How I Build Dioramas(step-by-step)

Everyone is welcome to follow a beginner through a diorama!

Hi John!

Please give me some guidance regarding the many aspects of building my own diorama. This post is intended to get your input as I go along. I've decided that I've always been intrigued with wooden airframe skeletons. The only plane I've ever built was wood framed and it was beautiful...until I attached the paper skin to it. The wooden framed plane you have chosen as your center piece (The Jenny) is beautiful. The building construction is period with wood beams and rivals the plane as the centerpiece. 1/16" scale as you selected, really shows detailing and simplifies availability of scale items during the building. That brings up the styles of both the plane and building construction I would chose for my diorama.

I'm partial to bi-planes and the wood building construction, so I guess that generally dictates a World War I & into the barnstorming era for me, perhaps (1918 - 1930) Selecting a plane would be the next step. This is also dictated by model kits. Perhaps Eddie Rickenbacker's Favorite Fighter, the 'NIEUPORT 28'.



Perhaps the Abatross D.va, 'The Red Baron's Forgotten Fighter'.



The building construction generally would follow the 1918 to 1930 period also. So far am I generally in there for authenticity? What was the height of the barnstorming era? Which of these planes would possibly been used? What is the maximum date the building construction of timbers would have been around?

Thanks John for any input you can give. Larry

Hi Larry! Now that you have decided to include cars into your diorama and the admin doesn't seem to mind,its OK by me.
However because I am pretty busy these days with my build and websites most of my contibution here will be as it is now.I will in many instances have to refer you to other sites where a lot of your questions have already been answered.I am sure that you understand that I just dont have the time to re-write a lot of this.
I do however like the idea of helping a newcomer from the beginning of his development as a dioramist.We could set something up whereby we could use the thread to help other newcomers get started on their dioramas which is and always has been my primary goal.

Getting back to your build.There is not much choice out there right now as far as open structure kits are concerned.In 1/16th scale Model Expo seems to have cornered the market on airplanes.They offer 4 different kits right now.Albatros,Neiuport,Jenny and the Wright Flyer.Except for building an HMS Victory shipmodel years ago and a half-finished classic car diorama all of my diorama experience has been centered around the model expo kits ,mostly because nothing else is available.The quality of their kits is highly variable which we can get in to later after you make a few more decisions.
Next decision is what era are you most interested in? Depending on your storyline and a little creativity just about any era could be the subject of your diorama.Is your dioramas theme going to be mainly about cars that happen to have an airplane in it or airplanes that happen to have cars in it.?
Personally I love the Barnstormer era as it was the most romantic and freespirited era in aviation history .Before all the rules and regulations.
Cheers! John.

John, I've already learned that coming up with a story line means some research. Here is what I have discovered so far. I want to depict the barnstorming era. The heyday was 1920 to 1927. Generally, at the end of WW1, there were several thousand Jenny bi-planes available through military surplus and an abundance of out of work pilots from the war that wanted to pursue flying. During the heydays, there were generally three types of barnstorming pilots. Independents, Flying Circus and Air Racing. Since people hadn't ridden in airplanes at all, pilots supplemented their income by giving them rides in their planes. I've chosen 1927 or a little later for my theme. Since pilots were most successful as members of the Flying Circuses, that will also be incorporated. The plane in the diorama will be a skinned Jenny painted in bright period colors and flying circus logos, since the majority of barnstormers had them. The vehicles will be 1900 to 1915, stressed and in storage along with the farmers wooden wagon and tractor?. The building will be an Indiana farmer's post and beam barn with wooden floors and sliding front doors. The center shop will be era machines driven by belts with motors under the floor. A few of the reasons for my choices are:

As you said, there is a minimal choice of available 1/16 scale museum grade planes for open frame display. The cost to me is pohibitive. $160 to $300. That's why I'm building skinned in plastic or silk, which can be picked up cheaper in smaller scales.

Because of restrictive space, the wife insists that I build a smaller diorama. That may take me all the way down to 1/32 scale, because of plane and car availability in those scales. Compromise, compromise....Modelers do that every day with the boss of the house. Next, I'll be selecting an old or newer furniture piece that the boss will accept for the diorama. Maybe a boxed end table with a glass top for viewing, electrical transformers for lighting, etc. etc. Just have to find the maximum size she'll accept before I confirm the scale of the diorama. It'll be a while before my next posting.

Hi John!

Here is a story line for my diorama. Remember I'm a beginner.

STORY LINE OF LARRY'S BARNSTORMER DIORAMA

In early September of 1925, the "Tidman Flying Circus" came to Akron, Ohio. J.D. Tidman, the owner of the airshow, included Akron in his circuit annually because it had become one of the show's most profitable cities. All of his flyers were allowed, even encouraged, to give the locals airplane rides to help supplement their wages with his shows.

Skip "Triple Ace" Filmore was Tidman's best flyer, with the show's only tri-plane. The plane was Triple Ace's absolute love. He had modified the one seater war plane into a two seater just for this purpose. It was no accident Triple Ace owned the brightest colored tri-plane emblazened with air show graphics, as he was also an incredibly successful entreprenuer. Years before, he had made arrangements to hold his airplane rides at the Steadman farm, just a few miles Northeast of the airport. Barton Steadman and his wife Anna ran a successful farm and had an entreprenurial spirit. Over the years they had developed a successful scheme with Triple Ace to make his annual visits incredibly profitable for both.

The Steadman's had set themselves up with Tidman to post his "Air Show" posters around Akron a month or more before their arrival. That was their opportunity to post their own "Steadman Farm Airplane Rides and Dawn to Dusk Jubilee" posters, featuring 'Triple Ace' Filmore. They also touted their vegetable sales, bake sales, late afternoon barbecues, ice cream, peanuts and coca-cola refreshments. The Steadman's and 'Triple Ace' had an agreement that they would throw all money into a box and split their profits 50-50. Triple Ace set it up to use their barn to work on and store his tri-plane as needed and board in the barn with his pet monkey 'peanut'. Triple Ace used peanut with an old organ grinder wherever he went. Whether at the airshow or the airplane rides, peanut did very well bringing in extra tips. The Steadman's youngest daughter Terissa would run the organ grinder this day. Three of the Steadman's other daughters helped Anna with the Jubilee's sales activities.

Captured in 1/32 scale, our Diorama depicts the first day of the "Steadman Airplane Rides & Dawn to Dusk Jubilee" on early Friday morning, just after dawn. Triple Ace's plane is still in the barn because he overslept in the hay loft and the barn doors have been cracked with many airplane riders peering in with great anticipation of the rides beginning. Some have already started to push the plane out of the barn with Triple Ace. In front of the barn, either side of the doors, are Anna's sales setups with her daughters manning their stations. Anna is trying to corral their two dogs near her tables so they won't eat up any profits or peanut. The chill in the air is making her coffee sales brisk. Without regard to proper parking areas, a few cars are nosed to the barn doors with people using them for seating, since most arrived before dawn. Now they are frantically trying to back up through the crowd to clear a way for the tri-plane.

Out of view, Barton Steadman has recently harvested his hay in the field backing up to the barn. The field makes a perfect runway for Triple Ace's plane. A tattered ticket booth with some early birds standing in line is at the corner of the barn. From there they will be allowed to round the barn to the rear where Triple Ace will taxi in and out to pick up and drop off riders. This is an incredibly exciting start to a very long and profitable day!

Regards, Larry

Hi Larry!
Wow! that sounds to me like an incredible start to a very exciting diorama.You have really given this some thought.I love the idea and the storyline.
The only area that may require a little more research, to keep the storyline within the realm of believability, is what aircraft were actually used as barnstormers post WW1?.
Especially airplanes that were capable of giving rides? I think that you will find that the list is very short.Then, there is the problem of availibility of models in 1/32 scale.
Of course,on the other hand ,you dont have to even build an airplane.Your diorama could be set up in such a way as the airplane is actually off giving rides and you are depicting the activity surrounding the main storyline.Selling tickets or whatever.You may want to consider doing an interior stage like setting,a circus tent like setup.Just remember most of these guys were poor and operated on a shoestring ,so things cant get too fancy.
You could also think along the lines of forced perspective,using 2 different scales.
Take a look at Shep Paines book "How to Build Dioramas" and Nick Infields diorama,"We'll always have Paris" for an idea of what I mean.If I havent mentioned it before you will want to pickup Shep's book for general reference on all types of dioramas.It is published by Kalmbach Books ISBN;0-89024-195-3.Another good book is Ken Hamiltons "How to Build Creative Dioramas" by the same publisher( but I think it is out of print.)If you have trouble finding it I can put you in touch with the author who may have a few copies left.
As we go along there are a few other good reference books that I will recommend from time to time.
Now that you have an idea of where you are going it may be a good time to work up a floorplan ,so to speak,of your ideas.You may want to make up a cardboard mockup of your proposed diorama.You will find that due to space considerations you may have to eliminate certain aspects of your storyline or enhance others.When you actually have these mockups before you some hardest decisions in diorama building will have to be made. What to leave in and what to leave out?
You want to leave in enough to tell your story but not so much that it becomes distracting of confusing for your viewer.It is very important to step away once in a while from your role as artist and think like your viewer.You want to take your viewer gently by the hand and lead them into your world of makebelieve and thereby introduce them to another reality.
Cheers! John.

Hi Guys!
Well yesterday was spent experimenting with fabric covering the Jenny A fuselage sides.
I thought that I had better cover them now before putting them in the jig and adding the cross braces.
Basically ,what I did was take the flat fuselage side and glue on the fabric and cut with an xacto around the perimeter.
First I laid down the fabric(Coverite antique) on a flat surface ,glued on the fuselage side using carpenters glue and put some light weights over and let it dry for a few hours.Then I cut around the perimeter and spray laquered(2-3 thin coats) the whole thing and let dry.
Next ,I airbrushed multiple coats of straight titanium white ,which is almost exactly the color of the antique white fabric, until it was just opaque enough to be able to barely see wood longerons underneath.
I will not be putting the military insignia on the side but will make it look like someone washed it out using a paint brush.It saves me the hassle of making the insignia and is probably is what would have been done anyway.
I havent put on a lot off the fittings or cross brace wires as they would not be seen anyway .Where I decide to selectively ripe the fabric I will install fake ones of piano wire.
Next I got out the pastels and antiqued the interior of the flat fuselage side while I still have easy access to this area.
One thing I forgat to mention about the Coverite fabric.Although it is made to be heat shrunk over the aircrafts frame ,I did not use it for that purpose as it would probably distort the delicate wood structure.Instead I put it on as tight as could while it was laying flat.Even then I did notice some loosening during the subsequent laquering and painting but on an old basketcase airplane this only adds to the look of age.I used the Coverite mostly because of its fine weave and antique color.Now its on to the other side.