Ok im trying to prepare for a italian diorama. I'm thinking im gonna use a verdina productions diorama structure, like the italian farm or something... Ok but what do you guys recommend I used for the terrian? I thought it would be cool to have a piece of american or german armor wrecked and partially in a pond or stream, I would love to see "into" the water by making the water "build" up on a corner of the diorama base, so you can see like a dead bodie submerged and maybe some jerry cans or whatever... Ok well would a M3 Stuart be appropriate, I just wanna know what was used, maybe a halftrack would be cool. I dunno gimme ideas, maybe refrence photos of other dioramas or real pictures! Um this could i suppose sound complecated but try to help me out like you have in the short past (i've only been a member here a week or so)

Ok thanks for reading! Oh yeah are there any kits of german infantry that are in dead poses? Or how would i make them look dead? Pose wise.

Hi $cott ...Sounds like quite the undertaking you got planned ...First off what I use to build up the ground is styrofoam then covered in plaster(ie Pollyfilla or plaster of pParis ect..) I mix in real dirt sifted through a strainer and add a pot of tamiya earth colored paint to the mix. Iusually add rocks and stuff as I go so that they look to be a part of the scenery and not sitting on top of it ...As this begins to dry I add static grass and longer grass that I make from hairs from a paintbrush..pushing this into the still wet mix...I add tracks behind the vehicles and foot prints depending on the surface I want to represent ..after everything is dry ..you can paint the ground work with different greens,yelllows and earth colors ..Water I can't really help you with but be careful of what you use because some resins used can heat up and melt your figures or the styrofoam...I do believe Woodland Scenic has some pretty cool stuff out there but never tried them yet ...One day maybe..I did leave a note on the rivet board about the M-3 in Italy ...I'm really not sure but I can't remember seeing any pictures of it ...(doesn't mean it couldn't happen) Well hoped this helped a bit...
Oh yes there are dead German figures out there ...last ones I saw were from Verlinden...look around I'm sure you'll find something..

Rick

If you have a little patience I could come up somewhere next week with some info for you (I'm actually out for work) and also colour pics to give you an idea of farms colors, lanscape vegetation and so on. Let me know if you prefer to have the answer (pics included) post as reply on the forum or directly to you.

If your question is "were M3 Lee's used in Italy", the answer is yes - but not as often as the Sherman M4... so it would be acceptible to put a partially submerged M3 in your dio. But here is my tip / question:

Before you build a diorma of a bunch of parts and pieces (and it sounds like you have a lot avaialbe to chose from!), "WHAT IS THE STORY YOU WANT TO TELL"... the reason i bring this up is that throwing a bunch of neat stuff together in s a scene does not a diormam make. By working definition, a Diorama is a 3'D snapshot ' of a situation or moment, which conveys an entire story without further explanation.

So - was this a tank that came rolling through a farm village and got stuck in the mud? Or was is caught by surprise by a tank-hunter team that had hidden out in the barn overnight, then cleaned the tank's clock with a panzerfaust the next day? Were there surviviors... is the local farm family trying to help the tanker figure out how to get a poorly driven tank out of a big puddle?

Before you start gluing stuff in place, make sure you have your story - adn then add the major and then minor components as needed to tell that story. I've seen some really great stuff in diorama form, and I've also judged a lot of "dioramas" that were nothing more than a bunch of "stuff" glued down onto the same base, with no apparent reason.

very helpful stuff guys, keep it coming :-)

I am whole heartedly with KF. Come up with the story you want to tell first and then start on the diorama. I have a bunch a stuff built, just waiting on stories to tell. I have seen too many dioramas that looked like parking lots because the person that built it had to put the three best tanks they ever built in there somewhere. Take your time. Tell a little story. That's what building a diorama is about, at least for me...