How I Build Dioramas(step-by-step)

I have been looking around recently for ideas of typical positions for posing my mannequins ,when I ran across this great set of drawings from off of the internet.It shows a pilot doing a pre-flight or walkaround check on his airplane.I was instantly struck with these drawings, as they are so familiar to any pilot who has ever flown.There is just something about the pre-flight.It is a very intimate moment between a pilot and his machine.How often have I seen a pilot almost lovingly run his hand over a leading edge or cowling or carefully inspect a turnbuckle or fairing.It is almost like a bond that forms between pilot and airplane that says "you look after me and I will look after you".The artist, whoever he was ,has managed to capture this feeling for me with just a few simple drawings.Enjoy. Cheers! John.

The above drawing of the pilot checking the elevator of his aircraft reminds me of an incident that happened many moons ago when I was an instructor at the local flying school.A fellow brought in his aircraft to have some maintenance done on it.He left it overnite and the next day we get a call from Quebec city,about an hours flying time away in that aircraft ,that he had lost half of his elevator in flight.Turns out that they had removed that half of the elevator to do some maintenance and it was sitting up against the wall in the hangar in Montreal.Pre-flight ? what pre-flight?

I was thinking that this may be a good time to do a "How to....." on barnsiding weathering ,followed by a how to on doors and windows.
More on this a little later!

You are looking at a section of the front wall panel of the engine shop.This section contains 2 window openings about the same size.
The tongue depressor/stir stiks are arranged in a board and batten fashion over a foamboard base.As you can see no attempt has been made to be neat or precise.This is one of the great advantages in constructing barn type structures ,you don't have to be too fussy,which fits my style perfectly.(thank God it is not a Victorian dollhouse).
After I have built the complete structure in foamboard,floor,walls ,joists and roof etc.. and I am happy with the fit,I break it all down into sections and begin sheathing the walls,in this case a board and batten exterior and a cardboard and batten interior.You can leave a little extra wood around the door and window openings,later to be sanded when fitting the doors and windows to the panel.
When designing your structure consideration must be given to access for maintenance ,which usually means being able to break it down into sections.Also you have to have a rough idea of where the furniture will go and of course doors and windows.
After you have your plan ,you can now begin to cut in the doors and windows using a #11 Xacto, cutting in at 90%.A straight 90% cut will ensure proper fit of the windows and doors.Save all your cutouts,number them,identify which side is up and set them aside to be used as future templates.
Now you can begin sheathing the exterior walls.For this wall I used 16mm X 1mm thick tongue depressors and 6mm X 1mm thick stir stiks.
On the exterior side of each board and batten ,I paint on the bare wood ,very thin coats(1 or 2) of Jo Sonja waterbased acrylic paint.The color I like is Nimbus Grey with a touch of Raw Umber in it.Add lots of distilled water until you get a consistency of 5 percent milk.With a old soft bristle brush,paint on the mixture and let it soak into the wood until you get a nice transparent grey color.At this time you will have to decide just how old you want your building to look .In my case aviation hadn't been around too long by 1925, so I can't make the structure look too old.Let some of the wood pattern and color tones show through the watery grey acrylic.There will be a certain amount of loss through warpage but this is normal and smaller pieces can always be used elsewhere.The reason I paint the boards now is to avoid any ugly glue marks on the wood.Before painting your boards to not attempt to sand or finish them in any way as we want to retain the rough sawn look.When the watery mix is painted on, this will increase the roughness even more, which for our purposes is a good thing. to be cont............

when the boards are dry, cut the ends off 90% and attach them to the foamboard using carpenters glue in a random fashion.The battens should cover the the space between the boards.Due to their being quite thin and small it is difficult to find perfect battens,often they are quite rough and crooked,so don't worry if they look a little off, it only adds a little charm to the wall.Save the nice pieces to make the windows.Cover the entire panel with boards and battens but leave a little extra around the windows for final fitting,by sanding them off flush.
The bottom of the wall panel was left rough and uneven for weathering purposes, which I will leave until after the windows are in.You may want to place a heavy piece of wood or book on the panel as it dries overnite to prevent warpage .to be cont.......

The above pic shows shows the template that was cut out from the foamboard to create the window opening.It was wrapped in wax paper and attached to another piece of foamboard.The plexiglass template is 3mm smaller all around than the window opening.The bottom image is the plexiglass itself which was made from an old CD disc cover approx 1mm thick and cut out on my jigsaw.

Same idea except the windows are much larger.This was done to allow maximum viewing of the interior at the expense of authenticity.I think that I like the smaller windows better.
Note: at the bottom of the siding where it meets the cement footing ,notice how I have left a uneven bottom with lots of weathering to make it look a little rotted in places.I also put on a faint, green mossy tinge where the wood would come in contact with the ground.The nails were individually rusted by hand with a very small round brush.I used burnt sienna over a burnt umber gesso base on the nailheads and then streaked some of it onto the siding.
The roofline was left warped on purpose after I had seen some pics of the real thing.These were very temporary hangars or sheds which I believe were meant to be moved with the front before they got bogged down in trench warfare.