Soon I will be starting my 2nd Gundam Wing diorama and I need some help with the ground. I want to do this in a city but since there is no 1/144 scale buildings I just thought of having the whole base rubble! What I need help with is the destroyed city, what could I use for all thay rubble? Bricks, Steel beams, Wood, Wires etc. I want the person viewing the model to know that buildings stood there so how could I make it look like there was a building there? just add more rubble to that area? The base is going to be about 1 1/2 by 1 1/2 around there.

I described what Iam doing in the post under Spaceship Talk "Any one build Gundam models" Its about half way down.

Thanks,
Mike

If I was going to going to do a 144th scale dio with ruins the first thing I would do is mark the streets and paint them. You may even want to paint center lines in your streets since it is supposed to be in the future. The next thing I would do is mark off where your "ruins" are going to be and pile up rubble. Broken pieces of drywall, balsa strips, stripped wire, etc. Check the web for reference pictures of Germany after air raids during WW 2. I’m fairly certain that the effect would be about the same.

Hope this helped...

The drywall technique is very effective.I am going to use that for most of the rubble in my dio.

I don't know what the dry wall technique is. Could you tell me what to do for it? I was talking to a friend of mine and he mentioned using plaster. Putting a layer on a cookie sheet, let it dry and then crack it up. Use that for some debre.

Kennan thanks for the tips. I havent goten all the gundams yet so I cant start marking off the streets. Another thing, for marking the streets how wide should I make them? I dont know how big the cars would be in 1/144 scale. Do you know?

thanks,
Mike

The drywall deal is easy. Saves you the time of pouring the plaster in a cookie sheet and breaking it. Besides, almost every homeowner has a chunk of dry wall they are waiting to set out for the garbage man… Anyway, soak a chunk of drywall in water for a couple of hours to loosen the paper backing that is on both sides. Then, while it is still wet, peel the paper of the drywall. You should end up with a slab of plaster that you can do anything with. I have made entire intact buildings by carving details into hunks of drywall. If you want rubble, let the drywall dry out for a couple of days and then break it into pieces as your friend suggested.
The scale width of the streets are your call. Measure the street in front of your house in feet, multiply by 12 to get inches and divide by 144. For example, I think the street in front of my house is about 30 feet wide. Multiply 30 feet times 12 inches and get 360 (to get inches wide). Divide that by your scale (144th scale) and you come up with 2.5 inches (this gives you scale inches). So, a 30 foot wide street would be 2.5 inches wide in 144th scale.

Again, I hope this helps.

Ok I think I know how to do the dry wall thing. My dad should have tons of it in the garage somewhere. Do you have any pics. of the buildings you have built?

Thanks for the info. on the streets also.

Mike

hey Armor135

when I make somthing like that...I make the floor to the building be it tiles, wooden floor etc. then I make the foundations of the building (comming from the floor) just high enough so you can tell it was a wall. Once you have your furniture, windows, walls and floor done you get the same material you used for the floor, foundations and walls and use it to make rubble and just start throwing your ruble around till you have your desired look...

P.s make sure you have enough rubble to make it look like there was enought rubble to make a building...(if that makes sence...cos I dont think it does to me #:-) )

Good luck

Cris

Ok thanks Cris. I'll get some plaster from my dad he should have enough.

I'll try things out to see what I can do for the buildings,

thanks,
Mike