natural diorama vs artificial, outdoor setting

If you use sticks, rocks, etc for a diorama of an out door scene should you spray the sticks with anything.. Rocks and a little dirt would stay constant in a scene. Would small tree branches or sticks needs sprayed with a preservative or just put sticks in.. For foliage I have priced plastic tree's and yikes.. Also they all look like the perfect little pine tree and that's not what I am after..Does anyone have a method of scratching out a small nature scene? I want to display a model basically on a board with a woods like feel..like 2' long or so.
Thanks again and thanks to the admin!! Great forum that is kept clean and full of good information.

MY

 

There's a great article in the March 2010 issue of Fine Scale Modeler that covers this topic.

For the rocks, a ball of Sculpey was used. Let harden, place in a zip lock bag and smash it with a hammer. Pick the "rocks" that look good, embed into your diorama putty base. The article also covers fallen logs. It describes how to embed the twigs into the wet putty of the diorama base and spray with a primer. You'll need to paint and weather your work.

If you can find this back issue, it would be beneficial for what you want to do.

There's also another article in the January 2012 Fine Scale Modeler issue that covers dioramas, it should be available at your local bookstore.

 

Hi youngwm, is it for your speederbike - excellent build/paintjob by the way. Here's something I saw from sideshow collectors. 1/6 speeder bike repaint, koto bash biker scout and dio. - Sideshow Freaks.

Real foliage eventually dries up, turns brown and becomes really brittle over time (not sure if any preservative will do the trick) but sticks and rocks look very realistic untouched and last indefinitely even without dullcoat.

 

Thanks again.. I checked out the pic's and I will look into the fine scale modeler, yes, several diorama's I want to make for my work in progress. The speeder bike and this kit is rough but the modifications on this inexpensive kit have taught me a great deal in modeling.
The FM snow speeder I think looks pretty good I want to make a diorama with the At-At my first build that needs repainted the weathering is just not gradual or just does not work right and that was before my airbrush.. I want to finish this scout and move on to the FM x-wing I hope by the weekend.
I am sure I will have some question's soon on my next build and have dug into the X-wing thread.. Full of info!
Thanks again for all the suggestions!

MY

 

There's was a recent FSM article (not sure if it's the one you referenced) where a guy did a small diorama with a figure. He just painted the wood piece he used. I don't know if that would preserve it or not. I'd be interested to find out though.

 

This sounds like the March 2010 issue of Fine Scale Modeler.