HOW TO BUILD AIRCRAFT DIORAMAS

[AchimEngels]

Why I do it!
To me its all about the viewer.My goal is to have the viewer lose themselves,if only for a moment, in another reality.It is a kind of magical world of the spirit where kids are privledged to live a lot of the time.It is still there in all of us and it is the dioramaists or moviemakers or other visual type of artists role, to take the viewer by the hand and lead him back to that wonderful world of childhood, where everything is possible.When I am working,I try to think like a child.What would please the imagination of a child.How can I draw them into my work? if I can hold the attention of a child for any length of time,the grownups are easy.When kids first see my work ,I make it a point to study their faces.Most of the time they wont say a thing and that is when I know Ive got them.Usually, I am the first to speak and I can tell that they are usually lost in my world,in this little world that I have created.Its the look on their faces,thats why I do dioramas. Someone once said, All kids are artisits,the trick is to stay an artist when we grow up.Hope I havent been too heavy in my response but that is the way I feel.Cheers! John.

I could not have wrapped this into better words!

Great work!

Cheers!

Achim

[JohnReid]

Another view.

[JohnReid]

Thanks Achim.Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

Does this sound familiar?
We must ask ourselves:why would an otherwise reasonably normal person forsake the pleasures of family,garden,TV,bowling,hunting,fishing,sailing,b arhopping,vacationing,fixing faucets,and playing poker to sit for years at a time,hunched over a cluttered workbench,squinting through an Optivisor,fashioning tiny bits of plastic(or wood)into what eventually emerges as a miniture representation of a long-extinct piece of machinery which few still recall and about which fewer give a damn?

The most rewarding goal is psychic satisfaction:knowledge that the finished product really is good-reflecting the best you had within you.Sure,it was an epic struggle,but it came out well,and now you can rest upon your laurels for awhile.You go out and lie on the hammock all afternoon(or until the bugs find you);rent a few old movies(Test Pilot,Men With Wings,Dawn Patrol-the usual fare);go to the zoo.But before long,the old urge begins to return(no,not that one,this one)and pretty soon you are back at the workbench,happily wailing away on your next masterpiece.

John Alcorn from his book ,Scratchbuilt! A Celebration of the Static Scale Airplane Modellers Craft. Cheers! John.
_______

[Axis]

I don't know WHEN you find the time to read lol

Rebuilding the entire U.S. from matchsticks is very thirsty work.

Waiting eagerly for more pics of Tiny Town

[JohnReid]

I dont get a lot of time to watch TV, thats for sure ,although I do have a small one in the workshop but most of the time I have it tuned to the music stations.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

After building the basic rear entrance structure I proceeded to the garage door ramp area.This is also a modular type structure with a base much like the others.The garage doors are actually attached to the module and not the hangar wall.
This is an area that sometime in the future will be modified again to become a garage or machine shop etc...That is after I finish the radio shack/operations building.
Note:through the main hangar doors you can see the front of the workshop.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Barnstormers Showcar

When looking around for a 1/16th showcar, I closest thing that I could find to what I wanted was, a Minicraft 1928 Mercedes Benz SS.I had noticed when doing my research there was a picture of a Lozier showcar in one of the Time-life Epic of Flight books(Barnstormers & Speedkings).It is shown on a beach in San Diego during a 1920 airshow.It was modified for a stunt called the car to plane transfer.
I coundnt use any other type car of the period because they were not fast enough to keep up with the speed on the aircraft in flight.The 28 Mercedes was highly modified to look more like the Lozier complete with a wood ramp on the back for the stuntman to stand on. to be cont....