New to dios, loads of questions!

I mix my own grass to get a variety of shades. I mainly use woodland scenic ones. Some people don't like the colours as they are, but I think they are fine. I don't use the grass mat's as they have to much of a well kept lawn look. The grass wants to be thin, with patches of bare soil in the base.

I normally just dry brush my 72nd figures, not tried any shading as yet. But I am pretty pleased with the results I get. But I don't see why shading would not work.

I find getting a good flesh tone the hardest job of all. I start with one of the flesh colours, I have the Tamiya and xtracolour. They don't look anything like flesh as they are. I then mix in some a bit of brown with maybe a touch of red until I have something as close as I can. But I have yet to find an ideal mix. This is one area I really need to work on.

I did a small tutorial a few months back on making aircraft bases. If you didn't see it, here's the link.

cs.finescale.com/.../154940.aspx

There are other options to using celluclay which to be honest can be a pain in the butt sometimes. But I still rather like it.

Bish, I just checked out your tutorial. Thanks for putting that on here. I've never done a dio before but have wanted to for a long time. I just never knew how to get started. Your dios look simple to build and I can see how changes can be made here and there to change the overall look or even to make them more elaborate. I recently built the Moebius Dark Knight Tumbler model and want to put it on a scenic base but just didn't know where to start. Now I know. Thanks again.

Very cool link, thanx!

I will give it a go. I just need to try and find "scatter grass" my local hobby outlet doesn't really go in for that stuff.

Here is a dumb question . What qualifies as a "diorama" ? I recall someone at my IPMS said something about there have to be a certain number of figures?

I know this is pedantic, but I plan to do a diorame for our local IPMS MOY as it seems to be a "less done" subject and I do not stand a chance AT ALL with any other builds anyway LOL

Theuns

That's a good question Theun's. I have had some people call my Dio's a vignette, so I am actually a bit confused over it. To me, a Diorama is a scene that shows the model in a natural setting with some form of activity going on around it, whether there is one figure or 100.

I have heard it said that a Vignette has only 2 or 3 figures where as a Dio has more and tells a story. But that could mean that a vignette is only 2 or 3 figures with nothing else.

If I may use a couple of personal examples, to me, these are both Diorama's

There is only 3 figures in each,  but hopefully there is a story there.

But, I don't see this as a Dio, simply a model on a base.

That's my take on it anyway.

As for scatter grass, I get mine on line. My LHS doesn't carry much, especially woodland scenic. I like their stuff as there is such a big range and I like to mix it up.

Jim, thank you, glad it is of some help. If you have any question's feel free to ask, maybe over on that other thread. If your doing a single model, which it sounds like you are, I would personally do things a little differently to a full on Dio.

See my post here: cs.finescale.com/.../157403.aspx

As to the difference between vignette and diorama, that really only comes into play at a competition where you want to keep a level playing field. Generally speaking, however, a vignette is figure centered with several figures and usually does not have a vehicle though there should be some interplay among the figures. . In a diorama, there's a more in depth story being told and may have several vehicles and extensive architectural elements. But, in the end, it is how the sponsoring group defines vignette and diorama that matters. Check with the rules and or the head judge for clarification. 

A single figure or vehicle on groundwork is not typically considered either vignette or diorama.