After 50 years!

I ran a Groub Build here on Guadalcanal that ended last year. And did quite a bit of research prior to that for a presentation on the campaign that I did some time before. Some of what you mention will not be correct for use in that Campaign. No Kaitens, Flower class corvettes or French FT-17 tanks from Thailand. Armorwise,. there was not much used there, and in small numbers- M2 and M3 lights for the US, and the Chi Ha medium and Ha Go light tanks for the Japanese. No Australain ground forces fought on Guadalcanal. They were tied up in Papua at that time, first defending Port Moresby and then counter attacking across to Buna.  The land battle on Guadalcanal was mainly a foot soldier's war with artillery support on both sides. The air and naval battles are very well documented as to what ships, aircraft, and units were involved. Good luck to you on your project.

There are a few things for you to consider.  If you are building a large diorama then you may not have to put as much effort into the detailing of your models.  For example if you have a tank that is going to be partially hidden by plants or something then you don't need to super detail it.

Also, you could ask people if they might be willing to build some of your kits for you to save time.  Plus they might put more effort into one build than you would for 100 builds.

How big is the display going to be?  At 1/72 scale with 100 models you're going to need a huge room.

do you paint while still on the spruce?

Generally not, painting on the sprue would leave you with unpainted removal marks, & would leave plenty of unsightly marks where the glue will melt the paint on your seams - it also means that you wouldn't be able to sand any bad seams down, as you would also be sanding your paint away.

The "norm" is to remove you parts from the sprue, clean them up for a decent fit (which usually involves some sanding), glue them, fill & re-sand a required & then paint. Things like cockpits & interiors generally get painted before assembly & masked while the overall painting is being done, delicate things like landing gear & aerials are painted separately & then attached after overall painting.

what kind of paint ??

Acrylic or enamel model paints - have a look through the Painting & Airbrushing section of the forum - you will find lots of opinions on which type of paint from which manufacturer is preferred & for what reason.

how do I build to scale a thousand palm trees???

Look for a bust Bonsai specialist having a bankruptcy sale! I've never done any sort of dio, but I believe that model railroad suppliers may be a good place to start looking for ideas.

Holy Moly !!!

I would say so, it's some job you've taken on! Good luck!

TR-DIOROMA

I am in soooooooooooo much in trouble!!! While I was a working stiff I guess it was about 2 years ago now I went off on buying models of 1/72 scale nearly 100 of assorted American, Japanese and Austrailian WWII models! The idea was to build a huge diorama based on the Guaducanal invasion of August through December 1942. First of all do you have any idea how tuff it is to find any Japanese models!!! Airplanes yes, armor, ships just about everything is nill..Alas I have accumulated as much as I can and I was ready to begin.... That's where this story ends ..kinda..sorta... I AM SCARED SH**LESS!!! Not until I began to find hundreds if not thousands of modlers out there and the kind of work they put into their models!! AIR BRUSHING?!?!?!?!? OMG! How in the earth am I to even begin to think about that ..and to see the results that some of you have done!! WOW! I can remember my last diorama, all 1/72 built a small boxed frame, went out dug up some dirt and "planted" my models in it!! Well let me tell right now .. you guys have come along way!!! Those modelers who do the warships with that realistic ocean water and spray! I am just scared as hell to think I should even start ! I have all in 1/72 scale, the Gato cls Sub, 3 Flower cls Corvette's, a jap Kaitien Sub, Pt boats, LCM's, LCT's, Chi-Ha's Jap tanks, even some of the French Tanks the Japs took when they were buddy buddy with Thailand of the WWI ventage..Jap planes out the kazoo, the list goes on and on... I have pulled up everything possible downt to the correct camoflage of japanese, american and auzzie armor, ships and planes. Wikipedia is a god send! BUT I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOOO SCARED TO EVEN BEGIN... basic questions like: do you paint while still on the spruce? what kind of paint ?? how do I build to scale a thousand palm trees??? Holy Moly !!! I got the station all set up ..I keep opening boxes.. and look at the storage area of all those kits and just don't know what to do! HELP.

 

Indeed you hit it right on the head! As I said "there isn't much out there in 1/72 that is WWII Japanese kits. But as I have reviewed model after model especially here on FSM, modelers have "modified" models from every known army, navy or air force .. and because I am extremely limited in what would represent the Japanese war machines and the forces there in, call it "artistic revelance" .. LOL  but indeed the emphasis here not like the war in europe is not to reflect exact replications of events but to try and depict the awsome might of the moment .. at least thats what I am going to do .. as to the diorama as much as I would like to have a 8'x16' layout of the invasion beaches I will have to limit my diorama's to a much smaller scale..fact is I wanted to add a 12x22 extention to our home just to begin this project, but alas the city will not approve of the foot print.. so .. beach by beach, landing by landing, pitched battle by pitched battle I will try and re-create as similiar as possible the very same events.

Foremost I want to personally thank you for your input .. I can hear you now .. " but that's not exactly right " .. I would dare say that every known battle in those months on Guadalcanal I have read as many books, seen all the movies, watched youtube (another great source) and totally understand your commitment to the realisium of those heroic events. I just wished there was more availability of those 1/72 kits.. As a matter of intrest you may like to know that I have spoken with the CEO of Lindburg those Jap subs months before they were issued and I had requested that they should really look into modeling the famous LST in 1/72 ..

I too wish there was a 1/72 USS Laffey, but it's probably never going to happen.

You are suffering from the same syndrome that many new model railroaders fall into. The Monster Layout, the complete railroad. I know, I've been there. But those acres of plywood look pretty silly after a while.

What you MIGHT do is the following:

Plan out your monster diorama on paper. Build a model of it at 1" = 1"-0", including the benchwork necessary, and the walls of the room it will need etc.

Divide it up into modules that you can bring to the bench. Usually 2'-4' works about right.

Concentrate on making a few of those up first to get the swing of it, and a feel for how much the finished product will cost.

Then, if you are an organizational personality, start a club. Invite over a group of people and discuss your plans, and if there's interest, everyone can divide up the work. Somebody could sit at a bench at home one weekend and churn out palm trees from dried pine twigs and feathers, which you can buy online in garlands cheap.

Some one else can churn out little Marines, someone amphibs and someone Japanese soldiers. Every one has a talent, and I've been part of some model railroad clubs that were a lot of fun. A lounge with a DVD player, a library and some comfortable old sofas is key.

And one last thing. Well, two.

Honestly, you are whining about something you got yourself into. Straighten yourself up and be realistic about what you can do. As the man said, "a man's got to know his limitations".

Second, many people find the term "Jap" kind of offensive. If you don't fine, but lots of people do, and my own personal take on it is that if you were there, or anywhere else where you or yours suffered under the jackboot of Imperial cruelty, have at it. Otherwise I think its pretty gratuitous.

Just my