcome Dino. You will really grow to love this site. Some of the people here are true artisans.
I have some photos in my gallery of the DML Mortar Team if you want to look. Just click on the "my photos" tab below this reply and you can see them. I just followed the box art, and try to reproduce it.
Ciao for now
Rob

Ola Dino

First of All I would like to welcome you to this tremendous site. You won`t regret the moment you subscribed to Armorama.

As Ex-royal already mentioned Shep Paines book is a perfect way to start when you want to built diorama`s. Further I can give you the advice of looking up the features section here on Armorama You`ll find a ton of usefull information here. Also do a search through the forums as the amount of information that went through the site in 2 years is inmense.
Check out the rest of the internet for Reference pictures. IF you do it well it should provide you with quite some interesting and usefull stuff.

Looking forward to pictures of your work. And if you want to know something and you can`t find it just ask in the forums there is always somebody who knows what you want to know.

I recommend you start inexpensive and build up your skills. It isn't hard, but you will make mistakes early on... try your hand at a few figures from the inexpensive tamiya line of 1:35 figures... work on one or two in a small vignette, getting a feel for posing, background composition, and generating an interesting "story".

A nice beginner article is here on the site called "The $3 Diorama" located in the FEATURES-> DIGITAL DIAMONDS (#8) section.... the who thing cost just a few dollars and is an excellent excercise in painting, positioning, background, and conveying an idea....

Digital Diamond 8

If you have questions, you have come to a great site... people like Plastic Battle, Envar, Faust, RoadKill and too many others to name are all great sources for information and tips!

thx for the info troops

Dino
Definitely check out the features here, the Dig. DIamonds are great and there are a huge number of overall features that will help you out.

One tip - if you want sand bags in your diorama - loose the tamiya ones. Or use them as the base layer. They are stiff and hard to work with. The size and shape are nice and are a good guide. I'd get a bit of milliput or 'baking' clay (the kind that hardens in the oven) and make your own. You will be soooo pleased. Sand bags are an easy thing to start with.

Roll a snake of putty and cut to length. Flatten them out and mold a bit. Mold them together. Press in a piece of cheese cloth to give them a bit of texture and use a toothpick or knife blade and etch in some seams. Bake'em or let'em dry.

cheers scott for info

the dig.dlmonds ?

Hi,





Digital Diamonds it's a collection of tricks from Keith Magee.


HTH


#1500

Dino: I recently bought a copy of the above book. It's brilliant!!!! It'll change the way you do things!

As for ideas, I find the Osprey books particulary helpful. Generally gives you a good historical base for you dio or vignette. http://www.ospreypublishing.com/

Feature: Making Sandbags from Milliput