Hi there i am planning on building my first scratchbuilt diorama and i have managed to do most of it on my own but i was really wondering if anyone could help me out on building some ruined brick/concrete walls. But the catch is i would like to do it without having to buy anything (of course) just household type things that most people would have. I know it may seem like a bit of stupid request but any advice/help would be appreciated.
Cheers

Have a look at the Diorama features . Lots of good info on this page.

Cheers
Erik

Edit: BTW welcome to Armorama

Thanks ill have a look.
I had a look but im still struggling to find something that im looking for. Has anyone made any scratchbuilt walls from average household materials? If so could they tell me what they did.
Cheers

Well I have no idea what you mean by average household materials.Your house is going to have different stuff than my house. I don't believe you are going to be able to make walls without buying some of the materials but here are my techniques.

Since my buddies and I do a lot of home removations, pink foam insulation and dry wall plaster are common items we use to build our real life additions.

For modeling, basically you build the walls out of the pink foam and skim coat it with the plaster. You can keep the walls smooth for the plaster look or carve bricks (the cork method is better but I doubt too many people have sheets of cork in the house) into the plaster when nearly dry. You can probably substitute the pink foam with thin board. I tried cardboard once but moisture from the plaster is soaked up by the cardboard destroying itss structural integrity.

For wood I sometimes use popsicle sticks cut to size for window and door frames. Not too many people without kids have popsicles

To simulate glass I cut pieces of plastic blisterpacks that I save in advance.

Shingles can be made buy cutting up your model boxes with thicker ply cardboard.

Gutters can be mad splitting a drinking straw in half. Downspouts can be made with smaller straws like from juiceboxes.

Ultimately you're gonna have to buy paints unless you can make your own pigments.

Don't know if that's what your looking for.

Thanks for that it was pretty helpful.
Cheers

You're going to have to be very creative.

I'm not going to repeat techniques that can be found in the features listed by Erik. I'll give you new ideas on how to get the materials.
Couple of ideas
1. Bricks - you can use cork from an old pin up board or message board.
2. Concrete - you can use some household spackle and cover some cut down styrene from food containers.
3. If you have any plaster around you can use that.
4. If you want to go with clapboard houses use construction paper and popcicle sticks (coffee stir sticks).
5. You can make a dough that hardens out of easy stuff
http://www.creativekidsathome.com/activities/activity_8.html

Thanks.

I have a dio that contains mostly scratchbuilt items (except for any plastic items). The walls were made from styrofoam covered with wall putty or spackle and then scribed to give the impression of a stonewall -- but I guess you are looking for concrete or brick wall. The roof was made from cardboard (I wrote an article in Armorama somewhere), the trusses, floors, cabinets, chairs are all made from coffee stirrer sticks and spatula...




Hope this helps

Cheers

i go to the local appliance sales and ask em if i can have the styrofoam in the tv and stereo boxes
i get stirrers from cafe's and such
just what i do to get material for future items.



reb

Hey guys thanks for the ideas.