This is a diorama built from scratch by Glen. He takes us through the complete process of how he made it including the casting of the walls and base.

The scene depicts Russian soldiers and tanks on a cobble stone road near a war torn building.

This tutorial is broken down into two parts. In the first part Glen shows us how he built the structures of the diorama. And in the second part he adds the figures and the tank.

Glen has made many dioramas and tutorials for us. You can check them all out right here: Glen's Military Dioramas

Here is the completed diorama

The first step is to make the building. This is easily done with molds.

These molds can be used over and over again. And you can mix and match molds to make a variety of buildings, walls and more. Glen got the molds from a company called Form-U-Lay

A fine Casting powder is used. It is commonly referred to as Plaster of Paris.

You just use plaster of paris in the moulds ratio of 2 parts powder to 1 part water  the good thing is the moulds can be reused, they are ideal for making various walls etc.

Here the plaster has been poured into molds.

Once the plaster has set and dried you can easily remove the parts from the mold.

I used a picture frame as the base surround. I then stuck on polystyrene with PVA glue

I used the building to gauge the size and scale.

I then laid over air dried clay, but covered the polystyrene with PVA glue first, here is the best bit. I have some plastic card which I use to imprint on the clay which when pressed into the clay leaves an imprint.

I then cut up some of the clay into squares to make the look like paving slabs and used the same method of PVA on Polystyrene and stuck them down

The rubble behind the buildings I used my wet clay spread over, sprinkled some stones over them model railway ballast is good for this. Put on some 1/35 scale bricks, cork pieces and sprinkled on some powdered grout.

I also brushed the grout in the paving slabs too.

Here is the completed base with a manhole cover inserted to that I got from Great North Roads

Close up of imprint into clay

The painted up base

The painted up rubble

Methods of painting involved were paints sprayed with airbrush, and dry brushing finish with a Mig Dark wash and Mig pigments

Let's continue and look at the tank and the figures

Figures used are:

Mini Art 1/35 35002 'Soviet Infantry On The March'
Tamiya 35214 'Russian Tank Crew At Rest' Driver Only
Masterclub MCF 35025 'The Russian Young Guerrilla'
Tank Tamiya T34/76 Kit 3559.

Soviet Infantry on the March -

This highly detailed Miniart 1/35 scale Soviet Infantry plastic model kit accurately recreates four Soviet infantry soldiers. The kit includes many clothing, weapons and even head and face options, enabling you to model the 4 soldiers depending on your diorama. Incredible detail and texture is the hallmark of Miniart. This kit is one of the finest examples of museum quality modeling art.

TAMIYA Russian Army Tank Crew at Rest 1/35 Military Series N

MasterClub 1:35 WWII Russian Young Guerrilla Son a Shelf - Resin Kit #MCF35025

Tamiya Models Russian T-34/76 Tank

In "Operation Citadel", the last huge-scale "T-34/76 Tank 1943 Model" after the year 1943 staged severe tank-to-tank fighting against new and powerful German tanks such as the "Panther" and "Tiger". In the Prokhorovka area, T-34 tanks of 1943 model in the 181st Guard Tank Brigade under the Russian Fifth Tank Army fought against Tiger tanks of the picked German SS Tank Divisions "Adolf Hitler" and "Das Reich" and this was the largest-scale tank-to-tank fighting ever staged during the WWII. If the T-34 tank of 1942 model could be called "Stalingrad", the excellent 1943 model well claimed the name of "Kursk".