Newby here (1 Viewer)

[David Pirie]

Just starting out on this journey by starting a 1/32 diorama using the Australian in Vietnam figures by King and Country. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the variety of choices in diorama mats. What would be the best authentic mat for a Vietnam diorama with 9 figures?

 

[Larry Allen]

Hello David and welcome to the forum.

There are lot of GREAT diorama's showing the new K&C Aussie Vietnam sets on this forum so that might be a good place to start your search.
See work by the Village Horse (Robin) in "Time on my hand at last" thread; and Horus (Steve) in the King and country folder just to name a few.

JG Miniatures has a large selection of diorama mats available so you can also check to see if any of those can be used.
A jungle dio has a bit of an issue in that dense foliage will hide most of the mat so take that into consideration.

There a many Hobby & Craft stores that sell all sort of jungle plants and lose ground material that my be used.

Fish aquarium supplies might also be a start. As mentioned by one of our premier builders (GUY) be sure to use a mat spray finish to hide the gloss on the plastic coating on these type of things.

Consider building your own … {eek3} … using the pink or blue insulation Styrofoam as a start. There are threads by Mike Miller (and many others) that describes how to go about it.

MOST IMPORTANT is to have fun. …… oh ya' and show us your results!!!!!{sm3}

--- LaRRy

 

[villagehorse]

Welcome back David. I gather Zulu is now past history and you are now into Vietnam. K&C 1/30 are currently a winner especially with the Aussie 5 man patrol soon to be 9. Andy plans to follow up with tanks and vehicles next year, so you will have plenty to look forward to. There are lots of VC as opposition. Post some photos when are able to do a dio. Robin.

 

[wayne556517]

Welcome David why not make your own dio board more fun probably cheaper to.
I find the problem with mats is making fugures stay upright look forward to pics mate.

 

[Horus]

Hi David

Assuming you're going to be interested in doing the more jungle type terrain I would suggest making your own using some sort of base myself I use a chipboard base that I've painted and given a textured feel with several different things, the main one being dried herbs as fallen and rotting leaves. But for vegetation I've stuck to doing clumps that I can move round and use in different dioramas as none of are permanent at present. These I make by cutting some random shapes from foam board painting (both sides) and texturing as before then adding plastic plants that you can get pretty cheaply on ebay to be found in the model railway section. painting / matt varnish and hot glued to bases. Tufts of long grass can be made by just cutting the bristles from a paint brush to your desired length gluing them to your base and painting them.

Not tried this one myself yet but Mel the Terrain tutor has a lot of videos on youtube showing how to make your own terrain bits and bobs in his videos this one shows an interesting way of doing your own mat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXF5mxa0YVg

He says himself at the end that he needs to do it with a tighter weave cloth and I should think artist canvas would do the job well if trying yourself.

Steve

 

[nysoldiers]

Has anyone tried using "decorator cork" on foam sheets?
haven't seen the cork in brown anywhere.

 

[Horus]

Has anyone tried using "decorator cork" on foam sheets?
haven't seen the cork in brown anywhere.

If anyone is going to try to use it on Foam I would think you'd want to use the Solvent free one like those made my Soudal.
Perhaps one of the chemistry guys will chip in, but I'd thought the standard solvent based ones might melt foam.

Steve