HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

So you thought that it was almost finished?
Well now it is time for final assembly.Starting back at the bare plywood stage it is now time to permanently screw and glue things down.The plywood was lacquered last summer on both sides and edges to make it waterproof ,which is very important because a lot of the next steps require the use of lots of water.
I have positioned the hangar for a unobstructed ,clear view in to what will be the open hangar doors.
The landscaping is divided at the hangars corners into four parts for ease of assembly.Each part will be finished and then screwed down to the base.
I have arranged it so that there will be four separate areas of interest ,almost like four dioramas in one.When viewing one area I have tried to plan it so the viewer will not be distracted by the other three.For example the view of the crashed Albatros outside, is blocked by the L/H open hangar door.When viewing the crashed Albatros from the side it is not possible to view the backyard of the hangar.The R/H hangar wall is plexiglass and affords another unrestricted view into the hangar.In real life another hangar bay would have been built here ,so this is basically a compromise between reality and fantasy.(artistic license ,if you will)
Now it is on to temporarily screwing down the four landscaping panels and the final positioning of the hangar.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

I was originally going to screw the landscaping panels down from underneath the plywood base but that proved to be unpractical.Instead I drilled a hole down through both panels,and screwed down the panel from the top.I will cover the screw heads using rocks or grass etc... I identified the holes under the plywood panels as "screws above" so that if in future if it is to be taken apart they will be able to locate the screws.
The hanger itself was screwed down the same way, from below, and holes added to the plywood where the wheels of the aircraft are bolted down ,so that the Albatros could be removed from the hangar separately if need be.
The landscaping panels are of course removable so that each can be finished individually and then finally re-installed.The now visible seams will be filled as required and blended in to become invisible.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

I took a whole bunch of new pics today while I still have easy access to the
hangar windows.I haven't yet had a chance to edit out the bad ones.I removed the frames and shot through the windows from different angles.I am also experimenting with doing photographic type dioramas and vignettes and setting them in formal type frames.This is a lot of fun and opens a whole new dimensions to doing dioramas.One storyboard diorama can be broken down into hundreds of smaller vignettes.

[JohnReid]