HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[StephenLawson]

Originally Posted by JohnReid

'...While I am online I have a tip on how to make those fiddilly little chock pieces that go at the intersections of the wooden internal structural members in the rudder.Doll house suppliers have various sizes on miniture wooden quarter round available.I simply cut these in pieces and superglue them at the 90 deg intersections leaving them a little longer than required.Then your just sand them down level and then sand off the round part until it is flat and voila you have small triangular chocks. Model on....Cheers! John.

Greetings all, JohnReid is absolutely correct on the doll house supplies. I use the marqueting wood for the wood props and fuselage skinning on my 1/48 builds.

[Ross_Moorhouse]

Some more of Johns great work. He will make comments on them soon.

[Ross_Moorhouse]

Some more....

[Ross_Moorhouse]

And even more.....

[Ross_Moorhouse]

and .... you know what I am going to say..... MORE...





hmm.... Its is a model of something that flys.

[JohnReid]

Ross has kindly posted the above pics for me.My purpose in sending them in is to show what can be done with internal lighting and an external 40 watt bulb .

The internal lighting is your basic model railroad setup with a standard transformer with reostate, so that you can vary the intensity of the lighting to create a certain mood .I used amber bulbs available at hobby stores specializing in model railroad supplies.The 40watt bulb was just a portable light that was used to illuminate the outside blue card in the daylight or dusk shots.Sometimes I would shine the bulb down through the plexigass opening in the roof to slightly light up the hangars rafters etc.In the Jenny diorama I plan to experiment using a combination of lighting,including those new battery powered lites they have for Christmas village scenes.

I beleive that it is very important to spent time setting up your photographs .It can also be lots of fun and very creative way of expressing yourself using your own creations.Remember that in the end this may be all that survives of your work in its original state.We owe it to the dioramists that follow in our footsteps to properly record our work.I borrowed from my fellow artists as I am sure that they borrow from me and take our artform to a whole new level.

The last pic of the Peregrine Falcon wood sculpture is a piece that I was working on before I went back to modeling.It has been sitting on the shelf for 7 years giving me the evil eye wanting to be finished.Maybe someday......

Well Happy New Year to everyone and may all your modeling dreams come true. Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

I figure that while I am on control surfaces I might as well build the 4 ailerons required for the Canuck.The upper wingspan for the JN4D and the Canuck are the same but the lower wings, because of the lower ailerons having the same pointed shape as the upper, there is a small difference in span.Lower wing span of the JN4D is 33ft11and 1/4 in. The Canucks span is 34ft8and5/16ths in.There are also numerous changes to the aileron fittings and the run of the rigging because of the Canucks double aileron configuration.This I will get into more as we go along. to be cont......

[JohnReid]

Aileron #1 is finished.3 more to go.The directions are very clear for this stage of the build,no problems were encountered.Just be sure to check your measurments on each individual wing and adjust the aileron dementions as need be.Where aileron tip and wing tip meets there should be no gaps in length or taper.The aileron ribs should also line up with the wing ribs fore and aft.Some of the wood supplied for the small aileron dowels was unuasable ,as it was warped and bent and very poorly finished.This is the first time that I have had any trouble with any of the wood supplied with these kits.Luckily, I already had some from another project.These very fragile pieces were soaked in very thin CA glue to give them strength.The aileron control horns are in the same position on the Canuck but their are no brace fittings required at the trailing edge.I used brass for the trailing edge instead of the kit supplied steel which I find difficult to bend. to be cont.....

[JohnReid]

I just got word from the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa that they will be acquiring my Albatros,Nieuport and Jenny Canuck dioramas for their collection.They will be used in the educational services department of the museum, to educate kids on school tours and summer model/diorama making projects.I couldnt be happier that they have found a good home where kids can appreciate them.That is really why I built them in the first place ,not to be sitting in a basement somewhere gathering dust, or in some museum that doesnt really know what they are or what to do with them.

I just had to share this news with you guys, as it is only my peers who really understand why we do what we do.Makes an old guy happy.Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

Correction to post #228 Re:Aileron Horns.There are no Aileron horns on the Canuck as they are rigged differently with inter-aileron struts.The kingposts and its brace wiring are still retained however. to be cont.....