# Help for a newbie please!



## andyc11 (Sep 29, 2014)

Hi all,

I'm wanting to build a replica of a 1970's Le Mans pitlane. I've built several 1/24 model car kits, but never attempted any dioramas. I hope this is in the right section and couldn't find stickies, but I'm just after some basic tips if someone could help?

The idea is to recreate a scene from Le Mans 1970, with the 917 Gulf Porsches in the pits. Is there a scale that is preferable for dioramas (I'm not sure whether to use 1/43 or 1/18 scale cars for this, that will be determined by the diorama scale)?

I see styrene seems to be the material of choice? Any particular thickness I should use and suppliers? Seems to be a lot of suppliers on eBay, but do you guys have a supplier of choice (I'm in the UK by the way)?

Any other basic tips on building, painting etc would be great.

Thanks


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## aussiemuscle308 (Dec 2, 2014)

Size depends on what space you have available to display it and whether you want to display a bit of surrounding track.


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

Yep. Figure out how much space you have and how many cars you want to lay out on the tarmac. Roughly lay it out on some cardboard: where you'll place the cars, the pit wall, that sort of thing. Do a fair bit of roughing-out on cheap cardboard before you start cutting styrene.

Can you find Evergreen styrene? It's pretty popular, and I think you can get it online at various suppliers.


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Depends what you mean by styrene. I know that in Britain, hard styrene sheet like Evergreen is normally called "plasticard" or "card" and expanded styrene foam like styrofoam in it various incarnations is simply called "polystyrene". Both are chemically made of styrene plastic.

Plasticard is most useful and is what most modellers use, styrofoam has its uses. Other materials that are useful fordioramas are wood and plaster - even thin metal sheet like that which can be salvaged from soft-drink cans.

I know there are a wide range of modelling magazines published in the UK which may have articles on dioramas where the author mentions UK sources for the materials they use.


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