HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Manfred is looking prettty cool standing there but unfortunately I cant have any enemy in this scene, besides he has "gone west" a number of years ago.
Sooo Manfred had to become a 1920's Barnstormer.
I hated to screw up such a nice uniform but......
The doublebrested jacket had to go along with some of the buttons and piping.Luckily this figure comes with 2 heads so I opted for the helmet and goggles.
The other head is destined to become a Allied officer with a change of hat.
I have partly painted this figure but I think it looks ugly, so I have re-painted it all black of various shades and textures, with a nice red fox collar.I got the idea from the front cover of the Osprey men-at -arms book British Air forces 1914-18 Vol 2..All black looks great on a 20's barnstormer.
Here is another great site on painting and sculpting figures
http://www.smfigures.com/ (A great artist lives here)
That is one thing that I would love to have a go at sometime in the future,sculpting my own figures in miniature(.Man plans , God laughs)
Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

While I like the pose of this Frank Luke figure, I find that the facial features are not up to the usual excellent standard of the Model Cellar castings.(picky,picky,picky)
Maybe I just got a bad casting.
I made no changes to this figure and will use it as is, with his back facing the front, so that the only good view of his face will be from a hangar floors distance away.(sorry Frank)
In doing my usual shopping around this morning ,I came across a new item by Eduard,a WW1 era portable(on wheels) gas pump.It looks very easy to scratchbuild as it is essentially an old metal barrel on wheels.
This idea could be used for oil,water or whatever and I can easily see it still being used for sometime after the first war.In fact,I think that I have seen a more modern version used for hyd. fluid in my younger days.
In the last few days I have completed the build up of a couple more figures mixing and matching heads,arms,and legs as need be.This is really a lot of fun and gives you a chance to be a little creative with someone else's work and put your own personal stamp on the piece.I use an A+B epoxy for this.The kind that is fully cured in 24 hours and is workable with power tools without clouging your bits.I bought a number of tubes years ago when I heard it maybe pulled off the market in California for toxic concerns.Maybe something similiar is still available.
This stuff carves just like wood with both hand or power tools but I would take precautions by wearing a mask and even gloves if need be

[JohnReid]

I try to buy mostly figures in a relaxed pose as they are the easiest to adapt to re-positioning.So far I have 13 bought figures in the latest diorama of which only 2 have not been altered in some way.It is really a lot of fun playing with these figures like that and personalizing someone else work in a creative way.I just get a whole bunch of arms,legs,heads and hands together and let the old imagination roll.See Shep Paine and Ken Hamiltons books on how to do this type of surgery.In my next set of pics I hope to show more clearly what I mean.Speaking of pics I will try to have some new ones up this week.
The following 2 pics show the unfinished heads as they look today. You can see that with just minimal paint and the right lighting just how easy this method is.I have a lot of painting yet to do on them but the important thing will be knowing when enough is enough and not to overdo it.The last group pic gives you a sense of scale.
Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

I always promised myself that someday I would concentrate on making miniature figures.Going back to my boat building days I always admired artists who could do this.
My approach to carving has always been to subtract material to get to the finished product as woodcarvers do.Most modern day figure makers tend to use the built-up approach as you would do in clay modeling.
I think that I may approach this from a little different angle.I feel more comfortable with the idea of doing the basic anatomy carved from wood to get the pose and action right.There is a very interesting wood out there used by bird carvers called tupelo.It is very light and easy to work.It has hardly any grain and can be carved without regard to the grain (with power tools)It can be worked down to feather thin pieces and then soaked in crazy glue to harden.For detail work (and I have done this on birds)you can add a+b epoxy and carve it right on the wood.I usually overbuilt an area in epoxy and then carve it down.I have never had the glue-wood bond seperate.
Until now most miniature woodcarvers have used very hard woods such as boxwood for their carvings and I think that this may have discouraged a lot of people from giving it a try, as it can be slow and difficult to work with.Boxwood heads and hands maybe a good idea though.I think that in the beginning I will cheat and buy the heads and hands and leave the scratchbuilding of these features till last after I gain a bit more confidence in the method.
I have seen some wonderful miniature birdcarving work done with tupelo wood and I know that it will hold the the finest of detail as I have worked with it carving my own birds.
Should be interesting to give it a go.
Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

The above pic is of the rear entrance,WC/coal storage area module, attached to the main structure.As you can see it is of foam board construction.
The next 2 pics are of the same module with the basic construction almost completed.Originally I was going to leave the WC unfurnished but I have since found a dollhouse bathroom set with an old 20's style pullchain toilet that I could not resist installing some time in the future.The set is in plastic so it can easily be brought down to 1/16th scale.Problem is I wonder if any of this will be viewable through such small windows.I could always enlarge the windows I guess and light the interior.Another option would be to make the L/H roof panel in plexiglass as I plan to do for the engine shop module when I build it probably sometime this summer.Because these modules are not a direct part of the story going on inside the main hanger,I think that I can get away with doing this and yet not distract attention away from the main storyline.It will not be possible to view the action in the main hanger while looking inside the external modules.

[JohnReid]