I got it in my head that I would give it a shot but I wanted to do something new and different.My hobby shop stocked both the model expo kits and doll house stuff.I thought why not marry the two up in 1/16th scale,which I thought was museum scale.The Smithsonian had already set the precedent of accepting plastic model kits in dioramas way back in 1984 ,so why not wooden kits?So I pressed on with my dream.
I considered scratch building everything but soon realized that at my age that could be the first and only one I ever did, and besides I had more than one story to tell,so I compromised.My motto became buy what you can ,build what you must and most importantly tell your stories of the way things used to be in early aviation.
My audience was to be the kids and the young at heart, so my stories were based upon what could have happened rather than on some highly documented incident or scenario.
I let it be known that my stuff was available for donation,and low and behold didn't I hear from the CAM educational department and the rest just happened.Now they want them on the museum floor.I look back now and think thank God I changed directions when I did.It is never too late even for old geezers like me.
So what is museum quality? Who knows!

This is where I got the idea of using kit models in dioramas and still having them accepted as so-called museum quality.

Except for a few final touchups the Jenny dio is finished.That's two down and two to go.
The Albatros requires just the final gluing and pinning down of the exterior parts and pieces ,which will leave me most of the short- lived summer here in the GWN to work on the backyard flyer.(it snowed here yesterday)
The Albatros composition is still evolving in some minor ways.I have decided to bring the wrecked Mercedes engine out of the shadows and into a more prominent position.

nother pic

nother pic

Coffee creamers make great garbage pails,sand pails and in this case ash buckets.

Excellent work John.I couldn't help but notice the second figure to the right looks very much like Gen.George S. Patton.
Regards,
Gregory Jouette

The great thing about dioramas is the freedom involved to do your own thing.I especially like the ongoing creativity that you can enjoy right up until the very end.I like to operate in such a way as to keep it interesting for me too.I like to start with a basic idea for a storyline and see what develops from there.
I work mostly with images and stories from my imagination, as I dread the thought of a lot of drawings and plans and things written in stone .
When doing dioramas at a rate of ,on average, one every three and a half years, the less written in stone the better.All of my aviation dioramas started with the basic 1/16th airplane model kit itself .The model therefore will dictate the minimum size required ,the maximum size is up to you.
With a little creative thinking those who would like to build in the larger scales can still do so by reducing the minimum size.Example: an under construction or maintenance scene where one wing has been removed and placed up against a wall,or how about a barnstormer fuselage used for advertising, being towed through main street or just the fuselage alone being used in a school of aeronautics.The possibilities are endless .You can build what you want and alter things as you like.Bad ,out of scale wing fittings ?cover them with a rag.Controversy about did this airplane have this or that on that series? just leave it off ,its under construction after all.Wings not the proper dihedral a couple of saw horses and some tools will fix that....Etc...etc...etc...I am sure you get the idea.It is all a matter of thinking creatively.
What got me thinking of all this is the wrecked Mercedes engine that I am working on now.When I started this diorama I didn't even have the second engine,in fact everything you see outside the hangar walls was not originally planned for.(including even a lot inside) I build the engine with no specific plan in mind other than it must be wrecked to fit better into my flying school storyline.Yesterday it went from obscurity in the junk pile to a stand alone model and by evening it had its own steel lifting frame with chains etc...
Now this morning I am excited to get back to it and see how it turns out!

Your right but I think that he looks a little uncomfortable in airmans uniform!

The engine assembly turned out pretty good ,now I have to wire it down to the dioramas landscaping panel.The chain will be resting on the top of the engine.

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Here is my latest bit of gizmology a fuel/oil/water tank and pump assembly scratch built from my junk box.Never,ever throw anything out!

Shep Paine on gizmology in dioramas.
I have often mentioned stand alone models ,scale distance,gizmology etc...
here is what Shep Paine has to say about it.
Gizmology ,a term I think that he invented, is a technique of suggesting details that are not fully modeled.It is an artistic impression rather than an actual photographic representation.It is a way of getting ninety percent of the results in ten percent of the time, that what he calls "point- for- point" modeling would require.It allows you to concentrate on the fun stuff like design and the storytelling part of the diorama.
He does believe and I agree that gizmology is a good technique for dioramas ,it is not the same for stand alone models though.A diorama is an artistic representation and the aircraft is only one of several elements in the scene.A stand alone model is a scale miniature and point -for-point modeling is the only way to do it justice.The best way to describe the difference is a painting of an aircraft in flight as opposed to a scale drawing.With that distinction being made it is not a license to conjure up fictitious details out of thin air.Shep says "a conscientious gizmologist scrupulously follows his references,and I was always careful to do that.Within that framework,I had a lot of fun playing with gizmology in my dioramas.It's fun to see how much you can achieve through suggestion."

The above is a good example of gizmology based upon fact.This type of pump-barrel arrangement did exist in the WW1 era but I used car parts,old ship modeling parts ,plastic and wood to represent metal and old 1/16th aircraft parts for the pump.
It works for a diorama but as a stand alone model it is just gizmology but I love the artistic freedom that it represents.Stand it beside an aircraft and the average viewer gets your message without you having to show every little piece in perfect scale,or perfect color or whatever....

I know that WW1 airplanes have always been a niche genre even with modelers of aircraft but I think that things may be changing,thanks to Peter Jackson the New Zealand film director of Lord Of The Rings movie fame.A modeler himself with a life long love of WW1 aircraft,he has started a company known as Wingnut Wings that specializes in only 1/32 scale WW1 kits.Not only airplanes but figures for the diorama and vignette builders and super kits complete with all the aftermarket stuff that you could ever possibly want.
As a builder and collector himself he knows what we want, highly detailed, accurate ,large scale WW1 aircraft.Kits that are simple enough to be assembled by almost anyone at a reasonable price.
Don't even bother to ask if they will be producing kits in smaller scales anytime soon,as his belief is that 1/32 is the ideal scale for WW1 as they are already small in comparison to WW2 aircraft.While I have always admired the little jewels you can hold in the palm of your hand, they are somewhat of a niche market for the super patient. I believe that they do tend to turn off a lot of potential WW1 modelers who just can't handlel the small parts,especially the rigging.(which includes me)
What I especially like about this company is that it is a result of one mans passion for his lifelong hobby and not totally market driven.They produce only what a modeler himself would know about, and that is what does a modeler really want to see in a kit?For the builder of dioramas like myself they have actually supplied figures with their kits as an added incentive to help all the potential diorama builders out there.I believe that one day aircraft dioramas will evolve to a point much like the armor guys have,when figures will almost be a requirement for a static model.It is nice that they are the first to really recognize this coming trend and not just as a marketing afterthought.
We WW1 guys are truly blessed to finally having a passionate WW1 guy running the store!