Due to the volume of work that I have at present ,I haven't been able to keep up to date all of the websites that I have opened.You can however find all my postings over on the first site I joined up at http://www.theaerodrome.com once on the site click "Forum" at the bottom of the pic,then click on "Models" under forum navigation,look for "How to........." at the top of the page.
Because of the number of sites that I post to I had to pick one to post everything to and I thought that the first one I started would be the most logical.I will still be posting to this thread but not quite as often as I did,hopefully things will calm down a bit in the near future.Some day I plan to condense everything down into a more readable version and post it on all the sites.I hope you guys understand. Cheers ! John.
You may also want to take a look at a new thread I started over there called Shadow Box Dioramas.

John,
Outstanding art my friend. truly a feast of the eyes. Would it be possible to get a close up photo of your gem of an OX-5 engine?
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

I am going to re-work the head on the R/H figure to have them both looking up which seems more natural.Both faces need finishing.Normally you wouldn't want your figures looking out of the diorama but in this case being a airport .Well what can I say!

Hi Gregory,thanks.Take a look on my photobucket under Curtiss OX5 one and two.Cheers! John.

What! A mechanic without his name embroidered on his togs? Not even a "Reid & Sons" logo patch to be seen! Souldn't his fingers be a bit oily?

Wow, good work!

I guess I am the only one that missed the obvious-what scale is this diorama?

Eddie

The model Expo kits are listed at 1:16 scale.

Dioramas update
Went to the CAM in Ottawa on Friday and the new construction is well underway.They are hoping to have the official opening of the new area in Feb 2011.
The Albatros,Nieuport and Jenny dioramas will be on display for the opening and the backyard flyer at some later date.That will be the last of the really big ones for me,as I plan to limit myself to bread box size shadow boxes after that.
My wife will be very happy to get half her house back again after all these years.

Now back to the Jenny.
Airshow Camel with fake guns, used for simulated dogfights or for running down main street to drum up business for the airshow.

Nicely done!

This is where I am now in the finishing process of the Jenny diorama.Once this office area is completed ,I will work around to the front and then the roof.
I thought that while I had the office module removed I had better take some pics through the office/hangar door,the figures and the horse Comanche while I can.See my photobucket album "Hangar 3 exterior" for these new pics.(some have yet to be deleted)

nother pic

This is really turning out to be quite an interesting vignette. I like the attention to detail, to include the 'road apples' on the side.
Mark

notuher pic

The last pic is an eye level view of the hangar through the dispatch office door.I like the reflection of the airplanes wing in the glass windows and the sense of perspective of the flooring.Unfortunately a lot of these viewing angles will be lost once the diorama is put back together, but at least I will have the pics.

Awesome John, I love it !!

Museum Quality,what is it anyway?
I first heard of the term when Model Expo advertised their 1/16th aircraft as museum quality.I thought even back then wouldn't it be nice to build something and have it displayed at a library ,city hall or maybe even the local museum.
I had been into decorative bird art for some time and even taught it to adults for a long time.
People liked my stuff so I began to get illusions (delusions) of grandeur in my head and decide to compete at the World Championships at Ocean City Maryland.I worked a whole year on one piece and thought it was pretty good,so I drove down and entered it in competition.My friends and even some of the guys I was competing against thought it was a winner.
Well the day the prizes were given out came and to my surprise it got zero,not even an honorable mention.Competitors were encouraged to ask the judges were they went wrong so that they could improve for next year.I appraoach the head judge,a world champ carver himself for some advise.The first thing he said was were did you get the color for the flicker,which was thr prey bird in a preditor/prey composition.I asked him what he meant and he said the flickers from where he was from out west where not yellow.I explained that this was an Eastern Flicker and they are yellow.Well he looked a little embarrassed and walked away.There and then I decided to never put myself in that position again,competeing was not for me.
However, I still had this desire to excel at something connected with art.I sat myself down at almost 60 years old and said well what do you know best? The answer was obvious ,aviation and especially the era before the jets.Hadn't I already built a full scale 1929 biplane with my dad in the sixties?
I didn't want to compete again so I only displayed my models at a few shows and they liked them.
It was around this time that the museum quality bug hit me.
to be cont.....