How I Build Dioramas(step-by-step)

Be it Diorama or Model  good work always rises to the top!

My friend Ken Foran excells at the other end of the scale! Take a look at this!

http://kenforan.myphotoalbum.com/

or
http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25176

Enjoy!

Wow john, the Jenny is looking really nice. The amount of detail is really fascinating. I'm sure there is not one single bolt missing. I have been through your photos, I am still impressed by the engine. I just can;t stop looking at the engine photos, it looks absolutely real, so real.
Well thank you very much but have you seen Ken Foran's work?Ken is the true master of scratchbuilt detail.I just modify kits and try to tell a story.There really is no comparison.Thank god that Ken got fed up with the lousy 1/16th kits available and decided to do his own stuff.I could never do what he does as I just dont have the patience for highly accurate detail or engineering.It takes a very special type of personality to do this.Ken and I are at completely opposite ends of the scale but we admire each others work.Dioramas are primarily the art of telling a story.In the movie world sort of the difference between a documentary and a novel.

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It has been said that the difference between a "pilot" and an "aviator" is that a pilot is a technician,and an aviator is an artist in love with flight.
JohnReid (Aviator)

Hi Guys! It has been mentioned that there has been a lack of active invovlement by me in the day-to day activities on any one website.To this I plead guilty but there is a good reason for this.
I contribute "How to"s to 15 different websites with text and pics just about everyday in my ongoing quest to promote the making of dioramas.Between this and my own builds I have very little time for anything else.I try to respond to anyone who posts an inquiry and answer everyone as best I can.I have no secrets and I try to share my techniques openly with everyone.I dont expect praise for this only understanding.Thanks. Cheers! John.

Allied spy cam

Jeez,now he is on the darn roof!

Hi Guys! Didnt get much done on Jenny this weekend as I attended a couple of shows one was a model ship exposition and the other a miniaturist-dollhouse show and sale.
The ship modelers seem to be increasing in numbers with all the retirees these days but I still wonder about the future of our hobby as I see very few kids in the hobby stores.Maybe we are living in some kind of modelers goldenage .
The miniaturists show was interesting and a good source for me of some miniature tools but you really have to watch for scale as they are supposed to be 1/12th but vary a lot by manufacturer.Most 1:1 tools come in a variety of sizes so a lot of them work for 1/16th.
One thing I did notice was the prices!Jeez,if you think our hobby is expensive, think again.For the accuracy and quality that we demand,there really is no comparison.Some people invest thousands of dollars in their dollhouses and you would be surprised how fast a thousand buck could go at one of these shows.There must be a lot of rich little old ladies running around out there to support this hobby.They think nothing about spending $150.00 bucks for a 1/12th scale frig or stove or whatever.

Hand carved wooden props

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__________________
It has been said that the difference between a "pilot" and an "aviator" is that a pilot is a technician,and an aviator is an artist in love with flight.
JohnReid (Aviator)

"On Miniature Wings" NASM

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I picked up a great book at the Ottawa museum called "On Miniature Wings." by Thomas J. Dietz.It contains some really beautiful pics of model aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum.Published in 1995 I picked up mine for less than 10 bucks Canadian.
I was surpised but in amoung all the mostly 1/16th scratchbuilt models there was one diorama.It is a great diorama but the interesting thing is the diorama is 1/72 scale and contains 4 plastic aircraft models of the Douglas World Cruiser.In addition there are building and other elements from model RR scenery.
Most casual observers would not recognize the significance of this but as a dioramist it means acceptance of our artform by one of the worlds great institutions, The Smithsonian. Plastic airplanes in diorama settings are acceptable as works of art even though they may contain commercially available models.
I dont know about you but I would consider it a great honor to have one of my works accepted there.So my diorama modeling friends, who amoung you (especially Americans) will be the next to elevate their plastic models to the Smithsonian .Like someone said you might as well shoot for the moon because if you fail you will only land amoung the stars.
Cheers! John.

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__________________
It has been said that the difference between a "pilot" and an "aviator" is that a pilot is a technician,and an aviator is an artist in love with flight.
JohnReid (Aviator)

Dep type control wheel

Wash in-Wash out

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Here is an interesting little tidbit of aviation history that you don't hear much about these days.
When rigging old biplanes and especially the old small monoplanes, prop torque was compensated for by changing the angle of incidence of the wings.
I remember first hearing of this back during the 60s when we were building the TravelAir .
In rigging the Jenny a lot off these old terms are now coming back to me and I was wondering if this term is still used by aeronautical engineers and is torque still compensated for in this way in more modern airplanes?Anyway it makes a good trivia question?

DH4 Wings

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This set of DH4 wings I find interesting for 2 reasons.
First, it gives a very good idea of how to rig the Jenny 4A double aileron wings using steel cables instead of struts.
Second, it shows one of two methods used to rig the wings .Here the wings have been rigged seperately from the airplane and were installed as a complete unit with only fine tuning of the rigging to be completed after installation..The other method was to build up the wings on the airplane itself by assembling the upper panels to the center section and then complete the assembly.
The first method was considered the better ,as it permitted the setting of the main panels at the correct stagger and dihedral,requiring less later adjustment than the second method.

Died the other day at 84.He was famous for always flying with his Black cat Sinbad through 24 victories over Axis aircraft and had a total of 107 combat missions during WW2.He flew P47 Thunderbolts and shot down 6 airplanes in one day.When a photographer tried to get a picture of Sinbad he kept leaping amoung the parachutes.That day, it was said, that all the pilots whose gear Sinbad had touched returned with air victories that day,thereby increasing the cats legend.Fred was also known to bring home animals that he found on the runway,Owls,seagulls,turtles and they would live on his porch until they were healed and returned to the wild.Sounds to me like an interesting guy.

Fred Christensen

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__________________
It has been said that the difference between a "pilot" and an "aviator" is that a pilot is a technician,and an aviator is an artist in

__________________
It has been said that the difference between a "pilot" and an "aviator" is that a pilot is a technician,and an aviator is an artist in love with flight.
JohnReid (Aviator)

You guys who have been following my thread for awhile have probably seen these pics before.
The reason that I am posting them is just to remind you who are hesitating on getting invovled and any newcomers just how easy it is to do a simple diorama.
If you can build a box you can do a diorama.This was my first attempt and there is nothing difficult here.The wood that I used is cheap and available anywhere.Ordinary pine from the lumber store and tongue depressors,popsicle stiks and coffee stir sticks.Cardboard over a foamboard core and a little plexiglass.The lighting is cheap RR stuff with a second hand transformer and brass xmas lights for fixtures.The signs are all off the internet.No power tools were used in its construction and the paint is readily available acrylics .Most of the furniture is roughly built shop type mostly with all 90 deg cuts.The subject matter is my personal choice but even some modern airplanes are housed in old hangars.The rest is up to your imagination.I only am using airplanes here as an example because that is what I am most familiar with but the whole world is open to diorama making.
Please make that first step.Get a piece of paper and write down some ideas.We all have interesting stories to tell from reality or our imagination and dioramas are a wonderful way to get it down.Remember if you dont,it will be lost forever.


The idea can be quite simple and is usually more powerful if it is.It was funny but when I went to that miniature show last weekend a funny thing happened.In amoung all the elaborate and expensive dollhouses which I am afraid all looked the same to me and quite frankly were a little boring, some one had done a simple shadow box probably no more than about 3-4 inches deep.
It was quite simply done but it struck me right away and I havent been able to get it out of my mind.It was 3 figures in an art gallery facing the art hung on a wall.Their backs were to the viewer looking at the art.The positioning of the figures and the lighting was just great and there was just something about it that drew you into the scene.I think that it was about 1/24 scale and I even recognized the figures used as commercially available.
A funny thing happened later as I was browsing around.I met a fellow artist who used to teach art with me years ago and while we were chatting she said to me out of the blue "Did you see that shadow box piece about the art gallery".Funny how good art just seems to cry out to the viewer.

Downsizing again.

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I am planning to do my next diorama in 1/32 scale.It will be a mixed media piece using Williams Bros. racers.I bought all the airplanes and figures a few years ago and I think I am ready now for something different.This diorama will be either a hangar type setting or something with grandstands or the like.It will not document any particular race or event but will will be just a typical day at the air races in the 20-30s timeperiod.
I am looking for ideas ,suggestions or advice from anyone who may be familiar with either these Williams Bros. kits or old time air racing in general.Thanks!
Cheers! John.