This is a tutorial on how to make war torn city ruins in a military diorama.. This tutorial was made by John who has been making dioramas, military models and Model railroads for many years.

My thanks to him for submitting this great tutorial with pictures!

He has a business called Hobbies in a Barn and you can check out the facebook page to see more pics and get more info: Hobbies in a Barn on Facebook

John also has a terrific tutorial on making a Brummbar German Tank model which includes some great weathering tips.

Here are some pictures of dioramas John has made using these techniques.

The theme of war-torn buildings can be expressed in many forms, not the least of which is to purchase the highly detailed and wonderful kits available for that purpose but for the customizer in all of us, I discovered a slightly different approach that my wife says is more realistic. Think about and research through photos the realistic effects of bombing and artillery after effects on buildings, they simply crumble and little is left in the way of decor or much else for that matter. Pictured in this feature are the Italeri Ruins, detailed with Plaster of Paris spread onto the hollow walls as well as my home-built ruins.


Supplies:

Foam core photo mounting board
Tamiya or Italeri Brick Set
Italeri Building Ruins Sets
Plaster of Paris
Acrylic Paint
Water and paint brushes
Diorama base made from recycled rubber, sold as garden stepping stones, these are by far the best.

1.) Cut out random-shaped wall patterns and windows and doors in the formcore sheets keeping to scale and one edge flat to mount on a scenery base.
Also cut out random-shaped holes in the foam sections for filling in with scale brick sections.

2.) Peel off the paper as this leaves a rough surface to coat with a dry layer of Plaster of Paris.

3.) Mix acrylic paint colors that match what the original building would look like prior to demolition, thin with water and brush the mix onto the
building outer and inner walls. Additional brick sections can be painted a very weathered brick color as you place them in the building.
The brick sections can be standing alone as well to show areas of total damage.

4.) Build your ruins up as you wish, mounting them to diorama base and weather everything with thinned acrylic black paint and chalk dust.

5.) The Italeri Ruins kits (2) were highly detailed using Plaster of Paris to fill in the hollow wall sections and highly weathered.

Make a realistic looking fallen tree

He uses around the house materials to make a very real looking tree. He shows us how right here. Make a realistic looking fallen tree (and brush too)

Texturing a kit wall

There are some terrific kits out there for a lot of things like walls, stone walls, broken walls and more. Glen shows us an easy and terrific technique for making them look even more realistic. Texturing a kit wall

Italeri 6087 1/72 Accessories & Ruins

Italeri 6090 1/72 Walls And Ruins II

Command Post by Italeri

BRICK WALLS by Italeri

1/72 WWII Bunkers And Accessories

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