Saving Private Ryan Diorama

I would say make some small sample pieces and try them .Perhaps a small vignette w/2-3 figs ?There are also kit's available with Shermans and landing craft .With such a large subject what scale are you thinkin' of ?

I use this place, I've found that they are a hell of a lot cheaper than even ebay for the same items. The link is to their page with landing craft. Their shipping is reasonable and they ship by air as well if needed.

http://www.scalehobbyist.com/catagories/browse.php?kw=landing,craft

If you are planning to use a Sherman in your diorama, just be aware of the limitations if you are going for historical accuracy in the diorama. They came ashore one of two ways, with a wading kit landed by LCTs (not LCMs) or as DD swimming tanks launched from way off shore by LCTs. Many of which sank on the run in. There were two models of Shermans used by US tank battalions on D-Day, the M4 and and M4A1 75mm. All the DDs I can find pics of were M4A1s.

it wont be too big at all just enough space to sit a tank/landing craft and the 6 figures..... but thankss

First things first..... In SPR, they landed at the Dog Green sector of Omaha.  You'll need to get a good look at the terrain you want to model, so some D-Day beach photos are needed.  In SPR, they landed on the Dog Green sector of Omaha Beach, so use Google Image to locate some Overlord landing maps & photos..

Then, use a sheet or sheets of paper along with mock-ups of your vehicles to determine how big a base you'll need.  To have a swamped tank, you'll need a fairly large (depth-wise) base in order to model the tank and LC in deep enough water, or if you want to compress it, you can cut away the majority of the tank & LC hull...  You know, eliminating anything below the "water-line"... 

Just off the top of my head and knowing how big the two kits are, you're going to need a base that's 2 1/2 feet by 1 1/2 feet for the LC alone...  Stik's right about the LCT/LCM question, but if you don't care about that, the LCM (I have the Trumpeter LCM in mind) is about 16-18 inches in length... So forget about the "It's not gonna be that big" idea... Yeah, it's gonna be big... Not huge, but bigger than the average armor diorama by about 2 1/2 times...

I suggest you do a mock-up and post the photos here so we can help you a bit more with the layout phase.. Most beginners try to cram too much into too little space... Or, they'll have a huge base, and try to fill all the resulting empty areas with a lone, unrelated figure here, a junk pile there, a barricade here, etc, with no rhyme or reason behind it.....  You want the objects in the diorma placed so that they direct the viewer's eyes around the dio, each one leading to the next element.

 So, do a mock-up and let us see what ya got in mind...  You're quite a ways off from worrying about what ground materials to use...

Also, and I tell this to EVERY new diorama builder, is to buy a copy of Shepard Paine's book,  How to Build Dioramas... If you only ever buy ONE modeling help book, this one's the Bible.  Also, you can also go to the website below, and read up on the diorama tips that Shep wrote for his Monogram dioramas back in the 70s... Print them out...

http://sheperdpaine.com/monogram/index.htm

i went to their website and their prices are dirt cheap! thanks for the link.

The website I posted? If so, yes, it's an awesome site.

Well my Dragons US Ohama beach soldiers came today so im gunna start with them and at the same time map out how much space i will roughly need for everything!

But thanks for help guys keep it coming :)

Scott....