Guys,

I am building my first ruined structure for the "Window" diorama. I have the first pics here:
building pics

I used foamboard to form the walls, added strip balsa to create the second floor and have textured the outside walls with an acrylic-based sand compound. The dio will be set in southern France. It is of a member of the 36th Division winning the Congressional Medal of Honor.

very nice for the first one. keep it on

m60a3
Good start - I recommend that you read through the threads about the dio by Faust "Distraction". There are some very good photos and some good comments in there.

The wall and floor look really good so far. Could you please tell me more about the acrylic-based sand compound that you used on the walls? Thanks. :-)

That is very nice

Thanks for the kind support, guys. I will post the product name of the sand texture acrylic when I get home tonight...the name just escapes me!

Some thoughts I had on your building. Firstly this is brilliant and even better when its your first attempt at making walls.
This medium you are using could be the answer to my prayers as Im always on the outlook for something like this.
I think you should use this medium a little heavier in the seems of the foam board to hide them completely. For a plain wall these seems stand out more than a wall with a lot of detail. Its easy to add detail to a wall with foam board and then use your medium to cover over. This is a church ruins, Im building at the moment.
http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0SgDeAsEWE2OZVb1DTlF5vgXnf18QFKR5cCIWvrSJccvQr0lR53lgABAgSAdLBV55LIHhM6zkZ*nfD0GqkKXpOtpuzeW*qwm38Z5l7Fo4G6RO3tKkECuRcA/church-front.jpg?dc=4675390114094888502
The cornerstones are made from cornflakes box and as well as giving nice detail the are also used to hide the seam at the corner!
The detail can improve your building 100% but only 20% effort again.
Another example of wall detail using foam board, and cardboard together, and easily scribing with a pen.
http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0RADeAjwTSXe3Ei3SBIgZlruS9Q6BdhAUCgfEMA3F*LZzmukyDcYpTMMykVyMk4B6lZDPavC4bVXEthrOWuWaunuaeGnIxx3cUMPhGmsJZIE/MVC-436X.JPG?dc=4675398127304528217
Please post what this stuff is so I can try to get my hands on it as well.
Another thing is that the balsa wood you have used looks quite thick and out of scale! Maybe thinner pieces would be better!
My intentions are not to nit-pick, but only help with some points that I feel have helped me and make my dios a little more interesting.
Is that the colour of the finsihed stuff or have you painted it?

m60a3

Looks really good I think even more while this is your first time in making your own house
I made my first homemade house too for this project but that doesn`t matter now it`s about your house.
Are you going to put brickwork onto the walls of your building??
anyway it looks good at this moment keep up the good work

The medium product is called DecoArt Sandstones Stonelike Textural Acrylic. It comes in 4 ounce/ 118 ml jar. I paid US $2.48 at a craft store (Michael's) in the US. The manufacturer has a website:
http://www.decoart.com
It comes in an assortment of colors; the one I use is Neutral Beige. I was planning on using it for ground texture for a beach scene. I cannot attest to it's availability outside of the US, but I am sure it can be easily obtained.

Nice work. Wouldn't know you haven't built a building before.

Patrick

You took a good start here. Interesting to compare the progress of different people working on the same things heh ?

THAT IS VERY NICE
CONGRATULATIONS

ROBERTO - BRAZIL

Looks very nice! It will look even better when you get it weathered and some rubble around the base. Keep up the good work.