Good Prebuilt Paintable Diorama Base

usmc93

Ok I know its the lazy route but looking for any suggestions for paintableprebuilt bases (brands) for some of my older tank kits (WW2). I enjoy building tanks but havent tackled dioramas yet and want to start with just painting some for my older models.  Thanks for any help.

 

Lazy is, as lazy does........Personally speaking, and with all due respect to scratch-builders whom I'm in awe of, I'll use anything that's available for dioramas if it makes things easier. My own philosophy is, why complicate things? But each to their own of course.

Have a look at Reality in Scale. Here's a link to their website:-

https://shop.strato.com/epages/61537336.sf/sec7d053467a6/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61537336

Miniart does some useful stuff as well:-

http://www.miniart-models.com/index.htm?/1-35_Dioramas.htm

There is a lot on the market for diorama's, itall depends how much of it you wnat to buy and weather you are doing a rural or urban scene.

For rural ground work, i much prefer to domy own. Its really very easy with Celluclay or plaster and if you buy ready made groundwork you still have to add grass and so on and you can'tpout in vehicle tracks and thing like that.

For buildings and urban bases,you dohave Mini Art that Harry mentioned. Theirs satuff looks very nice, but while i have not used any of mine yet, from what i have seen they are very tricky to use. My prefered choice is plaster. Verliden did plaster building aswell as pre coloured cardboard roads paths etc. I have found the buildings very hit andmiss and amnot a fan of the cardboard. But you can buy plaster road and path sections. But they are rather heavy.

There area lot of other products on the market, i do a mix of making my own,such astress bushes and soon and buying in walls, buildings plants etc. I would just start off with somthing simple and go from there.

Search Ebay. "Diorama Base"

yea thanks, i searched ebay before, there are some good ones but most are overpriced.  Thanks.

Its modeling...everything's overpriced...

yea i get it, the issue is i was hellbent on a particular one, from Verlinden; Rampage, but it's been discontinued and only one guy seems to have them on ebay...guess he has the market cornered :)

Verlinden went out of production earlier this year so will be becoming harder to find. But to be honest, IMHO, they were overpriced anyway. I found that rampage one on e-bay for $60,which is probably not far off the original price. Historex agents in the UK has it for £45 and their prices have not gone up since Verlinden went down.

http://www.historexagents.com/shop/hxproductdetail.php?ProductCode=2132

Those plaster products like that base are not cheap. I recently got a factory ruin one for just over £30 and that is not as big as the rampage one. And there are not that many companies that do them.

Verlinden went out of production? Bummer. I didn't know that. It was being produced in Missouri after it left Belgium, right? They had some great stuff. Quality went way down after it left Belgium imo

As has been mentioned - MiniArt do some wonderful diorama scenes.

In terms of plain bases, they really only do cobble stone.  However, they also do "Diorama Scenes" which are WW2 era buildings on a base. 

As Bish pointed out, , the kits are tricky to build, as they are often vacformed and will need a bit of work to get them apart and then back together....so...probably not a lazy way after all. But they can be built up beautifully.

Revenant

Its modeling...everything's overpriced...

 

This is sad but true. They see us coming from a mile away. 

Griffin25

Verlinden went out of production? Bummer. I didn't know that. It was being produced in Missouri after it left Belgium, right? They had some great stuff. Quality went way down after it left Belgium imo

 

Yep, just shut up shop and apparently destroyed the molds. I used to be a fan, but in recent years have seen the light. To be honest, i am not surprised given what else is out there. Verlindens figures wereout of scle, more 32nd than 35. Vehicle sets were awful to fit and the buildings often had air bubbles and other defects in the molds.

I reckon they must have had falling sdaleswhich would explain not only their demise but also why the prices have not shot through the roof.

Well I eneded up purchasing a Tamiya Kit, "German Infranty, Italian Campaign 1943" at my local hobby shop (didnt know they even had them after all these years, hidden away almost ).  The detail is good on the soliders but the Church (which is the only part i was planning on using) is a total bust; details not ggreat and the backside is hollow and I couldnt tell from the box pics. They had a few miniart kits/buildings, which I am going to go back and get, and it was obvious from the box pics that were fully sided.  Oh well, i can save the soldiers for a later use...funny thing is it says Tamiya on the box, but "products for the building are product of Italeri."

Tamiya have a history of re-boxing Italeri kits. Italeri buildings all come with the hollow back. If you wnat to shop around for buldings to buld up your own base, look out for platser ones. Companies like Royal Model produce a nice range of items.

Yea I have decided to just build up my own base with a building. I am going to try the mini art kit since my local hobby shop has them but i will def check out Royal Models for future Dioramas.

Verlinden resin:

%5BIMG%5Dhttp://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb110/dblvisions2001/Dioramas/Dio017.jpg%5/IMG%5D

usmc93

Yea I have decided to just build up my own base with a building. I am going to try the mini art kit since my local hobby shop has them but i will def check out Royal Models for future Dioramas.

 

I will be sure to check out your Mini art build. They look nice but a lot of work. Hopeing to try one of mine soon.