the store that sells TVs, DVD players, and washing machines). We left with second place, winning a trophy and a Nikon Coolpix worth USD $50 
. It was more fun than accurate, and the fact that we all chipped in was a satisfaction on its own. 
Below is an image of the initial brainstorming session with other fellow modelers in Surabaya. The rule was that each participants get 120cm by 60cm of space. The diorama that we have agreed to work on is a set that portrays a common street battle "somewhere in Iraq". the images here were taken by myself and some of the club members.
Prior to this, members of our modeling group gave many interesting ideas such as a 1/48 scale aircraft hangar scene, a 1/72 WW2 dogfight scene, and a 1/35 scale forward air base scenario. As we have only two weekends to work this out (everyone has a day job, unfortunately), there was a lot of discussion about how to complete this diorama in time with so little resources available. At the end, we all voted that considering the shortcomings, a "battle scene somewhere in Iraq" would be the least challenging.
Here is the image of the dio before shipping it to the content area, minus the figures and the Blackhawk.
For some reason, the majority of our group of seven people are more serious into armor rather than aircraft, or ships modelings. And they all have at least some work that they made on the OIF war in Iraq.
We had two weekends to make this thing work, so we spent the first Friday night on organizing our logistics: who gets to bring what. Emphasis was also focused on getting the base done. What do we want to build and how. So by Saturday morning, we can give everyone their marching orders
A cinematic shot of section of the diorama. the asphalt is made of sand paper, and the concrete barriers from carton paper.
It was far from perfect, but everybody enjoyed the democratic process of choosing the things to build the diorama. We had a guy who is really good in making papercraft models and he came up with the idea of creating buildings, concrete barriers using carton paper.
We had a few members who know how to build dioramas, and those who do not (making rubble, asphalt, smoke, weathering armor). So it was a great way of transferring knowledge too for many of us.
Here's one member showing how to make billowing smoke using cotton puffs.
