How to Build Aircraft Dioramas

[JohnReid]

Pic #2-The Base ,Topside.

This is the same basic floor topside.The flooring is made from wooden tongue depressors ,painted with acrylics and using pencil dots for nail heads.

For the smaller scales you could use popsicle stiks or various size coffee stir stiks.Cut the ends 90 deg and lay at random or in a pattern if you like . to be cont.......

[JohnReid]

The Garage/hangar floorboards after having their ends cut 90deg can now be painted.I use acryilic type paint but a very special type of acrylic paint called Jo Sonja that comes from the decorative arts world.I got used to using this paint when I was carving decorative birds a few years ago.I call this paint special because it has some very unique qualities that make it very easy to work with.For those of you who have not yet invested in other types of paint I would recommend that you start with this brand.(by the way I have no interest in any of the products I mention nor do I often push any particular brand but in this case I think that it is important to start off on the right track)Why Jo Sonja ? mostly beacause it is a gouache acrylic( a kind of permanent watercolor) that dries absolutely flat (no shine) one of the biggest problems in painting with acryilics is shine where you dont want it ,especially on figures.I have seen some beautiful work spolied with figures that look like they have been dipped in oil.With this paint you can add your own mediums such as varnish,flow medium, retarder etc...and thereby have complete control over the paint.If you make a mistake and things get too shiney you can paint another coat right over the first and dull things down again.It is even removable for 24 hours or so.This paint is also very easy to mix with water and is just right for the airbrush.

For the floorboards I mix up a very thin batch of nimbus grey straight out of the tube and lots of water to a consistency of 2% milk.(no mediums)I paint this on the boards and dry using a hairdryer between coats.It may take 3 or 4 coats to reach the disired intensity of color which is kind of a transparent stain where your can still see the raw wood below.I do not seal the wood in anyway before painting as I want the color to sink in and not just remain on the top.I usually do about 15-20 boards at a time.

When they are dry I start measureing ,cutting and laying them as required.Dont worry about the raw wood ends as the butts will be colored later using pastels.

To be cont.... Any questions?

[JohnReid]

Flooring

A couple of things that I forgot to mention about the floorboards. Once the greyish floorboards are laid they will probably be too grey in color, although some of the underlying wood color should show through, if you made your grey mix watery enough.Take a little super watery(like dirty water) raw umber and wash a thin coat or two over the floor to tone down the grey and bring the values of color closer together.

The other thing that I forgot to mention regarding the finishing of the base, is the simulated nail heads on the floorboards.(This can be done now or later )

To make the nail heads,use a pin to create little holes in the wood where you want your nail heads to be represented.I usually do mine in a pattern that would suggest floor joists under the flooring.Then take an ordinary HB( or softer)pointed, grafhite pencil and twist it in each hole so a little grahpite is left behind(blow off any residue) Now take a very thin (1% milk) raw umber/water mix and fill each pin hole.The wood will now swell and close the hole leaving behind a nice subtle nail head.If you want the nailhead to look rusty you can come back with a little watery burnt sienna.If you want to soften the rusty look you can take a little burnt sienna pastel(chauk not oil) and with a small, soft brush dust each nailhead.Dont worry about the pastels rubbing off this rough porous surface.

Now take a small soft brush ,and using various shades of grey and black you can dust in between the cracks of the floorboards and the butt ends.I sometimes also may use a little burnt or raw umber in certain areas if I want to brown up the grey floor a little.That is the beauty of gouche acryilics is that you can play with them like this without worrying about things becoming too shiney.

The above method was used on the Neiuport diorama.The Albatros was different in that I used real sequin pins for nails(dressmakers store has them)

The head of the pin was sanded slightly to help the paint stick.Each hole was drilled in the floorboards and a pin hammered in .The roughened head of the pin was then painted with Gesso and over that burnt umber.If rust was reqiured I used a watery burnt sienna and a pastel dusting over that.

I think thats about it.Now you know why it takes so darn long to do!Long ,boring jobs like this I try to save for those nice lazy days in the summer with a nice brew close by (coffee or otherwise).

Any questions?

Cheers! John.

Check out my stuff at http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Reid/index.html

for pictures of the Albatros flooring.

__________________

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)

Guide

[JohnReid]

Pic#3

[JohnReid]

Now that we have a good solid base to work on ,we can start contructing our wall panels.Note: I have used a type of construction whereby it can be taken apart with a few screws.This was done for museum purposes for ease of maintenance(changing light bulbs etc...)

Pic # 3

The wall panels were built right on the base using 3/16ths (5mm) foamboard which you can buy at your local craft or art store.It is very easy to cut with a #11 Xacto blade,takes paint and glue well and is quite strong.I build in 1/16th scale so you will have to be the judge as to wether it would be too thick for your purposes.For the smaller scales you could use card stock.The foamboard or cardboard with be the core around which we we built up our wall structure.If you havent already done so now would be a good time to do your floorplan and plan for windows and doors etc..I wanted to have an open space large enough to contain an airplane,2 cars,2 Harleys and a trailer plus a workshop in one corner.Keep in mind the scale that you are working with when placing your doors and windows.It would be a shame to build your hangar door too low and discover later that the only way you could get the airplane out would be to deflate the tires!

The wall panels are fairly easy to build using the foamboard just remember to keep everything 90deg and make straight cuts.Keep your xacto blade 90deg to the foamboard when cutting if you want to have exact measurments.Save all cutouts,number them and put an up arrow on them for future use as templates for your doors and windows.You can pick up pine wood at your local hardware store or basswood at a specialty wood store.Hobby stores sometimes have a limited selection but is usually way to expensive for our purposes.You will be surprised just how much wood it takes to build one of these structures even in 1/16th scale.It is a good idea if you are not cutting your own wood and you are faced with selecting between two sizes,to take the larger size.Nothing looks worse than a flimsy building and besides may be a friend could trim it for you.Some woodstores even offer custom sizing if you order ahead and order enough at a time.The most common sizes that I use are

1/4X1/4 (7X7mm approx.),3/8X3/8(10X10mm),1/4X1/2,1/4X3/4(20mmX10mm),11/16X7/16(12X18mm)

To be cont.......

Cheers!John.

[JohnReid]

Dio#3 update

Not much new to report on the new dio.I am still working on the windows and it is very time consuming.Each window has 12 panes and about a total of 40 pieces each.They are painted grey inside at green outside.I decided to go with plexiglass even though it is a bit distorted and not as clear as real glass,it does add a little authenticity though, as glass in those days was a little distorted anyway.I will make the windows removable for picture taking purposes.This is the time when having saved those origianal cutouts from the foamboard comes in handy.With just a little minor sanding they fit quite easily when built on the foamboard templates.Just be sure to number them and mark an "up" direction as it can get confusing otherwise.

The doors will be next and they also contain windows ,so it looks like I will at this for sometime yet!

Cheers! John.

__________________

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)

Guide my hand in your work today.

[JohnReid]

Dio#3 update

Not much new to report on the new dio.I am still working on the windows and it is very time consuming.Each window has 12 panes and about a total of 40 pieces each.They are painted grey inside at green outside.I decided to go with plexiglass even though it is a bit distorted and not as clear as real glass,it does add a little authenticity though, as glass in those days was a little distorted anyway.I will make the windows removable for picture taking purposes.This is the time when having saved those origianal cutouts from the foamboard comes in handy.With just a little minor sanding they fit quite easily when built on the foamboard templates.Just be sure to number them and mark an "up" direction as it can get confusing otherwise.

The doors will be next and they also contain windows ,so it looks like I will at this for sometime yet!

Cheers! John.

__________________

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)

Guide my hand in your work today.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Pic#4

The above pic shows shows a bit of fine tuning as to where the major objects will eventually be placed.The basic floorplan was established earlier in the research stage but at this point it is nice to see things coming together.Here I am using the plan view of the airplane drawing and the airshow car that has already been built.This is a good time to check wing tip and height clearances all around and maybe to begin thinking about figure placement etc...

Cheers! John.

__________________

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)

Guide my hand in your work today.

[JohnReid]

Hi Guys! Today I would like to talk a bit about the order vs chaos phenomenon.It seems to me that car modellers who make dioramas are a very neat and clean group indeed.I dont know if this is because they come from a background of wanting to have their cars showroom perfect or what.While the car as an object of display in a showroom can be in pristine condition most of its surrounding will not.It seems that there is something built into humans that is natural to want to have everything clean and orderly.We want to place everything just so ,as though it was constantly on display.Too much order can be an enemy of the dioramist.The real world is not like this(only man plants trees in rows).If your diorama is too static, it will look staged.The goal of a good diorama is to bring a slice of life alive as though it were one frame of a movie.The fun of diorama making is that we are the authors of this miniature world.We are storytellers,set directors,lighting managers,producers,directors,carpenters and stage hands in our own one frame movie.This is an awesome but fun task to get it right and it is not always easy. Just the proper placement of things in a diorama can take hours of positioning and re-positioning to get it just right.Always be careful not to get things too static or uniform.Do not line things up with the same spacing between them.Stay away from rows and things that are exactly 90deg. etc.. etc...

Lets take a look at the idea of adding a simple bookcase in a room in a diorama.Now normally a person when placing this bookcase would line it up straight with the wall or maybe of only off a couple of unnoticible degrees.That is what we would do when we think about it.But would we place it exactly in the center of the wall.Maybe yes but most of the time no.Would all the shelves be neatly lined with books(except in a lawyers office)as though they were never used.I dont think so ,not in real life.Would it be painted a stark white with all the shelves even spaced devoid of decoration ,well maybe so but this is not what we want as artists unless we are consciously try ing to do so.Static ,squarely placed,blandly painted, uninteresting spaces is not where we want to be as dioramic artists(I hope that is a word, dioramic?)

Now let your imagination run wild,like when you were a kid.Think fun ,color,a little chous here and there.Put a little raw umber in that white and warm it up.Dont worry about the odd book being out of place.Maybe we could carve a pattern in the wood or decorate it with veneer or maybe just leave that wonderful patina and design in the wood that is already there.Maybe we could place the shelves so that they are not so evenly spaced or maybe jig saw a little off the top.But you say I want to use this bookcase to display my diecast car collection.No problem you can line up these little jewels perfectly in even spaced rows because here it is expected because someone has consciously thought about this as a static display .

I hope that my little bookcase idea has helped to explain my ideas. I remember when I used to teach decorative bird carving we would have to draw feathers on the bird before we carved them out.I used to tell my students to go ahead and draw them on and invariably they would draw them in neat little static rows.Then I would say now go back and screw them all up and that is the way it would be in nature. Hope this helps! Cheers! John.

This post has been edited by JohnReid on 28 Jul 2005, 08:00:15 AM

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My goal in life is to be the kind of person that my dog already thinks I am.

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[JohnReid]

Take a look at this great dio:

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthre...?t=19635&page=5

Post#46

Edited December 19, 2005 by JohnReid

[JohnReid]

Well today was my lucky day , I found some things in the dollar store that cost ,guess what,all of a dollar each (Canadian at that).Beleive it or not a 1/16th,curled up sleeping cat,a sitting dog(Bull Mastiff) and a perched Barn Owl made of pewter and very finally detailed.Three bucks and I saved myself days of work trying to carve them in wood.I have always wanted to put these exact animals in the hangar.Cats were often kept for hunting rodents and barn owls love hangars.I had planned to put a pic of a dog in the office.The dog will look great sitting beside the barnstormer pilot and will be the company mascot.In fact I have a pic of that exact same breed sitting in the cockpit of an old barnstormer. I got off the net from the same museum that these pieces are going to .Hows that for syncronocity?

Sometimes I cant beleive how things just fall into place,its errie sometimes, when you know that you are on the right track.

Cheers! John.

[Wing_Nut]

Hi John,

I admire your persist and consistant efforts, things are really coming together.

[JohnReid]

This was originally posted on my thread over on the aerodrome.com

Well,first let me explain about ideas and where they come from.Personally,whatever artform I am involved in ,I strive to add something new.I think that my contribution as a dioramist was to see the possibility of taking what the dollhouse miniaturist does and wed that to the aircraft modelers world,Basically, what I do is a miniature dollhouse with a big subject matter change.Instead of viewing a shadow box from just one side,I opened things up so that it was viewable from 4 sides and the top.Sort of like five shadow boxes in one.I took the dollhouse idea and adapted it to airplanes.The added bonus is that the hangar makes its own dustproof box.Another example of where ideas come from was when I was looking for a storyline for the Nieuport diorama..I was just leafing through some catalogs(filling the well,I call it) when I happened upon a 1/16th Dragon figure of a WW2 German officier pointing with one hand and a map in the other,obviously giving directions.As soon as I saw that figure my whole idea fell into place. the interaction between that pointing officier and the airplane would become the focal point of my diorama.Forever more,the viewer of my diorama will wonder,what is he pointing to and what is he instructing his crewmen? The fact that he is pointing to the airplane draws the viewers eyes and imagination into the scene but the airplane still remains the focal point of the diorama. Cheers! John

[JohnReid]

Neiuport Diorama

[JohnReid]

I figure that I am coming up to about the 2000 hour mark on the "Memories of Flight School diorama. The hangar windows are finished and I am presently finishing off the doors but they too also contain windows.

I think that the next thing that I will tackle will be the lighting.I plan to put lights in the hangar ,office and back door modules, as well as some exterior lighting over doors and some of the advertising signs.I am really looking forward to doing this because with the lighting things will really start to come to life.My plan is to light it much like the Albatros diorama with individual overhead lights.I will be using the same lighting as the dollhouse miniaturists use.It is very safe and does not throw off too much heat.I am planning to be able to control the lighting in such a way as to light up just the hangar or the modules or both.There will be a dimmer switch to control the intensity.I havent as of yet been able to find amber bulbs but the clear ones are probably more authentic anyway.With all the different wood tones it still should create a nice warm scene.The bulbs are the screw in type so they should be a lot easier to maintain.The roof and wall panels can be taken apart with just a few well hidden scrrews. The windows will be removable until after I have taken lots of pictures then I will install them permanently.I am hoping that this work will be finished by the end of January or so.Then I can finish the Canuck and start the JN4.The JN4 is a basket case being robbed for parts so I am really looking forward to the antiqueing and weathering which I find a lot of fun.Well thats the plan for now.I am still shooting for a Fall 96 finish.

Cheers! John.

____

[JohnReid]

This is the Albatros lighting that I am talking about

[JohnReid]

Drumming up a bit of business with the Townies! (the sign is faded after a summer in the sun)

[JohnReid]

Do you guys ever have this feeling when you realize that you are on the other side of the mountain coasting to the finish?today I put a lightbulb in my latest diorama and for some reason I felt that I saw the finish line coming into view.Looking through the windows into the shop and out into the hangar with the airplane inside I got that wonderful feeling of being in this other world ,another place ,another time ,a little world of my own creating and I felt the excitement of wanting to see it finished.The old enthusiasm of when I was first at the research and planning stage.It is what we as creative people live for,the rush you get when what was a dream is actually coming true.The high that drives you on to the end.In my minds eye I can see all the picture taking possibilities,the lighting,the interaction of the figures,the storyline everything is coming together.It took two years to get here but now every hour I spent on even the most trivial thing has been worth it.

Cheers! John

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

The above pic is a typical roof truss from the Jenny diorama.I simply drew up a plan of a truss and built each truss over the plan with apiece of wax paper covering it.Later I added fake steel reinforcing plates at the center of the horizortal beam.I used sequin pins to simulate nail and bolt heads and everything was weathered as required.Eventually I will have a 1/16th Barn Owl up there in the rafters.

Cheers! John.

Guide my hand in your work today.JWRR. My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog already thinks I am.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

After all the roof trusses were made up,they are temporarily placed on the side panels and spaced out evenly.The roof peak should be level if sufficient care was taken when erecting the side panels on the floor .Dont panic if they are a little off, as you can use small shims under the beams, where they meet the side panels.When you are satisfied that they are level, filler pieces can be added between the trusses at the side panels.Glue these to the top of the side panels only and not to the trusses.The trusses should fit snugly into their side panel notches, but not so tightly that they bind ,as the complete roof assembly must be removable.The next pics will show this more clearly.

Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

The above pic is of the outside of the L/H side panel after it was painted but not yet weathered.The large opening is the garage door.Note that the recesses along the top are for the trusses.The notches at each end indicate the top of the foamboard.Behind the external siding between the notches are the filler blocks.The uneven edge at the bottom is left this way for visual interest and will be heavily weathered where it would come in close contact with the ground,even maybe a little rotted in places.