diorama bases

You can buy them built already. Look at craft shops like Tall Mouse, Michaels, or maybe Wal-Mart. If you look through the FSM magazine at the advertisements there are a few for bases and cases.

I have used a 2x4but it didn't look to good. If you routered the edges then it would probably look pretty good. For the most part i use plaques, First stain the plaque or leave it unfinished. then seal it with a varnish. Next mask the edges so no paint or celluclay or something gets on it and ruins it. Then build your base.
Ifyou wantto by a plaque try a craftstore or Walmart.

is thiswhat you were asking? Letme know if it was or not, i'll try to help some more.

Check out thrift stores like Goodwill too I find a few there.

By the way,

seakinght I like others use plaques and i also use picture frames
get some cheep ones and try it and have fun.

Welcome aboard seaknight

I use ceramic tiles, you can get them cheap at most hardware stores. They make a nice firm base for whatever you want to put on your diorama and short of dropping them it's pretty hard to damage them through the building process.

Thank you all,
rebelreenactor, scubaboy99, BigDuke634, jimq, wrbridge. You helped me significantly
seakinght

I have had a lot of luck with 12"x12" cork squages and ceiling tiles, both or light and take adhestive well. Next in line is 1/2" or 3/4" plywood cut to size then edged with one of the fancy strip moldings that are availabe at most lumber stores. Good Luck and get me a jiggle if I can help futher. OldDog

I use 1/2" MDF, mainly because I several sheets of it in my garage, a present from the previous owner of my house.

This works fine for me as it is east to cut, especially with a jig-saw, and unlike ply, is reasonably weighty which means models displayed on it are less likely to be knocked off by careless dusting!!!!

I just edge it using lengths of panel moulding available from hardware stores, cut on a mitre block.

This works out real cheap.

Karl

I use Foam when I make my diorama bases and then line the out-side with some nice wood. Then foam is nice because you can easly make fox holes and track marks with a heat gun or something that is hot.

Hi seaknight,

First off, welcome

The base I am building will consnst of sheet rock (wall board) to replicate an airfield ramp and the area off the ramp will be the type of sheet foam used as insulation in homes for the grass/dirt area. The outside perimeter will be stained oak

As far as buying them they gave you good data and you can also use on line hobby stores such as greatmodels.com

Good luck
Richard

Try chopping boards. I have used them in my dios. Pretty cheap, too.