HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[JohnReid]

You gotta have guts to put out pics at this level of magnificationBelieve me it looks a lot better in person.

[StephenLawson]

I have no room to question you. I am afraid to show the white metal castings of the Albatros D.Va (that is is still in the works.) The castings are rough. I have to settle for the kit engine and you know how that is.

John talk to me about your method for steaming the wood into a curve on the wing tips.

[JohnReid]

Originally Posted by StephenLawson

I have no room to question you. I am afraid to show the white metal castings of the Albatros D.Va (that is is still in the works.) The castings are rough. I have to settle for the kit engine and you know how that is.

John talk to me about your method for steaming the wood into a curve on the wing tips.

Hi Stephen! What was I thinking.........?? even though it can hardly be seen in the diorama,I don't think that I can live with those mag switches or the clock.One is too far out of scale and the other looks messy.Will see what I can do...........
Bending wood? I dunk the wood in water and take one of those old fashioned hair curlers that looks like a metal stick with a large clip on it ,put it in a vice ,heat it up, and slowly bend the wood to the shape I require.I will soon be doing this on the Camel wings and will post pics.

[JohnReid]

I know.........maybe I will just put a tarp over the whole thing!!!!!

[JohnReid]

This is a little better!

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

I keep proving the same old point to myself. Don't rush! I had it in my head that I just wanted to finish that instrument panel yesterday.Talk about loosing focus!

[JohnReid]

Rear gun support!

[JohnReid]

Fake guns and they look like it!

[JohnReid]

In building the Camel I get a real sense of a fighter pilot's aircraft .It has the same mystique that the Spitfire had in WW2.Everything about this airplane says "top of the food chain", the Peregrine Falcon of the fighter aircraft world of its day.I can only imagine the feeling that a pilot would get sitting in this cockpit.Joy,fear,excitement,a feeling of pilot and machine as one.It must have been a wonderful feeling to master an aircraft such as this.A very real challenge just to fly let alone fight in.Once you were in you were in till the end whatever the outcome.No escape from this cockpit.You either walk away or you buy the farm,period.Modern day gladiators for sure!
It must have seemed very strange to return from battle every night ,sitting in the officers mess sipping your brandy and wondering if tomorrow would be your turn to die! Unlike the foot soldier who lived in constant fear of sudden death in the trenches, the fighter pilot was in a kind of strange world of destruction by day and mock joy of survival at night.Still knowing that tomorrow the cycle would begin all over again.It must have taken nerves of steel to climb into that cockpit every day,day after day and try to be brave until the very end.