HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[JohnReid]

Yesterday I put the hardware on the office door,hinges and door knobs.They are 1/12th scale exposed,strap type brass hinges but look great in 1/16th and are very easy to install.
Most of the office furniture is scaled down 1/12th stuff as well.The desk was reduced by removing the bottom 25% which was easy but the chairs require more work.Old style working lamps ,cabinet type radio and telephone are all within scale.The rest ,shelves etc... I will scratch build.
This idea of finishing off the modules first makes for a much more interesting build and is a great incentive to carry on.Most of the boring ,repetitive jobs are done so now it is mostly a lot of fun.Its all fun,it is just some parts are more fun than others. Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

This is the only pic that I could find of the roof trusses peak blocks located between each truss at its highest point on the roof.Also visible are other blocks located between the trusses.These are glued in to create a one piece removable truss assembly.
The steel plates at the mid point of the horizontal beam are actually made of wood,painted black and weathered to look slightly rusty(burnt sienna).The bolt heads are actually pins.The wood was painted nimbus grey with raw umber washes and then weathered with black , grey and burnt sienna pastels.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

The inter-truss beams looking through the viewing window in the roof .The roof is 1/4 plywood and is held on with a few screws so there is the option of leaving the roof on or off.The truss assembly is remarkably strong even without the roof being screwed on.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Overall view without trusses.(Where we are till now.)

At this stage(about a year ago or so) the general arrangement of the major parts can be seen(without roof trusses).The four walls are screwed together and are locked into place when the truss assembly is fitted into the sidewall notches.The roof is then screwed to the truss assembly.
The workshop is a self-contained module screwed to the floor and is removable.The office ,rear entrance /WC,and garage door modules have not yet been thought of.

[JohnReid]

Weathering wood:
I have found that using pastels is reall y the way to go when weathering wood to look like old barn siding.I use basically 3 colors.Black,medium grey and burnt sienna.
I prepare the raw wood(usually birch stir stiks)with a couple of thin washes of nimbus grey acrylic paint .Then a couple of washes of raw umber letting most of the original wood pattern show through.
I then do just about all my shading with the subtle use of the pastel colors.I like to shade in areas where dust and crud would gather such as in corners or between the boards.Here you will have to uyse your imagination or take examples from real life.
I am using small pins as nails for the battens on the roof that I am presently constructing ( see: http://www.wwi-models.org Galleries,JohnReid) I paint each nail head with a dot of burnt umber gesso followed by a coat of burnt sienna(for the rust)over that I use a subtle amount burnt sienna pastel for a rusty wood look.
Take your time,be subtle in your shading and you should be able to achieve great results.Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

The checkerboard roof:
Over the 1/4 ply I glued on, with carpenters glue ,squares of medium emory cloth that I cut out of 8x10 stock. I painted each square with white or black gesso about 75/25 gesso to water.Do not paint on too thick as you want to retain the roughness of the cloth.You can see that I have started to lay down the wood battens.Nothing has yet been weathered.
The sign is one that I made up from my imagination and I have since doubled the size.
Note:Why the checkerboard pattern? In the early days of flying the mail,pilots had little navigation equipement and what they had was totally unreliable.Compasses were often off 90 degs.They therefore relied on there sight to navigate from point to point usually along railway tracks(the iron compass) of rivers etc... Railway stations often painted the towns name on the roof and the local aviation field may have had a checkerboard roof on the hangar to help guide the pilots.
As a point of interest on just how crude flying in poor weather could be,pilots in order to clear known objects on the ground ,such as transmitter towers etc.. would pull up into the "soup" ,count to 30,and let down the opposite side.No wonder that it was called the suicide club.
Cheers! John.