Im making my first diorama. I went down to HobbyTown USA and bought the Shanghai Dragon USMC M1A1 Abrams (Heavy Armor) (Kit# 3531), the Shanghai Dragon Modern U.S. Marines (Kit# 3027) and the Tamiya Sand Bag Kit (#35025). I went to HobbyLobby and bought a peice of wood for use as a base, which I sprayed with textured paint (also bought at hobby lobby) which looked great. The diorama is set during operation Iraqi Freedom. I finished painting all the figures and tank. I want to know how i should assecorize the base. So far all I have is the sandbags and a small yellowish bush i bought at HobbyLobby. All the things are on a 1/35th scale

Bonjour,

maybe some in progress pictures would help aiding you.

Q

Not sure how much space you have so that will dictate how much extra you can put in.
You can experiment with 55 gal drums, jerry cans, water containers, spare gear, rucksacks, ammo boxes, wooden crates.

maybe try splitting your bush if its a big one, the majority of the plant life in a desert is scrub. you could also add small rocks, raise the ground features a little so its not flat that sort of thing.

you could also add bush

He said in his first post that he had bought a bush for the dio.

But to contribute, how about a knocked out car or something, if you can find something suitable, or a building ruin. There's a review here about a middle east ruined building that could look good. Just my ideas.

No pics right now
but hang on, ill measure. the base is 16 1/2" and 7". The tank is noraml 1/35 scale and so is everything else

Since you haven't got any pix, Stephen, it's hard to be specific. Any of the above suggestions would work, but probably hundreds of other combos too! Why don't you have a peep at some of the desert dios displayed on this site. They'll definitely give you some ideas.

a little trick too is never have model run parallel to the any base edge and have you figures use there hands and arms to direct you to each figure and to the tank so as to not draw the eye from the total diorama - just an art trick
Ian

Ill get some pics of my progession soon. Right now im puting on the left track.

heres the box art of the models, Ill get the actual pics when my bro gets home (im only 13 and my brother has a cellphone with camera) but here is the box art:
http://www.dragonmodelsltd.com/html/3027.htm
http://www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA3517
[ http://h1071419.hobbyshopnow.com/products/description.asp?prod=TAM32508

ok now im pretty much done, i have a little extra space though. ill post pics tommorow

Hey, Steve, just had a look at the box art of your kits and there're quite a few possibilities. Since none of your figs are really in action, you could do a scene where the tank and the infantry have just overrun an Iraqi position and are now waiting for the arty to lift so they can move forward. You could use the sand bags to make an abandoned Iraqi machine-gun post. The rest is just desert, so sand, man, SAND!

A tip from me would be, to not use these. They are too rigid and don´t sit like real sandbags.
The best idea is to get some putty and mold them yourself. Then you can get them to sit naturally.

If you look for Armorama member "roadkill", on his personal site he has a great tip for making sandbags from milliput. I used this and was very pleased. Take back the sandbags, and use the money to buy millput instead.
The models below used roadkill´s method.

To late. Dang it those sandbags are cool looking though. it takes like 6 rows of vertically stacked tamiya sandbags to reach the 1/35th figures neck. Ok, now im pretty much done, should i add a wrecked building?
I dont have a model of one but i can make something out of plaster of paris

If you notice about the box art, 3 of the 4 tank crew isnt working and is just relaxing (even though they're explosions in the background!) and I made it where the tank is stopped at a small stronghold. Ill get pictures on today to, i swear . And anyway one of the tank crew guys is talking to a marine, and the other two lazy ones are just relaxing. The marines with the radio and the radio backpack, are togethre as they're calling for something. and the driver is still in the tank. The last Marine is standing near the MG. The Marine kit aslo came with some extra guns, one of them is a RPK-74, a usual terrorist weapon. So i want to know, should i put in somewhere in the scene?

Yeah, you could put the RPK in the abandoned position.

im thinking what i should put in a abandoned posistion like you said spooky or a leveled house. Im not that sure yet.

What era is your dio representing? I'm assuming current ops in Iraq, OIF.

Edit: Just re-read your post Tank figures and tank decals are incorrect for OIF.

The 2 figure sets are not from the same time period. The tank crew is wearing flak vests from ODS ('90-'91) or no vests at all. Modern tank crews wear the same vests as the USMC figures, and all wear the vests. The USMC set is wearing gear and vests from OIF, current ops in Iraq. The vests are called IBA, Interceptor Body Armor. To have correct tank crewmen, you could get a second set of USMC figures and swap out the torsos on the tankers with the ones from the USMC set.

The tank is also marked as a US Army ODS tank with the kit decals. Also, the Abrams is missing items that are present on current tanks as well. Most notably the CIPs found in the Tamiya Modern Equipment set. It is also missing key USMC parts, such as the USMC smoke launchers and the USMC MCD, Missile Countermeasure Device, that mounts on top of the manhole cover in front of the loader. Don't use the hull-mounted APU on the right rear hull either. Also missing is the new butle rack mounted APU.

It would be better just to say this is a US Army dio. The soldiers can be either Army or USMC, the uniforms and gear are the same. You could mark the tank as a 3ID tank and be good. Some 3ID tanks did not have the bustle mounted APU either. Let me know if you need advice on 3ID markings.

Maybe it's just the wrong pics yu posted but the figures and the vehicle are 1/35 but your sandbags are 1/48. I suppose that's one way to take care of the oversized 1/35 sandbags from Tamiya. Just thought I'd point that out.

Did i mention this is my first one...

oh and shermie, i found out that those were the wrong ones after i posted them. i cant find the box art for the 1/35 ones

That is why I am giving you the correct info. Whether it is your first or 100th, you should always strive for historical correctness. That is the way I see it. Start out the right way, and you will be good for all the dios you build.

Also, a little research will help out as you are planning your dios and models. You can also ask some directed questions here and you will get good answers. Like, "What are the best figures to represent modern tankers?" or "Do the DML tank crew figures represent modern tankers well?" or "What kind of gear are modern troops using in Iraq?", etc.

If you give us some good questions to answer, you will get good answers that will help you out .

Hey, Stephen, don't worry about it. Gino's given you all that info so that you know where you are and what your options are. Now, the whole point of modelling is TO HAVE FUN! Get as accurate as you can (or as you can afford!), but if you can't get historical perfection, don't sweat it. Make this dio the best you can, learn from it, and plan and research better next time. I could barely paint my models when I was 14!

If you can get OIF decals, go for it, if not, just use the ODS ones. This isn't an IPMS competition. And if you look at any Army, there'll always be a few crews with outdated kit. Either a quartermaster screw-up or peronal preference. Its the same with weapons: thyere are always a few guys with the older tried and tested stuff.

So don't sweat it, just DO IT!