I do not know what to write.... words do not do it justice. Simply fantastic and outright stunning

Thanks guys for your kind words but it really isn't that hard to do! I have a "how to "going on over on the Armorama section under "Dioramas."My present project ,the Jenny,starts at the beginning through to the present day.I contribute to that site almost daily and I expect it to be another year or so till I finish Phase 1 which will be the main hangar and its modules plus cars,figures,engines and of course 2 Jennys,one a built up barnstormer and the other an ex-military basketcase.
In future anything directly related to early aircraft I will post here.
Cheers! John.

A few random thoughts.
You know sometimes even I wonder why it takes sooo long to build one of these large dioramas.Then I remember that every part down to the last nail in the board behind the door in the WC (that will never be seen)has taken its share of the total time involved.Not that I am in any rush,but when you come to think of it I figure that you could almost build the real thing in the same amount of time involved and even then you would not have to build up the cars and the figures.
A skilled carpenter or two and a couple of guys to handle the heavy stuff and you could get it done in about the same amount of time.(I recall when I was a kid ,a carpenter and I framed a large house in a few months)
Thank God that I am working in 1/16th scale ,as I remember when I was working on the diorama of HMS Victory,things took twice as long.I once corresponded with a fellow who had built 2 Victorys ,one in 1/4 scale(1:48) and the other in 1/8 scale(1:96), and the 1/8 took him twice as long to build.But of course he had just as much detail in them both. The difference in time was mostly in the manipulation of the small parts.Imagine all that rigging in 1/8 scale! Mine was 1/6 scale(1:72) and that was hard enough.But I have to admit it was great training for the Jenny.

Absolutely bloody fantastic work!!

However, and I suppose quite naturally as a figurist, my attention was drawn to the figures in the 2 dio's you showed above... tell me about the figures you used? In the first picture the pilot (?) looks like Tamiya's Erwin Rommel from this angle...

Again, I'm gobsmacked!

Rudi

Right on Rudi! Wrong service,wrong war,I hope he doesn't mind.
Cheers! John.

Actually, there was a Rommel in WWI... oh well. Hey John What were some of the major stumbling blocks to the kits you have shown us here. Also what did you do to over come them?

New figures by Philippe Jourdan
A modeling friend from France,Philippe Jourdan,asked me to post the following pics for him.They are a series of WW1 pilots that he is working on and will be available in the near future.The first available will be in 1/48 scale with other scales to follow.These are some of the best looking figures that I have seen of WW1 subjects and actually look like the pilots they are supposed to represent.Great work Philippe! (note : some of these pics are of works "in progress",and the busts are for his own use in working out facial features)

Wow! That is a big question Stephen.As you well know there is no perfect model kit.When I have a minute I will look through some of my postings and find some things that maybe of interest.In the meantime if anyone has a specific question on anything you see here go ahead.Cheers! John.

This is a Tamiya figure that I picked up the other day of aWW2 Japanese fighter pilot.It is in 1/16th scale but a little shorter in stature than my other 1/16th figures.
It has all the makings of a nice modified WW1 (or as in my case ) a 20's barnstormer.Normally ,I would just make some mods to the flying suit and use it pretty much as is ,but in this case I think that I will try another seated figure(my 1st was the guy seated in the model A in the Nieuport diorama)He may look good seated in one of the airshow cars.
The last time that I tried this I didnt have a mannequin to work with and it turned out OK but this time it should be a lot easier.This is a hollow plastic figure so I plan to use lots of A+B epoxy as a filler in certain areas.I like to overbuild areas of the figure and then carve it down with rotary tools much like you would to carve wood.Another for my to do list......

Can't wait to see more of your incredible and out of this world work John!
True inspiration like many others here....

Thanks Jan! Glad you like my work.
Cheers! John.

I am getting a little bored with woodwork right now ,so maybe it is time to at least start on the above figure.I think as a first step I will put the newly acquired mannequin together and work on a few poses.
Then I will begin the figure by removing some unwanted parts of the uniform and lifejacket ,as well as whatever that thing is on the front of his pants.(built in relief tube for those extra long flights?)

I hope you are well stocked in the cutter and grinder dept. Thats going to be a lot of work.

I used my rotary tool and a ruby carver to remove some of the uniform.Use a medium speed as you dont want to melt the plastic and clog up the bit.
Remove only small amounts at a time.You can hold your finger on the inside where you are working and if you feel any heat stop and hold it up to a light, to make sure that you dont carve right through.Wear a mask and eye protection.Remove all unwanted detail and if possible try to retain as many of the folds as you can.
I left my figure a little paunchy around the middle until I figure out exactly how he will look when seated.Actually he looks a little like me with what I call the "porky pilot" look.The grooves on the back of the figure were a little too deep so I decided to build it up a bit with 2 part ,5minute, epoxy paste.Once this sets overnite(or 24 hours ,to be really safe )I will then continue the carving process.

The next pic will show where I used the same epoxy paste to beef up the inside of the figure ,where the light showed me where things were getting a little thin and there was a danger of breaking through the plastic.

Right now I don't have any idea how this will work out so it is a bit of an adventure for you and me both.If I screw it up well at least it would have been fun trying something different.

Very cool.

If should have a cock-up (NOT very likely I think) just blame me, that's what my "colleagues" does at my work.......even when I'm NOT there!
:-)

Here is a group of figures that I modified a few years ago for the Nieuport 28 diorama.

Using the same burr I continued to thin down the plastic .Nowhere did I actually break through to the exopy beneath but in some places it is very thin.Iwill stop here until I bend the body to the seated position.
The back of the figure was carved down to a smooth finish.If the epoxy paste tends to come off in pieces instead of a dust let it cure awhile longer.When dealing with a shiny plastic surface rough it up a bit before applying the exoxy,using a burr or sandpaper.
Next it is on to finding a position that I like using the mannequin as an example and then trying to reposition the figure as required.