1:35 Bamboo

A bamboo thicket for a 1:35 scene

The Bamboo set from RT-Diorama makes it possible to build a dense bamboo stand. Bamboo grows in tight clumps with thin jointed stems and forms a continuous wall of green that cannot be seen through. On a diorama this is an exceptionally useful property, because the scene gains depth and mystery while at the same time being elegantly cut off from the background.

Which subjects it belongs to

Bamboo stands define the landscape of Southeast Asia and southern China. For modelers they open up the Burmese and Philippine fighting of 1942 to 1945, the Indochina campaign and later Vietnam scenes, and they serve equally well for Japanese gardens and rural homesteads in peaceful, non-combat subjects.

Building the clumps

Bamboo never grows as a lone stem but in dense groups springing from one spot. Build the clumps thickly therefore, and rather irregularly, with a few stems leaning out of the bunch. The best impression comes about when the stand forms the edge of the scene and screens the view into the depth, so that the viewer imagines what lies behind it. A few broken or leaning stems near the ground will do more for credibility than a carefully aligned whole.

Suitable for

• Pacific and Asian battlefields
• Vietnam and Indochina subjects
• garden and civilian scenes from the Far East
• separating a scene from the background of a display case

The bamboo forms the setting around a model and does not stand in for any equipment or building itself.