How to begin?

Well, for one thing, you are almost always going to need celluclay, but after that it pretty much just depends on what kind of dio you are doing.

hope that helped, Jim

you need an idea first, then materials, then time...then show off. i mean is it in a city, rural area, mountain, outerspace, forest, or jungle. is it winter, summer, spring or fall. will there be water, roads, trees....i can go on and on. look at some of the past posts and see if that helps you any. i hope that helps you as well. 

 Take a look at model railroad section at a hobby shop. Most everything has pics on it, that helps for ideas as well. Many places even have kits to do enough for a small-ish dio, about $15. Usually these are more grassy, woodland scapes, but it's good practice anyway, and something to expand on.

Your idea and the scene is going to dictate the "typical" size...  I plan my layout on a TV tray, using the partially-completed model(s) and figures on stands, along with wood blocks and boxes to stand in for buildings ad structures to do a sizing lay-out.  Once everything is in place, I measure out the dimensions needed to include everything and add about 20% more.  I then take that dimension and start building the base.

The main thing to remember is to never build a dio to fit the base.  Make the base fit the dio...

I'd also suggest that you peruse this forum.. Take your time, study the other's work, take notes, and if you only ever buy ONE book, Shepard Paine's How to Build Dioramas is a MUST-HAVE... There's more how-to information in that book than any one of us can type in here...

Thanks guys for the responses. Once I get my head around building the models first then I'll look into your advise in more detail.

Antony Wright wrote:

...So how would I go about beginming?...

My advice is to begin by doing your homework.  Read some of the How To books to see what others have done.  Google kicks them up and you can find others. 

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hobbylinc.com/gr/kal/kal12136.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/kal/kal12136.htm&usg=__mJtYha35x2e8-2nNtfzxkBexDI8=&h=400&w=318&sz=30&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=fYWF9upwSiRZJM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHow%2BTo%2BBuild%2BDioramas%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG

 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.hobbylinc.com/gr/kal/kal12239.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/kal/kal12239.htm&usg=__u2gA3J-GLuRBKY4LOBVQhDV2jRo=&h=441&w=350&sz=32&hl=en&start=17&tbnid=vnNBcje_n6FWHM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=101&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHow%2BTo%2BBuild%2BDioramas%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG

 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51P2Y96A0VL._SL500_AA240_.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.amazon.ca/Build-Creative-Dioramas-Scale-Models/dp/0890243409&usg=__hprIlwsBuuK6idXKO4nYIXoBxvA=&h=240&w=240&sz=15&hl=en&start=31&tbnid=AE3a4KsHNLtEEM:&tbnh=110&tbnw=110&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHow%2BTo%2BBuild%2Bdioramas%26start%3D20%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN

Good luck.

Your question is sort of like asking how do I get to where I want to be without giving us the starting or ending location. Start by defining the term for yourself. Do you mean a simple base and groundwork to give time and place to your armor or are you thinking a bigger story? Do some research on your kit. Find pictures of it in a real world setting. Sketch out your plans. Try to objectively analyze the scene. Would it be logical for figures and things to be where they are? K.I.S.S. If you have to offer a lot of explanation about what you're showing, you have failed. A title should only need to identify the vehicle or the specific event. I would suggest starting very simple. I don't think it's at all a good idea to recreate the Battle of Kursk first time out.

Actually what Ive been looking for is a list of materials that are commonly used rather than starting with an idea or piece of armour. Ive seen in some of the WIPs that balsa wood is used and Im pretty sure plaster of paris is too. So what other materials do folk use? For instance what do you use for making the vegetation, buildings (ie the walls) etc?

Here's one of the most comprehensive listing of vegetation for dioramas.

Antony Wright wrote:

Actually what Ive been looking for is a list of materials that are commonly used rather than starting with an idea or piece of armour. Ive seen in some of the WIPs that balsa wood is used and Im pretty sure plaster of paris is too. So what other materials do folk use? For instance what do you use for making the vegetation, buildings (ie the walls) etc?

For buildings, I either cast walls and wall-sections in plaster  using a mold-box I built, or build them with strip basswood or strip pine.  The pine strips are 24 x 1 1/2 x 1/4, and the basswood is 2 3/4 x 7 x 3/16...Doors and windows get cut out of the basswood.  The pine strips get placed side by side, with short pieces of strip inserted between long ones for doors & windows..

I use balsa very little in 1/35th, because it's fuzzy and open-grained, but do use it for planking in 1/48th.. Also use a bunch of different size basswood and balsa strips that  get from the RC Airplane section of the LHS, factory seconds that come bagged and have all kinds of different dimensions, then there's craft sticks of various widths (the "popsicle"-type sticks)...  I also use keep bags of small wooden squares that I get a Hobby Lobby, back in the wood plaque section.

I use celluclay and plaster for ground material, plus real dirt, sifted and bagged, stones and pebbles, rubble from plaster and concrete spills...  For modeling stucco walls, I spread sheetrock mud on the wooden buildings fronts...

For tall grass, unraveled hemp rope, paintbrush bristles, and some commercial model RR stuff, and Static Grass for short grass...

 

 

 

Thanks guys - thats more like I wanted to know :)