HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[Ross_Moorhouse]

and even more....

The headless wee people.. make what you want of that comment,.. hehehehe

[Ross_Moorhouse]

and the last of another fanastic bunch of photos. John not only builds very well he also takes great photos too.

[JohnReid]

Thanks Ross.Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

Here is a little explanation of what you are looking at

Pic#1-rear enterance,WC and coal storage area in foamboard
2-R/H hangar sliding door assembly and office
3-office in board and batten construction
4-Ford model T in 1/16th scale on garage door module
5-opposite view of rear door
6-garage door module and L/H sliding door assembly
7-front view
8-view of workshop through main hangar doors
9-view through garage doors,past workshop and into the office(about 5 feet)
10-series of heads,lit from above
11-series of signs,yet to be weathered
12-Eddie R. uniform
13-some of the figures I will be using(2nd from left will be the barnstormer)
14-Billy B. uniform
15-same figures after they were asked to turn around.



Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

This is a lot of fun to do.As far as I know ,I am the first one to take what the doll house guys and gals(miniaturists) do, and the dioramists and shadow boxers do, and bring them both together to create something like a 5 sided shadow box in one self-contained unit.
I got the idea after attending a miniaturists show many years ago.The larger scale appealed to me and the fact that you could put many years work into just one piece working in all of the details.
It is almost like building the real thing.Years ago someone told me that the secret to all of this was, to concentrate on the single piece that you are doing each day as it was a sculpture in and of itself.Then when you put all these little scuptures together into one big piece, you will be happy with the results.Sure there are some parts that are really boring to do, but I have talked to other artists who do detail work, and they complain about the same thing.Wildlife artists paint each hair ,bird sculpturers carve,texture ,burn and paint each feather.(one of my former hobbies).For all the boring jobs however, there are those moments that we all live for when we have a new idea or a new way of doing things.The very act of creation is what ,in the end, keeps you going.In fact ,after awhile you cant live without having this creativity in your life.
I figure that I have about another year to go to complete this project.This is the fun time now when you start actually putting things together for the final time,knowing that anything you add now will be staying there.It is also a time when you really have to concentrate on composition.(That is why my figures will remain headless until I figure out their final position and how they will relate to one another.)Often I will just sit back and try to figure out where everything will go.Then I will try this or that and sometimes hours are spent just on re-arranging things.In the end, it is the little things that make all the difference.(For example the spilled nuts and bolts on the floor of my Neiuport diorama, which came about purely by accident.)These planned ideas or" Happy Accidents" are what gives a piece that magical quality.Guilding the lily so to speak.For me,this quiet time alone concentrating on composition is more productive than all of the actual building time.
Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

The figures in the pics are all by The Model Cellar.They are great 120mm figures ,very clean and with super detail.They specialize in WW1 fiqures and offer other scales too.They come in pieces and are not painted. They can be adapted to different poses using epoxy putty.I used them as is, except for the barons figure, which I converted to a 20s barnstormer by modifying the uniform and using the helmeted head.
I painted mine using Jo Sonja acrylics over thinned down Liquitex gesso.
Their email:
http://www.modelcellar.com
Cheers! John

[JohnReid]

In the belief that a little cross-fertilization is good for us all,I have joined the Railroad Line Forums.This is a super resource for anyone doing dioramas,scratchbuilding or modeling in general.These guys are masters of the scenic diorama and have been doing it for a long time.There is much to be learned from the RR guys.
In regards to my present project,the hangar doors are finished and I have begun to paint them green ,the same color as the trim and main doors(Pine Green).
I changed my mind and decided to add more visual interest ,by sheathing the doors both inside and out with popsicle stik boards.The exterior was divided horizontally into two sections and the boards placed at 45 deg running in opposite directions, as you often see on barn doors.The interior boards are laid horizortally so that they direct the eye towards the interior of the hangar.
The next step will be to permanently fasten down these garage doors to the module and fake the hinges.I will also have to decide the final position of the model T and provide for it to be fastened down to the module.
Cheers! John.

"The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery."
Francis Bacon.

My stuff:
http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Reid/index.html

[JohnReid]

Maybe I am carrying this cross-fertilization thing too far but if you guys would like to see a diorama that took me 15 years (about 6000 hrs shoptime) to build go to :

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gall...ory-index.html

Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

Hi guys! I thought that it was a good time to post the Victory pictures in that it is now 200 years the other day ,since that epic battle took place.It was probably the most decisive battle in naval history and ended Napoleons plans to conquer the world.

Indirectly it was this battle that got me into modeling.When my dad was off to war for 5 years ,I was raised by my grandmother who was a late Victorian and always spoke of the sea,Nelson and the sun never setting on the British Empire.She would take me for walks along Lake Ontario's shores ,in a city that is filled with naval history ,Kingston ,and that is how I fell in love with the sea.

Thirty years later,I passed a hobby store window and although I was ,at the time ,almost totally immersed in aviation,I just had to build the HMS Victory that I saw there.At the time I knew nothing about old ships but I was soon to learn.

I think that I will post a new thread on what are your earliest memories that may have sparked your future interest in modeling?I am sure that there must be some interesting stories out there.What or who sparked that interest that made you the modeler that you are today?
Cheers! John.

My Stuff:
http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Reid/index.html

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gall...ory-index.html
This post has been edited by John

[JohnReid]

There is a nice rigging tutorial over on ;

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com
Classic Aviation Forum.
Cheers! John.