"How I Build Aircraft Dioramas"

[John W Reid]

[Erwin]

Hi,

It's been a while since I had a look at your progress.

Makes it all the more exciting to see how you are doing.

I'm only repeating what I've said so many times before.

STUNNING work.

[John W Reid]

Except for the plumbing most of the engine area is finished.A few paint touch ups and a little weathering later should do it.

I temporarily installed the engine up against the firewall to see how it looks and now will remove it again to put the fuselage assembly in the kit supplied jig and complete the cockpit area.

I must confess about how easy it is to screw up even when you think that you are being careful.It always usually happens when I set my mind to finishing something at the end of a building session.I just wanted to see the engine mount permanently glued to the fuselage. I super glued it and then much to my horror discovered it was upside down.Luckily I caught it before it had time to really cure.Luckily I had some un-cure handy and it worked out well with no damage to the structure.Darn,you can't let your guard down for a minute!

[John W Reid]

Opinions please!

I am at a stage now with the Camel build where I have to finally decide whether to add the guns or not to the model.Up until now I was of the opinion that they would have been long removed from the aircraft but now I am having second thoughts.

The story is that it is being transported by road to a university in southern Ontario where it will be used for study and research purposes.(this actually happened after the war).

A asked a young friend of mine(13)what he thought and he said that it would be more attractive to the kids if I left them on. The Camel aircraft after all got its name from the hump created by the machine guns and they are a big part of its overall design.

Something tells me that in all likelihood the guns would have been removed ,but then again I am doing this diorama for the kids and I want to please them first and foremost.What do you guys think on or off?

[Bobs_Buckles]

"Opinions please!"

John,

Peerless craftsmanship you display. Such workmanship does not need opinion.

[John W Reid]

[John W Reid]

Wow! at this level of magnification every flaw sure shows.The things you never see at 1/16th.

The copper fittings were heated red hot with a butane lighter and then dunked in cold water to get the aged patina.Where the nails or screws go I just colored the holes black.With successive coats it will look better.

The lower wing root area is another figment of the kit designers imagination,so I attempted to make it look a little better using some extra fittings I had left over from Jenny(in the end however I will somehow cover this area)I added some extra brace wire fittings for the internal wires.

Some areas were weathered now while they are easily accessible .

Next will be the rudder bar and the installation of the main fuel tank.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my guns off or on question.Looks like 90% want them left on.My modeling bud,Stephen Lawson ,had a great idea.They could be fakes that were used in the air shows and movies of the era.I will have to research this angle and see if any Camels were used in this way in Canada .This would fit perfectly into my story line as a former movie prop airplane being donated to a university or museum.Movies were very important to this era as a means of promoting aviation to the general public. If anyone has any info on this please let me know.

[John W Reid]

[John W Reid]

[John W Reid]

[neilfgr2]

Im thinking someone needs to get out more...

[John W Reid]

In building the Camel I get a real sense of a fighter pilot's aircraft .It has the same mystic that the Spitfire had in WW2.Everything about this airplane says "top of the food chain", the Peregrine Falcon of the fighter aircraft world of its day.I can only imagine the feeling that a pilot would get sitting in this cockpit.Joy,fear,excitement,a feeling of pilot and machine as one.It must have been a wonderful feeling to master an aircraft such as this.A very real challenge just to fly let alone fight in.Once you were in you were in till the end whatever the outcome.No escape from this cockpit.You either walk away or you buy the farm,period.Modern day gladiators for sure!

It must have seemed very strange to return from battle every night ,sitting in the officers mess sipping your brandy and wondering if tomorrow would be your turn to die! Unlike the foot soldier who lived in constant fear of sudden death in the trenches, the fighter pilot was in a kind of strange world of destruction by day and mock joy of survival at night.Still knowing that tomorrow the cycle would begin all over again.It must have taken nerves of steel to climb into that cockpit every day,day after day and try to be brave until the very end.

__________________

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)

[John W Reid]

[John W Reid]

The machine guns!

the machine guns are an excellent example of fake guns and are a great depiction of how a carpenter might build a fake gun and then paint it gunmetal!

The fact that they are fakes and look it doesn't bother me at all ,in fact guns are not one of my favorite things anyway and not really something that I would want to promote to kids.Maybe I should paint them red!

[John W Reid]

[John W Reid]

Air show guns!

Now there is no question that these are fake guns made from tin.The storyline is of an ex airshow Camel being shipped off for use as a movie prop or for movie advertising purposes.For airshows showmanship would allow for painted guns ,where in movies they would have to be more realistic looking.

I would rather that these be obviously looking fakes than a bad attempt at trying to make them looking real.

I know that this is not everyone's cup of tea(apology to my military friends) but it does fit in with the storyline of this diorama.It also allows me to use these obviously fake guns without having to scratchbuild new ones and still inject the movie aspect into the diorama.

I think now that I have captured just about every aspect of aviation in the 20's.Military re-union,airshow,racing,movies etc...

I plan to suggest to the museum people that they make the display interactive for the kids ,such as finding the air race posters or the Wright Flyer or the 4 animals that will be in the diorama.Some will be easy and others very hard to spot and it sure would be a great way to have them explore the whole diorama.

[John W Reid]

[John W Reid]

Peace and Love everyone!

Back in the 60's this was my dad's first attempt at skywriting.He was flying our recently restored '29 Beech Travelair biplane.You can just see the airplane on the right hand middle of the pic.If you follow the smoke trail back you can just make out the" l "and "o "of the word love.These were the 60's of course and he was attempting to write "Peace and Love" in the skies over the city of Montreal.

[John W Reid]

[John W Reid]

Turtledeck tarps!

The tarpaulin has been trimmed and a batten nailed down along the edge.I want the canvas to look relatively new so I don't plan to weather it too much.Because the canvas is so loose looking I will bend and shape some wood battens over the turtledeck.I sort of compromised on this as the tarp may be a little bit too crinkly but I like the weight between the stringers look.

One thing that I found out is not to worry about laying down wax paper ,if you seal the wood well with lacquer the glue/water mix will not stick the tarp permanently to the protected wood.This is useful to know when making removable tarps or shaping tarps over any object.

Note: while I try my best to keep all the websites I post to updated (29)as often as time permits,for day-to-day pictures and text please see:

http://www.theaerodrome.com (Forum,Models) Cheers! John.

[John W Reid]

[John W Reid]

Beginning the upper wing center section.

[John W Reid]

I have been thinking about the wings and ailerons.Do I make all of them,some of them or none of them.I could fake some wooden crates and be done with it.

What I think I will do is leave the fuselage closest to the side of the case free of any wings so that this side of the fuselage will be easily viewable.Two wings will be in crates and attached to the other side of the fuselage.On the other two wings I will leave some of the crates plywood panels open for inspection and they will be resting up against the hangar wall .I will place a rolled up tarp somewhere near the cockpit part of the fuselage.

I really can't see the point of building open wings which are basically of the same design as the center section which is already available for closeup inspection.More than likely at this stage the wings would have been already crated anyway.

Maybe I will build the other wings later and put them in the rafters of the hangar.

[John W Reid]

Because the Camel/Truck is basically one piece rather than 2 separate entities,I will have to treat them as such from here on.One way or another I have to build the undercarriage which is where I will concentrate my efforts for now.Then the

Model T truck will be put on its wheels and I will decide the rest from there.

I will have to re-think the center section on the fuselage idea ,mainly because it looks way to vulnerable and unrealistic stuck out there in the wind.

[John W Reid]