I bought a Verlinden ruined barn today, and wonder what you guys do on the inside of the building walls.
They have great detail on the outside of the walls, but the inside is just flat with no detail.

Do you scribe in bricks and stuff?

Hmm, which Verlinden Number is it?
You could also paint the inside like a wallpaper...

Plaster is easy to work. I use a dental pick and a ceramic tool to add "bricks and stuff" to the inside of plaster buildings. If there are exposed bricks on the front or ends, draw lines around the flat side to keep things lined up. The scribe and scrape the match the detail on the outside. This is hard to describe, but it's not difficult to do.

Go to the hobby shop, craft store or hardware store and pick up some small dimensional lumber (sticks). Balsa is OK, but basswood is better -- it's harder and less likely to warp or dent. Using the wood, you can make beams and posts, floors, roof parts, etc. I've also used chopsticks and popsicle sticks to detail buildings. Use your imagination.

Depending on the Kit, Verlinden has interiors for certain kits. They also have floor sets for buildings, but just think of it as your house. paint the walls, glue up some pretty wall paper, do some shelves. check out doll house parts for ideas and parts.

Jeff

Thanks a lot, guys...
I'll give the scribe and scrape method a try.
Sounds like a bit of work, but I guess it's worth it.

Howdy Norseman,

Welcome to Armorama! You'll find a great bunch o' lads here, believe me.
To your question. First, I don't buy AM buildings generally. The reason being is that they usually don't 'fit in' with what my mind has pictured in the dio. You did say youa " ruined barn", correct? If it is indeed a Barn, then the interior shouldn't be hard at all. Use, as 'Hollowpoint' suggested, scaled strips of basswood. You can now create an interior 'skeleton' of timber that mimics the open stalls of the barn. Rememeber, that barns were generally designed with central supports down the centerline of the structure itself (these would of course be larger strips of basswood and square instead of rectangular).

Hope this helps.

Tread.

I'll check with this thread later and post a little scratch-building secret regarding standard building construction (I'm thinking structures in the Ardenne's). O.K.?

What do you guys think would be best to use as straw, like for on the floor and even as insulation?

Nic

I "almost" always do the full interior of my dioramas... never know when some judge or custoimer is going to shine a flashlight in there, right!?

Go take a look at my article PREPPING PLASTER KITS here in the website in the DIORAMAS listing of most popular articles... i go into some light detail about working the inside of plaster walls, and also show several photos of the completed unit discussed in the article "Coloring a Church Ruin"....

Keith

I use deer hair. While I collect mine the old-fashioned way (sit in a tree, shoot a deer, etc.) you can also buy bucktails and other animal hair in sporting goods stores that sell fly-tying supplies. It's easy to dye with clothing dye. It's also relatively inexpensive. Hudson and Allen Studios also market hair for use as tall grass in dioramas, as does Woodland Scenics.

As a follow-up to my last post, I offer this link to a fly-tying site that sells deer hair:
http://www.worldwaters.com/retail/common/shop/srch_results.asp?store%5Fid=212&dept%5Fid=69&mscssid=879L6PCANFQF8HCCVES0532SKJLE437E

SgtReef posted a link on the Scratchbuilding Forum to this site for wire -- they also sell hair. A word of advice for those who want to build dioramas: think outside the box. In other words, keep your options open to other sources of materials besides just the hobby shop.

My dad ties flies, so I should have an ample supply of the stuff Thanks for the tip, Bob.

Nic

Check out his place for interior stuff, it's pretty detailed and has a large amount of junk for houses and such. Not sure about the scale.