HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[JohnReid]

To me its all about the viewer.My goal is to have the viewer lose themselves,if only for a moment, in another reality.It is a kind of magical world of the spirit where kids are privledged to live a lot of the time.It is still there in all of us and it is the dioramaists or moviemakers or other visual type of artists role, to take the viewer by the hand and lead him back to that wonderful world of childhood, where everything is possible.When I am working,I try to think like a child.What would please the imagination of a child.How can I draw them into my work? if I can hold the attention of a child for any length of time,the grownups are easy.When kids first see my work ,I make it a point to study their faces.Most of the time they wont say a thing and that is when I know Ive got them.Usually, I am the first to speak and I can tell that they are usually lost in my world,in this little world that I have created.Its the look on their faces,thats why I do dioramas. Someone once said, All kids are artisits,the trick is to stay an artist when we grow up.Hope I havent been too heavy in my response but that is the way I feel.Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

Originally Posted by StephenLawson

JohnReid; What would you say is the key ingredient to making a good diorama?

What is key is finding the Magic. Let me explain.What is the magic in a movie,stage or diorama? Is it not trying to get the viewer to suspend their disbelief and enter your world,the world that you have created and thereby have them enter a new reality.When I am creating a diorama I try to think like a child.If you can capture the attention of a child then the grownups are easy.I love to study a childs face when they first look at a diorama.If its good, it is like a spell that comes over them and you can see their imaginations running wild.Often, it will be I who first speaks and then there will be a flood of questions.Makes me feel like a kid again myseff .That is why I do it,that is my reward for all the hours spent in my workshop.

I always feel my best when I am creating.Sometimes, it aint easy trying to find the Magic but when you do ,you know it.Things seem to flow and come together with little effort. I hope I answered your question OK.Cheers! John.

Sorry about the repeat posting guys but I had a computer problem and I thought that I had somehow lost the first posting I made this AM. So I composed another that says about the same thing.Now the 1st one shows up and I still dont know what happened Cheers!(again) John.

[StephenLawson]

It sounds like your saying;

subject + composition + human condition = diorama

Not that I disagree. James Dietz described his paintings as taking the curious and human elements and saving them for the right painting. Like the collapsable silver drinking cup in Here's mud in your eye - a painting of an AEF Camel pilot in BEF Trenches surrounded by muddied Tommies and being given a shot of the flask in the shadow of his tails up F.I. His additional comments were that his paintings are to please himself. There seems to lay the crucial ingredient. Noting the human condition and letting others see what you do.

[JohnReid]

You are right, Stephen, it is important to please yourself as your creative heart has to be in what you are doing at the moment.I remember once on a trip through St Jean de Port- Joli here in Quebec I once requested a well known woodcarver to do me a copy of a piece that he had done for me, for my cousin, at my cousins request.There just was no comparison between the original and the copy .One he wanted to do ,the other he had to do and that made all the difference.

About Key ingredients in a diorama, on another level the first thing I look for in a great diorama is,is it believable?Does it look natural?When I taught decorative bird carving ,the hardest thing to get across to my students was to avoid lining things up in a row,having things equi-distant or 90deg to each other.In fact, even today when I am working on a piece, I willoften have to go back and screw things up a bit to make it look more natural.What may look perfectly natural has sometimes taken hours of thought,placing and replacing things until they look just right. Only man plants trees in rows.It is a human tendency that I find that I have to be constantly aware of when I am working.It cannot look too staged,too square,too correct ,to be believable.In life things get dirty,dusty,worn and a good diorama must reflect this. What do you think,Stephen? Cheers! John.

[Mark_Miller]

Originally Posted by JohnReid

About Key ingredients in a diorama, on another level the first thing I look for in a great diorama is,is it believable?Does it look natural?When I taught decorative bird carving ,the hardest thing to get across to my students was to avoid lining things up in a row,having things equi-distant or 90deg to each other.In fact, even today when I am working on a piece, I willoften have to go back and screw things up a bit to make it look more natural.What may look perfectly natural has sometimes taken hours of thought,placing and replacing things until they look just right. Only man plants trees in rows.It is a human tendency that I find that I have to be constantly aware of when I am working.It cannot look too staged,too square,too correct ,to be believable.In life things get dirty,dusty,worn and a good diorama must reflect this. What do you think,Stephen? Cheers! John.

John
Well said
and this "contrived randomnes" is a key factor in digital work as well.
Perhaps the most obvious example is composing aircraft in flight.
You have to place them in such a way that the compositional elements flow the way you want.
But, it has to appear semi-random.
you can't just line them all up or it will look false.
and you need to watch the shapes you are making to make sure you don't get any man-made looking patterns.
You want to hide the artist's hand as much as you possibly can.
And it is a lot harder than it looks - but that is as it should be, because it should look like it "just happened"

on another level
The same factors effect texture maps.
Again, you almost always need to simulate the basic randomnes that is present in everything you see.
Personaly, i have found it almost impossible to manualy simulate some natural effects.
good example is paint chipping.
On the 148th aero image I wanted to show some extreme wear on the cowl of the leading camel.
The front of this camel is right in your face, so the effect had to be good or the whole image would have failed.
So, for the cowl, i had a natural metal texture and a painted texture - simple matter to overlay the painted one on top of the metal and just selectively delete out the chipped areas.
I tried painting masks that i could use as a selection tool to detele the areas, but it never quite worked.
There is a semi random quality to the size and placement that i just couldn't get manualy.
in the end I found an image of rocks (i think)
and fooled around with the selection tool until something crack-like happened
Worked out ok in the end - but I still didn't get it the way i wanted.

In some ways - you have to be more conscious of this randomness when working in a virtual environment simply becuase you don't have the benefit of physical reality.
You can't just throw some bolts on the floor and let them fall/roll/spred in a naturaly random fashion.
You have to consciously place them there.
can be difficult

But, IMHO, there is little difference between physical and virtual model making.
essentialy, we are doing the same thing
just the tools are different

[StephenLawson]

Originally Posted by JohnReid

'...About Key ingredients in a diorama, on another level the first thing I look for in a great diorama is,is it believable? Does it look natural? When I taught decorative bird carving ,the hardest thing to get across to my students was to avoid lining things up in a row,having things equi-distant or 90deg to each other.In fact, even today when I am working on a piece, I willoften have to go back and screw things up a bit to make it look more natural.What may look perfectly natural has sometimes taken hours of thought,placing and replacing things until they look just right. Only man plants trees in rows.It is a human tendency that I find that I have to be constantly aware of when I am working.It cannot look too staged,too square,too correct ,to be believable.In life things get dirty,dusty,worn and a good diorama must reflect this. What do you think,Stephen? Cheers! John.

While being realistic is important I refer to the impressionistic arts as an alternative. I refer to my dio of The Last Meeting of IPMS Ragwing. Diorama Probables and improbables each have their places. Shep Payne referred to an artistic license to show several events in series taking place at the same time to get a whole picture. Maintenance, painting, repairing and re-arming all in the same scene. Though some or all of these elements tend to give a build or the piece balance you have tpo ask yourself what is too much? Then again I have done a dio with 722 HO & 1/72 scale figures on a large base...see Projeckt Riesenflugzeug II (da Staaken Diorama.)

For me relative scale says to me, no matter what story I tell if it is all believable due to the relative scale of the pieces and their relationship to the other pieces in the dio - it will work. This means struts not being too thick, figures being as detailed as the objects they serve in the diorama. It also addresses trailing edges being super thin, mold seams being erased. Rather than being believeable for me "plausable" may be a more accurate term. I saw a great dio once though terribly off topic, It was of a break through into a Pharoah's ancient Tomb in Egypt. The diggers and scientists found the mummy building models at a table. It was most humorous and though not beliveable in the realm reality, it did give us all a chuckle. My treatment of 'Ragwing" was a more serious comment about the dedication (AMS) that some club members have (must point the finger at myself here) about modeling and its activities.

Originally Posted by Mark_Miller

John
Well said
and this "contrived randomnes" is a key factor in digital work as well.
Perhaps the most obvious example is composing aircraft in flight. You have to place them in such a way that the compositional elements flow the way you want. But, it has to appear semi-random. you can't just line them all up or it will look false. and you need to watch the shapes you are making to make sure you don't get any man-made looking patterns. You want to hide the artist's hand as much as you possibly can. And it is a lot harder than it looks - but that is as it should be, because it should look like it "just happened" .... But, IMHO, there is little difference between physical and virtual model making. essentialy, we are doing the same thing just the tools are different

Points taken! Life can be pretty random. You have to admire people that take nothing and build something. Me I use sheet amd molded plastic. The difference between one model built by modeler A and the same kit built by Modeler B is what are you willing to put of your time and effort into the build?

[topgun56]

Well stated, but then each builder knows what is most important to them.....Then there is enjoyment of the build.

[JohnReid]

Hi Mark! Nice to have your imput.Yes,I can well appreciate your difficulties in your chosen medium, although I dont have any experience with it myself.

You mentioned the randomness of the bolts on the floor idea.Believe it or not ,while the idea was discovered accidentally by my son,I spent quite awhile dropping and re-dropping that box of nuts&bolts off the table until I got it just right.Then I glued them individually to the floor.Crazy Huh!

I enjoy The Magic in you work,especially the flying scenes.They seem to appeal to me because of my experiences flying when I was younger.I spent many years flying in the right hand seat, as a flying instuctor or co-pilot, and your piece,J5 Blitz,really caught my eye.For a split second I was there.Looking out the right hand cockpit window to see a beauiiful Albatros falling off my right wingtip.I kind of experienced the excitment of wanting to follow him down on the attack.There lies The Magic.

Stephen,I dont think that believable = reality.This is why I find a kids reality so fascinating.Your Ragwing piece is a sort of believable flight of fantasy and as far as I am concerned that is why I find it so appealing.Have you ever shown it to a group of kids? I would love to get their reactions.

On another subject,it has been said that Dioramas are the highest expression of what we do as Modelers.What do you guys think?

Jenny update,I will be installing the instrument panels today.

[Mark_Miller]

Originally Posted by JohnReid

You mentioned the randomness of the bolts on the floor idea.Believe it or not ,while the idea was discovered accidentally by my son,I spent quite awhile dropping and re-dropping that box of nuts&bolts off the table until I got it just right.Then I glued them individually to the floor.Crazy Huh!

well....
To tell the truth, I read a piece you wrote on another site about the bolt thing. So yeah, i believe it
and it's not crazy at all - I call it smart

your piece,J5 Blitz,really caught my eye.For a split second I was there.Looking out the right hand cockpit window to see a beauiiful Albatros falling off my right wingtip.I kind of experienced the excitment of wanting to follow him down on the attack.There lies The Magic.

now that is gratifying to hear
thanks John

[StephenLawson]

Originally Posted by JohnReid

'...Stephen,I dont think that believable = reality. This is why I find a kids reality so fascinating. Your Ragwing piece is a sort of believable flight of fantasy and as far as I am concerned that is why I find it so appealing. Have you ever shown it to a group of kids? I would love to get their reactions...'

I have had it at the 2000 IPMS Nats, several regional and local contests. I put it on dispaly at Caboose Hobbies here in Denver for a year. Also it was at a Lakewood Hobby Town USA shop for about six months. I'm working on modifying the box now. Its is always an attention getter...kids love the skeletons of course. Recently I took it to the Lafayette Foundation for a display when several local Cub and Boy Scout troops came through on a scheduled tour. Again lots of ooohhs and aaaahhhss. The hobby is a gas!