In an effort to save some coin on products for doing dios, I'm not sure if anyone is aware of a product line that is in Micheals Craft Stores.
Last year a friend and I were in the store, and we discovered a huge line of Christmas Village products from a company called Lemax. They make a huge assortment of odds and ends for making scenery. Alot of houses (a bit out of scale unfortunately) but there has been alot of items I've picked up that are perfect for dios!
Stuff like street sign posts, street lamps, trees, small bags of gravel that is perfect for brick rubble, to things like different types of foot bridges, water wells and rock walls, and sections of fencing are some of the products I've picked up, and have used in some dios, and some of it is pretty close to scale, so you can get away with using them, and the subject matter has created that "wow, where'd you get that?" questions in our local club. The cost is very reasonable, and probably much cheaper than alot of the AM products available, and if you have the savings coupons, you save even more! I've even picked up some stuff from the company's Halloween line, which included iron gates with little gargoyles on them (you can cut them off or leave them on for that eastern Europe house or whatever. They have tombstones which are really neat, you can carve out the cheesy RIP or raised detail...
So the next time you're in Michaels, take a look for some of this stuff, it's great, and as Christmas approaches, more and more product will be coming in.
-Kelly

Yep, Michael's is a great place. I usually scout out their doll house stuff for wallpaper, window frames, etc., but I'll definately look for the Lemax. Thanx.

Art

Yep, craft stores and dollar stores for lots of cheaper materials.

Good Grief Charlie Brown! The highlight of my week is looking for the 40-50% off coupon in the Sunday paper for Michaels. I think they know me by name there.
There have quite a bit to offer. Patterned sheets of paper that can be used for wallpaper that is different and cheaper than the hobby people offer. Also, Sculptamold (great at half price) as well as airbrushes and compressors (also a deal at half price). They have air-dry and bakeable clay (the air dry shrinks).
Their supply of models is lousy unless you are into cars. Also, I use a lot of artist's material like matte medium, gloss medium, high solids medium, retarder, flow medium, etc.
Not trying to make a commercial for them, but the coupon is a good deal. Hobby Lobby has bigger stores around here, but a smaller collection of diorama friendly products.

Sealhead

Agreed - My local Michaels just put out a bunch of last years stuff dirt cheap to make room for the upcoming year.

I recommend - Don't buy full price. Hit a sale or wait till after the holidays - you'll get 50% off easy.

Sealhead, I'm in the same boat as you, waiting for that coupon every week, I'm almost on a first name basis at my local store too, and working practically across the street from Michaels, a great deal of lunch hours are spent in there! :-) Just picked up a couple of the fir trees from the Christmas line, I'm planning a Russian winter scene for my next dio...AFTER I do a car, I haven't done a car for over a year, and I'm worried that the model car club I belong too will boot me out if I don't produce! :-) Armour's taken over my modeling life! ha ha