Thanks everyone for the responses!
scer16, the house I built myself. The figures are all Tamiya but many are altered or at least have had their parts switched around.
Kits used:
Tamiya Willys Jeep # 35015 (mostly out-of-the-box; some handles were replaced with reshaped paper staples)
Tamiya Assault Infantry #35192 (poses modified)
A couple of notes:
First, some of the things that I know are wrong with the diorama. For one, it's clear in the pictures that I didn't spend enough time with the figures. They needed flash cleanup around the seams in a big way, and I didn't realize it until I took the nice closeup photos. Poor old eyes are going bad:)
Second, it's a little glossy in some of the pics. That's because I had just shot a plain hairspray over the whole scene to help hold down some of the renegade ground cover (I have since dulled it with lacquer).
I had the idea for this dio about 5-6 years ago. Then I got married :)
Just lately, I've been tentatively stepping back into the hobby (I've built little kits with my stepson, out-of-the-box Star Wars or whatever, but this was my first "major" effort).
So, naturally, I wanted to pick up where I left off. I kept saying "I think I'm going to start to work on my 'mail call' diorama." After I said that about fifteen times, my wife was starting to get that "why-don't-you-quit-talking-and-start-building" look, and I went right to work.
I had always envisioned the scene in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road. As I sat down to begin construction on Tamiya's Willys Jeep, I slipped into The Zone--that place where the mind goes when you're deep into creating, you guys know how it is--and it hit me that this needed to be happening on the outskirts of some town, near a bombed-out farmhouse, on a cobblestone road.
Now I had screwed myself royally. How on earth was I going to make a cobblestone road? I was sure there were such things out there, from Verlinden or someone, but I also knew my budget was...slim.
I didn't read the great tip on using lentils until after my cobblestones were created, but I'm pretty happy with the result. I used polymer clay, rolled into different sized balls and smashed semi-flat on an aluminum baking sheet. I baked the whole thing, then peeled it off the cookie sheet and stuck it on my diorama base (a plain picture frame with the glass removed). I used three or four different colors to paint the stones, then finished it with a black wash (and of course some greenery peeking through the cracks). Relatively simple, very very cheap, and the result is enough to satisfy me if nobody else :)
Polymer clay was my friend on this project. The house walls, duffel bags, the stump, and the open well were all sculpted from Sculpey (love the stuff). One of the figures, as well, was made of polymer clay, with a leftover head from a Dragon figure set stuck on top. Tarps and bedrolls are made with the classic wet-Kleenex technique. Oldie but a goodie, that one is. Trees are twisted wire armatures covered with Bondo Glazing and Spot putty and painted, loosely following a technique I learned at
http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=135
A word on the stump: I made the stump because I wasn't sure how I was going to approach making trees. I made the stump because the diorama needed something to fill a space. Then I decided that I didn't like the stump, so I pulled it (along with a LOT of tufts of long grass).
Then my wife saw that the stump had been removed from the diorama. That's when I found out that it was her very favorite part.
You see that it's back.
Speaking of wives--the interesting shape of the roof tiles and the very existence of the ivy can both be attributed to my wife and her hobby of scrapbooking. She has collected a few special tools, including special scissors that cut fancy shaped edges (the roof tiles) and a heart-shaped hole punch. The ivy leaves were punched out of pre-painted construction paper (you remember, the stuff you used to use in grade school). The tiles were done in similar fashion, with a light drybrushing to bring out the edges.
Paper media (Life Magazines, letters, newspapers) were all pictures I found on the 'net, printed in Eyestrain Scale and glued to extra backing paper where thickness was needed.
Anyhow, hope you all enjoy! I'm looking forward to an extended stay here, and asking lots of questions, and posting lots of pictures!
~Drucifer