The Art Of The Storyboard Diorama

Here is a better view of the carpenters shop from the office window.You can just see the back of the bosses gray hat that I swear makes him look like a gangster.Along the right wall you can see some carving and lathe tools with the lathe positioned in the background.On the workbench we are making a special prop for a racer pilot who is experimenting with a new design.The shop is not big but it is cosy and warm and besides most of the big stuff is done on the main hangar floor.A lot of the guys use it as a lunch/meeting room as well,you should hear some of the jokes and stories told when the ladies are not around !

John your descriptions of life in the shop sound as if you are 1/16 scale and working in there and not the museum! Its in a good way as becoming a part of the diorama will help with bringing it to life.

Glad to hear the museum has decided to place the work in the new lobby, this way it will get the most views as some people move faster through the last few exhibits or skip them.

On the top R/H side of the pic you can see the dispatch office door that opens onto the hangar floor.The boss looks like he is discussing the next booze run .As you can see the carpenter's shop is a closed unit separate from the main shop floor.The door on the left leads to the WC/coal storage room which then leads to the backdoor.
As you can see part of the tail of the Canuck has been replaced with a JN4 wooden one.Interchanging of parts is a common practice around here depending upon what is available at the time.Pilots will often ask us to change the flying characteristics of their airplanes to suit themselves.Often the C of G will be modified to carry heavy loads or make the airplane a little more unstable for some of their aerobatic maneuvers.

Its been a long night for Chester chasing all those mice around the shop.Now he is flaked out near the stove ,in his favorite spot, sucking up the heat.

Note: I have put 4 animals in this diorama for the kids to try and find ,with various degrees of difficulty ,and Chester is the most difficult.I find that kids love this kind of thing and it really is a great way to get them more involved in the diorama.

Hi guys ! I had a little fun with this picture.If you look closely at the newspaper you will see pictures of the first men on the moon.I just couldn't resist making this prediction.

Ya know sometimes I wonder if I am going to way too much trouble with this diorama to tell a basically very simple story,an airman's return from the war and his continued relationship with his backyard Flyer.At times I wonder if there is enough of a storyline to justify such a huge space.
Rockwell's painting is tight with lots going on ,mine is spacious with little going on.His painting is of a joyous occasion ,my diorama is somewhat the opposite,just a GI and his thoughts for the future.
It is an old story told in many ways before.The split in the road and the road not taken tells of fateful decisions made that change everything forever.
I remember as a child being around men such as these,how important family and just being alive was to them.A lot were great fathers while others were just lost in their memories. I remember how important things like growing a community garden was to them,how they tended those gardens and how everybody respected those tiny spaces .I have included a garden in this diorama for that very reason.
Roads,gardens,airplane it just grew over time I guess.

Just outside the engine shop they are loading on some of the salvageable parts and pieces from the JN4 to put in storage.Hank the barnstormer is trying to make a little time with Cheryl our wingwalker who is probably wondering why do I put my life in the hands of this good old boy every season ? These wingwalkers are quite a bunch in fact just the other day I received a letter stating "when present wing walker is killed I want the job."

Sorry but due to my workload I haven't been able to keep this thread up to date on every website.However you will find the complete story over on :

http://www.theaerodrome.com

On this latest diorama that I have been working on,I have only now just completed the story.The rest of the story was already worked out but the backyard of the grandparents was only finally figured out yesterday. The time of year depicted is early spring .I thought of a Victorian gazebo of some kind but it was just too big and fancy and would have drawn too much attention away for the main storyline,the airman and his airplane.I then thought of a tool shed with a rake laying around ,a typical springtime chore in this part of the world.Then a few starter plants under a small glass box to add a little color.But I needed a little something extra for viewer interest.After much thinking about it I decided to use the gazebo roof that I had already underway before I changed my mind.I cut it in half and made two completely different things out of it ,a bird bath and a fishpond which I am working on now.The garden shed is also underway.Just these three items will take over a week to do working everyday but my personal guide has always been to put as much thought and work into the small everyday objects as the big fancy cars or airplanes.So here goes... Hope you enjoy watching these items take shape.This backyard has been one of the most difficult things to get right,to tell an interesting story but not distract from the main storyline. I work this way with only a basic plan at the beginning and just let the story develop over time.This gives me the maximum of opportunity to changed things and also keeps it interesting for me right up until the end of the project.

I have found a cheap source of scale plywood as well as some preformed shapes that could be used for modeling.The largest pieces of plywood that I have found so far is the size of a standard tissue box.It is first quality clear wood about the color and consistency of basswood and It is available from about 1/64 to 1/4",some is quite stiff and some really pliable .Some shapes such as small bird houses or boxes make good starting points for scratch building or can be torn down for sheet plywood.I have also found some pretty nice dowels but no actual scale lumber yet. Cheers!

This is the latest addition to the diorama ,a bird bath and a fish pond.Their grandsons made them for letting them use half of their backyard for storing and selling wood.
The bird bath is obvious but I will tack a No Fishing sign to the tree for the fish pond.You can see that these are scratch built as they are not perfectly round etc.. but neither would they be in full scale ,when cast  in cement by amateurs.It will also require a little building up of the landscaping and some leafing up around the edges when it is finally installed.I left a slight cupping in the center to indicate greater depth below.

"Storyboard dioramas are full-blown,highly detailed dioramas whose sole purpose is to tell a story ,with or without a vehicle as a focal point.This type of diorama uses any combination of structures,scenic techniques,vehicles,and other peripheral details to deliver the point.Overall composition and visual impact play a key role in the storyboard diorama.This is the Unlimited class of diorama building." Ken Hamilton. In my research I have found that this is the first use of the term Storyboard Dioramas .Ken coined it way back in 2001 in chapter one of his great book " How to Build Creative Dioramas."