HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[JohnReid]

Notice in the first drawing how the hem of his leather coat just touches and slightly bends the control wire with its weight.This would make for a very nice touch,gilding the lily so to speak.It is these little things that make all the difference in a diorama.
Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

[rillette]

Hi John,

At which museum is the diorama going to be exhibited?
Thanks.

F.X.D.

[JohnReid]

Hi rillette! All 3 are going to the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa.I am donating them to be used for educational purposes especially for their youth program.I hope to have the first one up there sometime this Fall which will be the Albatross.
I have found that kids are fascinated by how these old airplanes were built ,especially the wood and wire construction techniques.Although my storylines are not meant to be 100% historically accurate ,the events that I am depicting could have happened in that time period . The airplanes themselves however have been well researched and any discrepencies noted.
Cheers! John.

[rillette]

Hi John,

That's fantastic, I'm sure that they'll be very much appreciated by all visitors, young and not so young. For some reason I had thought that maybe they were going to the Canadian Historical Aviation Society (I think that's the name) Museum in St Anne-de-Bellevue. They will certainly be getting a little more exposure in Ottawa!

F.X.D.

[JohnReid]

Yeah,and they have a lot of programs especially designed for kids,Summer camps,weekend sleepovers bus tours etc...

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

The above drawing of the pilot checking the elevator of his aircraft reminds me of an incident that happened many moons ago when I was an instructor at the local flying school.A fellow brought in his aircraft to have some maintenance done on it.He left it overnite and the next day we get a call from Quebec city,about an hours flying time away in that aircraft ,that he had lost half of his elevator in flight.Turns out that they had removed that half of the elevator to do some maintenance and it was sitting up against the wall in the hangar in Montreal.Pre-flight ? what pre-flight?

[JohnReid]

yesterday I detached the engine shop module from the main hangar for the first time after having built up the structure.This means that after the doors and windows are done ,I can begin furnishing the interior .This shouldn't take too long as one engine has already been built (the Mercedes) and the other the OX5 has been started.Both will require engine stands of some sort.The rest of the furnishings will be similiar to what I have in the woodworkers shop ,benchs,shelves ,tools etc........I also plan to put in an old oil barrell type heating stove for those long Canadian winters.
I will post some 35mm pics when I start to place things inside.A lot of what goes in will not easily be seen once the module is re-attached to the hangar structure.I have ruled out the viewing hole-in-the-roof idea and instead have put in a third window and large garage type doors leading to the truck loading dock.Once the lighting is in it should be lots of fun peering through the windows at the activity going on inside.

[JohnReid]