I thought I’d take a quick look at a few of the things you can find at your local hobby store for making dioramas. Later on I’ll take a look at other things from around the home and non-hobbyshops that are equally useful.
As the most common use for diorama building supplies is for model railway enthusiasts if you local model shop doesn’t have these take a look around for one that specialises in model railways.
First up : Grass mat, water beads, unused matchsticks and common string.
Grass mat – available in different colours and different lengths. As a full mat only really useful for manicured lawn dioramas but as patches that are mixed and matched with other ground coverings they work well.
Woodlands Scenics Water beads – melted they can be poured into puddles, small streams, buckets and used as running water. Once it starts to cool it sets quick so work fast.
Unused matchsticks – useful for all manner of wooden constructions from fences through bridges to buildings. Very nady when used in conjunction with balsawood and basswood strips.
Common string – tightly wound white string used for ropes as well as grass lengths if teased out and cut into lengths. When used as ropes rub in a little PVA to prevent furring.
Next up : Woodlands Scenics Foliage, Grasses and Turfs.
These come in a huge variety, the foliages can be anything from simple bushes to what’s called “forest cover” which is thick matted foliage used on train layouts to depict large forested areas. The grasses and turfs come in different colours and coarsness as well as blended mixes. They work best in mixes as they give a variety of shades then to your ground cover. The foliages make excellent bushes, can be made into trees and are the best thing I’ve found for doing cut branches used on german vehicles to hide them from marauding allied planes.
Bringing up the rear : Assorted grasses, plants, bushes and mosses.
These also come in a seemingly endless variety. Various coloured grasses in 80mm lengths make for easy ( though expensive to do a large area ) long grass fields. Ready made bushes and trees in N Guage or HO Scale make for garden plants and shrubs in 1/35 and you can even get coloured flowerbeds representing things like lavender beds etc. Mosses and lichens make good bushes and tree backgrounds ( upon which to build foliages ) and small bits intersperesed with grasses make good clumps of weeds. Plants can be used stand alone, in clumps, others can be attached to branches to give trees a finer foliage cover and some make good small tree saplings or new growth on cut stumps.
And lastly but not leastly : Plaster of Paris Impregnated Cloth.
The key to starting any diorama. Just get the rough shape sorted using whatever materials are at hand, cut strips of this, soak in a bowl of water and then lay over the basework and form into the shapes and contours that you want. As easy as that. A few layers gives it strength and it can then be sanded, glued, painted etc just like any solid PoP based groundwork.
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