HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[JohnReid]

This is a pic of the woodworking shop at about the same stage of construction.I find that it maybe a little too grey in colour.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

The work you see here took about an hour to do .Pastels are fun to work with if you dont overdo it.Use a very soft brush and work the pastels into the wood.Because our wood is not sealed this is very simple to do and quite permanent.
Here I have used only 2 colors so far,black and burnt sienna.The most important thing is to use your imagination and have fun with this.The final work with the pastels will be when I put the walls together and decide on the wear and tear.

[HispanoSuiza]

Cancelled. Was unable to delete.

[JohnReid]

HUH!!!!

[HispanoSuiza]

Moderator, can you place my post in a better place? I'm having a problem with the site.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Here is the outside bottom of the same wallpanel.After doing the pin and pencil routine,I took a small burr on a rotary shaft and roughed up the boards near where they come in close contact with the ground outside.I want to show the ground a little uneven where it runs along the concrete foundation.The boards will also have a fungus/mossy green look at the very bottom.Sounds like fun huh!

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Here I have begun working a bit with the Raw umber.The top portion of the panel has just the pin and pencil and toothbruck flicking techniques.From the mid portion on down,i have taken a very small round brush and with some watery raw umber filled each individual hole so that it swells level and diffuses a little color around each hole.It is important to let the holes wick up the watery mix.Take advantage of the fact that you are using raw, dry wood ,for example at the bottom touch the the ends of the boards with your watery mix and let the wood wick it up just like it would do in nature.When weathering try as much as possible to follow mother natures routine in the aging process.For example:rust would show later in the process than plain crud,moss and fungus still later.For those who maybe worried about the wood not being sealed, you could I suppose, use a spray fixative over your finished panel.(I am not too worried about this as these dioramas are going to a controlled enviroment.)
I find that these panels can be a lot of fun to do if you treat each one as a little artists canvas of its own.Gather lots of reference material and be creative.Make each one a little different as they can be subject to different weathering and lighting in real life.Also keep in mind ,as in my case,the buildings' modules could have been added at different times in the history of your diorama.Smaller buildings and trim could be painted, while large outdoor wallpanels could be left subject to more weathering.Also there could be a cost factor invovled in not completely painting the large main structure.

This is the great thing about diorama making, the learning just goes on and on and there is no time to get bored.It incorporates just about every aspect of modeling and a lot what is called "ART" too.Hope your havin' as much fun as I am.
Cheers! John.