Great site guys! i find out so much info here. Now I have a question. does it matter on the flora & fauna that you put in a dio? Meaning, the type. I have a dio that is not really set in any specific area. It is just a scene and I do not want to crowd the scene to much so I used some smaller stuff and a couple things that look neat. You know walking through the woods out in the middle of now where you always find out of the place stuff. But does it really matter what is in the scene. I know that some things just do not go in some areas but if it looks nice?

To some degree. If you're depicting a scene in Europe, you don't want big ferns and super wide leaves typical of a jungle. If you're doing a pine grove, oak leaves on the ground will look out of place.
Using the right flora will immedaitely set the stage without having to tell the viewer what's going on. It would be like doing a stage set using beads in a dooway and a turntable with a couple vinyl Beatles albums nearby to immedaitely tell the audience the scene is taking place inthe late 60's.

Gads!! Another "bullet magnet" that yells for the Artillery guys!!! Oh, and a Senior Non-Com to boot!

Just teasing!!!! Do you by chance have any pics of what you have so far? It may be better for members to critique and offer suggestions if we know "what ya got goin' on." The other thing to do is try to set a "specific area." What's in Europe will be pretty different from what's in the Pacific. Some more details my fellow non-com!

Mike

Personally, I believe it does matter.
If a few rivets are missing or weld seems are not exact, 99% of folks who view your finished model wont even notice. But, you´ll find that, its scenery and figures, that draw most attention from non modellers, friends and family. Practically everybody can judge whats on display.
The quality of diorama accessories is getting better all the time and very realistic to boot. If you build a dio today, and take shortcuts, your gonna become very dissatisfied with it, in the short-term future.
If you feel yourself, that what you plan using is "weak" or could be better, I´d recommend putting in some extra effort, and get is as good as you can now! But as Mike says, if you´re unsure, post some pics and get good some good tips, from fellow modellers, that can easily make adifference. Would also recommend looking through some threads in the diorama section on foilage. It need not be expensive to get good results!

Well TACFIRE I might be able to put a few PICs on if this dumb Grunt can figure out the camera!!! LOL I will try to get them on today. and maybe I should clear up a few things like I do not mean to put palm trees on the beaches of Normandy or any thing like that. I just ment that because some things are just hard to find and as long as the scene looks nice and not to fake should it be nit-picked by those of us who get all wrapped around the axle about stuff like that?

You are correct about things (physical) being hard to be found, but not so difficult when it comes to "how to's." As Frank said, you dig around enough, there are posts on how to make stumps, trees, leaves, bushes, ferns....Flora and Fauna....here on ArmoramA. It's amazing how easy some are to do (not that my lazy butt has done 'em yet!).

And yes, steel yourself to be nit-picked.....not saying it will happen, but could....now if you did put a palm tree on a Normandy dio.... :-)

Here's some pretty neat autum leaves from Ausfwerks listed http://ausfwerks.com//store/ausfdesign/501/T.html

Anywhoooo, looking forward to seeing whatcha got goin' on.

Mike

It matters to a certain degree, I reckon. But agree that if it has the right 'feel', if you just use common sense, it'll be ok. This means : no lush green vegetation in combination with snow, things like that, you got that already I guess.
Concerning realism : I believe that it's useless to mimic nature to the exact detail. If I make a tree or a bush, I make some variety of stuff that looks like a 'general' tree or bush, I don't make an exact type (except very distinct types like birches). I think that when it comes to modelling 'nature' you have to keep in mind two important things : choose the season, and keep that in mind, and secondly : nature is all about variation. Even in the simplest lawn you'll find dozens of flora-species.
Hope this helps a bit

I'm gonna have to agree with Frank on this. Why take the the time to make a diorama if you aren't going to try and be exact about it? I recently did one based on Kursk, and actually found out that the soil around Kursk is a very special and unique color; only found in two places on the earth actually, so when I painted my base, I made sure I painted it this specific color. That way, where you saw the tank treads had torn up the grass and wildflowers, it looked just a little more real..Probably wont ever matter to anyone but me, but it made me feel good.

I do not disagree with any of you. I have been all around the world and soil in a lot of places are diffrent colors. Basically like what FLORRE is saying that I do not go for an exact look of a specific type of tree and i do try to keep it to scale of course, and I am not saying just throw somnething in there either. But you do run into cases where out in the middle of n where in the middle of the woods where ever in the US that you will be walking in the woods of nothing but Pines and Oaks Maples and such and then in the middle of a land nav course is a patch of Bamboo. Or a Fern patch but no ferns anywhere for a couple 1000M. But they are there. So if you did it In a Dio would anybody know what you were doing? Or would they just think you put in filler?

Probably the last option

It would look out of place, just like it looks out of place in real life. It doesn't mean it isn't possible, but for most people it wouldn't look right I guess. So I wouldn't take the risk

Hi
I must also agree with Frank here.

It does matter, I believe, on your attempt to represent reality in miniature. Groundwork and foliage contribute to the overall realism of the scene and time spent on these details will set off the model in its setting.

We cant always get it 100% right in every diorama, but rather should aim to improve a little on each successive attempt.

Cheers to all.
Garth