No figures= + or -

Heres what I would do, Go to Walmart or someplace and buy a bag of really cheap plastic soldiers. Paint them every now and then and you will get alot better. Practice makes perfect. But it wont happen overnight, so I would say that depending on the size of the dio would determine the amount of figs. Try your best at them. If you are paining straps and accedentally go offline onto the uniform, go back and fix it. I used to be lazy and when I screwed up I just left it there, now I take My time and the results are great.
Hope to see your dio.

Im only going to have one fir
thanks for the plastic soldiers idea

By definition a diorama is a model which shows a situation, such as an historical event or animals in their natural surroundings, in a way that looks real because the height, length and width of what is being shown are accurately represented in comparison with each other:

This means that it is possible to make a good diorama without using figures as long as you can compose it in such a way that the components of the diorama allows it to tell a story or show a situation.

In my opinion, every component of the diorama counts so if one is not done well, it can affect the overall impact of the diorama.

Hey scer16, Dwight is right. If you add figures to a diorama, the natural reaction of someone checking out your dio is to go directly to those figures. So if they are not up to your standards, then the dio will suffer. My friend and teacher told me if you build a magnificently looking plane w/o a figure and show it off, people will automatically focus on the cockpit, 'cause that is where the human (being) element is supposed to be. Once they find that there is no figure, then they examine the plane and take it all in. But once you add that human element, the focus goes to the figure. It doesn't matter if its the pilot or a mechanic and crew, the focus will be on those figures first and then the human eye will take in the rest of the diorama. So in my opinion if you are going to put figures in your diorama, try your best to make them the best they can be. I hope my 2 cents was helpful. Keep up the modeling.

TigerII

The other 3 responses are right one. Another thng to remember, the casual observer has no idea what RLM 3 is or the relative span to chord of the wing of a Bf109. Heck, they're lucky to recognize the plane as German! They won't know if your Sherman is correct in MERDC camo, but they'll know if your figures are weak. We all see people from the day we're born so we have plenty of natural reference.
While working with WallyWorld toys might be okay, you're going to be frustrated trying to paint soft plastic. Check the on-line sites for sales on DML, Italeri or Tamiya figure sets. With clearance sales, you should be able to average a dollar a figure.

my advice is to do your best, but when you do, step back and look at your work from about 12-18 inches. Flaws are not as obvious the further away you are and my experience is that most people who look at my work do so from about that distance and for a period of about 30 seconds to a minute tops. Since I put my kits on a shelf, I set them back and look for errors that jump out. It may also be a good idea to put it away a week or two, then take it out like you're looking at it for the first time.

My biggest problem is that I want to rush. I end up putting on to much paint or not waiting long enough for it to dry. As others have said, practice as much as possible. But have fun with it.

Don

Following on with hat Don just said, if you have access to a digital camera with a good macro, take shots from every angle and look at them on the computer screen. You'll be sur[rised at the things you'll see and want to correct/.

SCER: When practicing on plastics soldiers from Wal-Mart, etc...make sure to wash in warm soapy water, sometimes twice. Depending on the brand, there's a lot of oil in the plastic. I've had to wash a few twice and then use rubbing alcohol to keep the surface clean.

All good advice!My personal opinion would be not to do figures if they are not up to the standard of the airplane in detail or painting. Avoid too much shine when painting your figures,use gesso and a matte medium in your paint mix.Cheers! John.

Scer. One last bit of advice. Pick up a regular plastic figure (Dragon, Tamiya, Hornet, Verlinden) that you would normally use by itself or in a diorama. Prime (silver) the figure first with Krylon Chrome Aluminum or Chrome Silver paint. Spray enough to get a thin primer on the figure. Then prime it with white primer or paint. This way you can practice your painting skills on the figure and if you don't like how it comes out you can drop it in a solution of Windex (blue) + Lemon Ammonia (yellow) = green solution. The solution will remove the paint (acrylic), but the silver underneath will protect the figure so you can reprime and repaint as much as you like until you get a figure that you like. Hope this helps.

TigerII