Hey guys, for my next project I want to build a simple desert diorama. it will cosist of anf fw-190 f8 in the standard luftwaffe mottled camo North Africa scheme. The plane wil be standing on a desert base, mostly sand, but with a few desert shrubs. There will be a kubelwagen an the side. What materials should i use for making the sand and shrubs?
Thanks, Tankmaster
For sand, I would use… sand, the fine playground type. For shrubs, look in the train section of your Hobby Shop for lychen, it looks just like tiny shrubs, great stuff.
I used to have a collection of posts on how to build a desert dio, but alas it was on my bad computer and when we re-formatted…
To apply the sand, someone said you mix glue with water until you have like something like cake batter have you ever made a cake? Then you apply it on the base and put the sand over it
I’m pretty sure someone said to do that.
You can also just apply PVA glue like Elmers stright, then sprinkle the sand on top.
As HeavyArty said, really the best thing for representing sand is real sand [:)]
It’s cheap (free), readily accessible, and easy to apply. Spread normal school glue over your base forms, then springle the sand on. Once fully dru, you can airbrush, and it’ll react very nicely to a wash and drybrush, but I would be careful with this as it can EASILY be overdone, simply due to the nature of the surface you’ll be working with.
I don’t know if you have a sander with a bag attached (like for woodworking) but I find the fine dust in the bag makes great sand without even coloring it. I build small scale (1/87) and even fine sand is a little too coarse. Deserts have a lot of what I refer to as sawgrass in them too. You can cut the ends of old paint brush bristles for this, make as long as appropriate for scale.