The Storyboard

Coming up with an interesting title for your diorama is an important part of the process.I think of it as if I were in a bookstore looking at book titles, what would draw my interest? Usually I find it is something that appeals to my imagination.
It has been said that a good diorama should tell the story without any title at all, which is true in most cases.
Large dioramas of a storyboard nature however require a little explanation while small shadowbox dioramas or vignettes can sometimes get away with no title at all.It also depends a lot upon your viewer and how familiar they are with the subject matter.Museums that deal with the general public however usually fall somewhere in the middle.Children,depending upon their age, sometimes have no idea of what they are looking at, so for the really young ones I try to include some things that generally appeal to all ages. Animals of course are always a winner so I put them in every diorama I make.Some have only one animal and others multiple examples of different species.Some are hard to find and others are quite obvious.At the other end of the scale you have the lovers of aeronautical history and some very good modelers ,that are far more knowledgeable than I and who could spot a mistake a mile away.To them I can only offer up the excuse of "Artistic License".
In the case of the title for this shadowbox diorama, I came up with the title right away, because it was so obvious to me.
Now that challenge will be to come up with an idea or two to tell the average viewer what is going on.

The front of this shadowbox diorama will actually be the back,in other words the view will be of the back of the hangar doors.I want to give this piece an increased sense of depth that can created by using opaque hangar door windows.Not being able to see through the windows adds a sense of mystery ,as well as a chance to play with the lighting which could be a day/night scene or even dusk or dawn.There will be no side windows.
Today I was looking through some pics and I came across an idea,why not do a Camel that suffered some damage when it was shot down, and not forced to land in one piece.The nose area could be mostly in one piece and the tail could also have survived the crash (with the Sopwith logo on it of course) which would really help to identify the aircraft for the average viewer.The damage could be such that I would have maximum freedom to arrange a nice composition. Being a test or even a teaching facility two uncovered aircraft would not be an uncommon sight.

I enjoy doing crashed aircraft because of all the fun involved in doing your own thing.

Nose intact ,rest of body optional.

Nother pic

The tail seems to have survived relatively unscathed or the fabric has purposely been removed .

nother pic

another picture

Though its a triplane it looks like a picture I saw of the Red Baron's 80th Victory.

A Camel which was hit in the fuel tank. the pilot , last name Lewis, dove away; as he headed for the ground his controls (rudder and elevators) became increasingly difficult but he managed to pull out and land safely. As he climbed out, he noticed the fabric was completely burned from the cockpit back, including the lower half of the fin and rudder and the inner half of both stabs and elevators.

His fuel tank had exploded but he was unharmed. the Baron flew by and waved.

Captn Tommy

I am only guessing here but it looks to me that there is no evidence of fire.It seems that the fabric has been ripped off to see what was underneath.The pilot could have run out of fuel and crashed behind enemy lines.My Albatros suffered a flashover fire which was common with fabric covered aircraft so not a lot of it was destroyed.
My Camel will have ran out of fuel ,crashed and been recovered for intelligence purposes by the German military.I am looking at the option of showing it just slightly after the time of it's arrival at the hangar.I have a nice pic of a trailer that I could use for this purpose. It would give me a nice secure platform to build it on too.

Thanks for the story,I am glad to hear that the Baron had retained his sense of honor even after 80 kills. Cheers to Manfred!

this page is my research page so I posted this pic here too. The actual build pics I will put on the other page.

This will also serve as a nice sturdy jig to build the camel on.

oops! changed my mind again,no actually I will only be using the chassis and wheels from this kit.

I was looking at my stash today and I came across this never finished kit and thought how could I use this in the diorama? Small scale=wind tunnel=experimental.This hangar facility is for stealing ideas but also experimenting with new ones.Take the wings ,hang them on a wall and write experimental on them.But wait experimental is English it won't work in a Canadian context.I immediately looked for the German word and you guessed it ,it is experiment.That solves another piece of the storyboard puzzle.

I have decided to built a wind tunnel model using the basic fuselage and wings but modified only as a shape for checking aerodynamics and made to look like wood and marked "experimental".The extra wing will be hung on the wall or will be used as a wing loading test experiment vignette for inclusion in the diorama.(if I have room for it without ruining the basic composition)

If you think its too much then save the idea for another diorama. Whenever I think of wind tunnels I think of the scene from the Blue Max.

The whole thing kind of reminds me of the Blue Max, the high wing new design that he was testing when he was killed.
I will be playing around with the composition again soon so I should have an idea then to use it or not. Thanks Stephen.

Tail down,interesting and looks good.

Interesting,but doesn't look too good. Wings could be lashed to the sides of the trailer .

Same as in option 1 but with the tail up and in flying position.
horizontal stab would be the widest point.

Option #4
leave only one wing attached which would cut the span in half,show the other wing being worked on sitting on a bench.Here I am assuming that two full span aircraft would not look good in such a small space (too cluttered)especially for a shadowbox.