HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[JohnReid]

Originally Posted by Der Grüne Flieger

John,

Everybody realizes you are an artist, but do you have to model a grudgy bathroom too? Just kidding.

The video was great. I have always liked watching the Sabre fly, it's a beautiful plane.

Phil

It seems that this style of aerobatics is not much practiced anymore by the latest generation of aerobatic pilots ,where it seems that it is more popular to just throw an over-powered aircraft through the air doing violent but not too pretty maneuvers.

[JohnReid]

[Jasta 5 Von Muller]

lol are you even close to finishing this yet??

[JohnReid]

Hi Bob! The plan is,if all goes well, to have most of it done by the end of the year.The Camel/Truck model I will build next winter as an add on.I hope to have it in the museum by spring of next year.I think that this is about perfect timing, as the museum has recently got more funding for their educational wing, and construction should be finished by then.All three dioramas will be going at the same time.

[JohnReid]

Allied spy's view of the Albatros!

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

The above pic is of the approximate final arrangement of the main hangar floor.
You know I was thinking that the main storyline of this diorama could be told pretty much as you see it here.For those that want to do a nice diorama on a smaller scale and yet still get across the main story this would actually be enough.Floor,walls,maybe a partial roof and you would be done!It also gives a really nice view of the aircraft which is the most important single object in the piece.I am happy that I went the extra mile and completed the whole thing as it just was a personal goal of mine but in future dioramas I just may back off a bit on unessential details which are really time consuming to do and does not add much other than eye-candy.
I am lucky that I am doing this piece in my retirement and can find the time to work on a single piece ,for what will be almost 6 years in the making ,and that is if I finish it by next spring.
Another concern is visibility,some of the views,especially of the airplane are quite restricted once the roof is on.That is why I decided to do the truck/Camel piece that can really be viewed close up.Depending on how I present this part of the story ,aircraft loaded,partially loaded,being loaded or ready to go ,the aircraft detail should really be interesting for the kids or anyone else who wants to know how these aircraft were really put together.
Should be fun!

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

The following is pretty much a re-hash of Ken Hamilton's method of working groundcover as depicted in his book.

This is the L/H side and rear groundwork pieces.The plywood was fitted and then given a couple of coats of laquer especially along the edges to avoid any warpage due to water.The topside is not so critical as the next glue/sand step pretty well seals the wood for the sloppy wet coats to follow.
These pieces are temporarily screwed to the main plywood board from the top while fitting,later I will remove these top screws and permanent screw everything from the bottom.

[JohnReid]