Im just wondering what material you would use if you are to make a diorama base. Im thinking wood but i may be wrong please explain to me. Thanks

There are many different materials. Some are good for certain things others are just easy.

- Picture Frames with the glass replaced by plywood.
- piece of plywood with trim molding edge
- 'fancy' cut MDF board (particle board)
- foam insulation (pink stuff that is almost like a board)

If you go with wood make sure it is thick enough to avoid warpping. Or seal it with a good waterproof sealer.

My personal advice would be to plan on a nice decorative edge to give it a finished look.

I tend to use MDF as it's cheap and cheerful plus is strong. You can add edging to it once the dio is finished and stain it to your requirements.

for small base, sometimes i used MDF board...

for larger one, i use 2mm plywood.
The trick is to use double ply with 1/2 " wooden frame inside it. I will write an article soon on how to make a cheap wooden base.

I cut most of my bases out of 1 inch pine board. I router the edges with a decorative edging, then sand, stain and seal them. Works for me. I have used picture frames and plywood before too. you can also get pre-cut decorative plaques/bases at craft stores and Ddiscount stores (Wal-Mart, etc) cheaply as well.

You can make diorama bases out of lots of things. Along with the previously mentioned items, you can make a base using odd shaped food containers and plaster. I have an old round metal candle base my wife had from a candle she bought at Victorias Secret. She was going to throw it away, but it makes a great plaster mold ofr small vignettes. I also had a movado clock that fell off my wall and broke. It was more costly to repair then replace, so I biought a new one. I was going to throw it away, but it had a beautiful brushed stainless steel edge, so I saved it. It is now the base for an M2 Bradley I built. You can use all sorts of items. Remember, its a model, and you cant build it wrong. Its all about your perception and creativity.

I've used 1.6cm laminated chipboard. Why? Because it's there... seriously, I've got a fair amount of offcuts from a recent household project, so I figured I might as well use it...

For edges, I use moldings. I buy them in 1.8m strips from the local hardware store. Beauty of this is that they are already shaped, and there is a fair variety of patterns to choose from. All I need to do is cut the pieces to length, glue/epoxy to the base, and stain.

HTH

Rudi

one source for MDF board is the base of a cake... (err big cake..) when i put a party for my daughter, my wife order a 4 kg cake.... it's big (for a cake)..IIRC about 1' x 3'. The base is wrapped with aluminium paper... i was about to throw it away when i noticed about the board inside the wrapper... so i save it for my dio

here is what i did for base (MDF board)

For a vignette you may use a metalic (empty) cookie box. You can find all sort of forms. Fill it with styro and voilà!
A bit of sanding, coating and colouring is necessary so that the brand name is not to be seen :-)

Cheers
Claude

I use pre-cut plywood rounds. They come in various diameters from 12" to 48" X 3/4"and are cheap.
C.

Wooden chopping board are another option. They can often be had in Poundshops or such cheap and chearful shops. Charity shops (second hand type shops) are a great source for all kind of bases, especialy for small vignettes/figures. You can by a cheap, hidious little figurine, and snap it of it's hardwood base...viola, one base for a proper figure, or for 1:72 scale vehicle.. They also tend to sell any size picture frame. I used a £0.25 picture frame for this vignette




Cheers
Henk

My single figure bases are mostly 2 inch wooden cubes from Michaels of AC Moore. For vignettes/small dios, I use decoupage palpques from the same source. They start at about 3X3 and have a routed edge. A bit of sanding and stain and they're good to go.

I pretty much use two-three types of material... One, my main material is sections of old put together desks, the laminated particle board with the fake wood grains. I have a ready supply of this stuff, and no need to seal the surface. I cut to shape with my tablesaw. Two, the pink insulation board, and three, usually white pine boards if there's any kicking around. Those I have to really seal to avoid warpage.
with all of my bases, I usually don't go with the decorative trim, and add a rabbit all the way 'round to accomidate room for a display case to go on top. I will add trim to bases with my router for friends though.

I am working a really huge dio of XXX Corp breakout into Holland during Market Garden. It will involved about 15 vehciles. It will be about 1 foot by 7 foot representing a small straightaway of Hell's Highway.

Because of the size I am using pink insulation foam glued on top of a 1/8 inch particle board. The particle board keeps the foam from snapping while the foam reducesa lot of the weight if it were all wood. Of course there are drawbacks to using foam as many types of paints and washes will disolve the foam if you do not seal it up proper. I can go more into that technique in another post if you like.

I have used

3/4" plywood
Wooden salad-candy-cups/bowls (great if you are doing trenches, ditches, etc.)
Frames
Bases from those shake it up Snowflake Glass Balls
slices of cut logs
Wire mesh coved in Water Putty or Celluclay

I also hit the thirft stores and look for various wooden goodies... last week I found a solidWalnut Salt and peper set... perfect for sinlge figure or small dioramas - $1.00

Neill

I used to use the plaques you pick up at a craft store, and then like Gino; sand, stain and seal. It works fine. I've since found a friend in the trades, so now I get his cast-off pieces of hardword, which he routes a little edge around for me. Since he also models, he knows the approximate sizes that make good bases. As you can see from the thread so far, there are endless ways to come up with an acceptable base for any model project, large or small.

Mike

I frequently use coffee jar lids for my 72nd vignettes. You can see some of them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/valdispert/

I make 1/35 dio's...and I have found that picture frames work best for that scale. I buy them at Michael's(art/craft supply stores). They are 16x20" with a 7/8" wood frame with an attractive cherry stain. I get them for $8.99, pretty cheap. I remove the glass from the frame and reinforce it w/ thin cardboard. I carefully replace the frame once my dio is complete. The cherry frame gives the completed dio a "museum quality finish".

Well I differ from most people. I dont like my smaller dioramas, so I now have two full length tables (those folding cafeteria ones, but the thinner ones). I covered these with a woodland scenics base, that I can add and remove scenery and hills from. This way I can have a desert and forest/grassland dio on the go, but have the flexibility to change them both.

hi
I use acrylic picture frame it comes in meney sizes and can take plaster

I use glass sheets (it won't deform), feather cardboard, plain plaster moulded at the right size, or nothing at all when it's sea as the resin will provide the base itself.

For my bases I use the cover of a metallic round cookie box.
Also I used a wooden pictureframe without glass-plate but with the "hard-paper" backside.

greetings...
Soeren

For "flat" vignettes/dioramas I use

+ CHEAP plastic picture frame with the "glass" and paperboard backing left in
+ Cover it either with a soft foam fixed with spray-on glue or use Keramiplast "clay"
+ Add Celluclay etc. for ground cover

The glass is actually plexiglass so it takes glue quite well and is resonable sturdy. The frames typically have a "fake wood" look, are cheap (around 2-3€ for an A4 sized one) in most supermarkets.

For small bases i use the small trophy bases you can get at any trophy shop.
I have used a 10" x10" trophy base, and a picture fram base for my larger dios.

This base is coated in a stone texture spray i have had for ages:



I have used the spray on an other base, and sanded it down a bit to get a slightly rough finish. On this base, i haven't touched it and will have a very rough finish to it.

Gino hit on what I usually use. They're inexpensive, they come in a nice size/shape variety and they take any wood stain well. 3 or 4 bucks is all it takes and I have a small can of reddish coloured mahogany stain that I like that will probably last for another 30 bases or so.


Bob