"Memories of Flying School"

[JohnReid]

This is Fritz the dogs eye view of his masters wrecked airplane.The whole storyline is based upon this relationship and is what inspired me to expand this diorama in the first place.I will leave it to the viewers imagination as to whether his master survived to fight another day.

I was never very happy with the original diorama after building the other two.The story was weak,two pilots looking at a mechanic wiping down an engine after a run-up.Pleasant to look at but no real emotion.Now the main storyline is transported outside the confines of the hangar.What I am hoping is that the average viewer will initially be drawn to looking inside and only later discover the dog/man story outside.The hangar doors will be left open thereby somewhat hiding from view the real story.

At the same time I want the aircraft to be somewhat educational, in that I don't want to cover the structure with fabric.The fuselage being plywood I can leave off a few panels here and there to make it more interesting for those who may want a peak inside.

The fuselage broken at the cockpit with the hanging seat belt straps really adds to the pathos of the scene.The tail having been pushed over the lower wing suggests some sort of pilot resue attempt which would have really had to be done in haste if a fire was just breaking out.The fabric on the tail would then also have been involved in the flash over burn.

The wings are remarkably intact which suggests to me a low impact type crash or nose over.

I will leave it up to the imagination of the viewer as to what really happened, which is after all the real purpose of of any good diorama storyline.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Paint job on trainers.

This is a pic of an training accident that was kindly sent to me by Stephen Lawson.Looks like the aircraft on the right of the picture ran into another while both were on the ground.

What is especially interesting for me is the fabric paint job on the wings.

Evidently aircraft that were designed as trainers were painted differently right from the factory floor.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Plywood cover on rear fuselage.

This should be fun!Lots of cutting and fitting.

I decided to start with the largest single piece first.I made a paper template by holding a piece of paper to the fuselage and then up to a strong light and traced out the approximate size of the piece of plywood required.The plywood was cut oversize to be refined later.Using small clothes pegs I temporarily fixed the plywood to the fuselage as shown in the pic.I then traced from the inside along the outer edge of the longerons and bulkheads,the outline of the panel.

The panel was then removed and sanded down to the pencil line.(ignore the pencil line seen on the outside of the panel in the pic)

Do not glue anything at this point, as it must be removed to give you easy access to the same panel on the other side.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Upper wing compression struts.

The metal end castings were blackened using a patina used by stained glass craftsmen.The brass tubing was blackened using "Blackin It".

They are not permanently glued in because I will be attaching the turnbuckles first.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Turnbuckles

Until now I usually made my own turnbuckles but this time I will use the leftover ones from the Camel build.

Upon examining them closely they are of a better quality than the ones supplied with the original Albatros kit,harder metal and more accurately cast.The other consideration was that they will hardly be noticeable on a burned wreck at normal viewing distance.When I did the first Albatros that now is in the hangar I wanted to highlight the turnbuckles and even took a little license to make them a little oversize.Why? because kids and most parents today don't have any idea of how these old wings were constructed.The wood aspect is obvious but the wire part with the turnbuckles is less well understood.This diorama is primarily an education tool.

The cast turnbuckles are first cleaned up and then dunked in blackening patina.I will leave the body black but file off some of the patina on the eye bolt part to add a little contrast.They are then dipped in thinned lacquer to seal the metal.

I have always sealed my metal castings just in case they contain any lead.

Brittania metal is not supposed to have any lead in it but some of the original castings seemed a little too soft for my liking.I am not a metallurgist but I didn't want to take a chance of having metal bloom (disintegration) down the road.This has happened to some museum quality ship models in the past because they are in sealed cases and subject to a very polluted atmosphere)

If there is any shine on the metal left by the lacquer I will deal with this using pastels.

__________________

[JohnReid]

Selling culture

There is an interesting story in my local paper this morning concerning museums.

Evidently Montreal is hosting a forum of experts from around the world on how to make our museums more interesting places for the general public to visit.

It is an established fact that at the Louvre the average viewer at most spends 25 seconds looking at the Mona Lisa.(they actually have a name for it, "the Mona Lisa effect")Most other works of art get about 3 seconds each.

Whats wrong here? In the words of one expert "A museum must promote emotions ,not product. It must be a place where people can look,think and learn."Modern families want to escape stress and spend more time with each other and engaging the interest of an entire family,youngsters,teens and adults,is no small feat.

Museums must be entertaining and not just entertainment which can be a very fine line.Being entertaining is about engaging,it piques the imagination and challenges us.Entertainment is a diversion,something you do when you are bored.

Another expert says that museums should use their collections to tell multiple stories as another way to connect with the public.

Why did I find this article in the paper so interesting? Because this is what storyboard dioramas are all about.Engaging the individual viewer and the entire family,imagination,education,entertaining,telling stories,challenging .

I know not everyone's goal is to have their stuff in a museum,neither was it mine in the beginning but it just happened that way.Somewhere down the road this will probably happen to a lot of the hobby stuff being produced today.What we are doing now will someday be part of tomorrows heritage , a time when people actually took the time to do things by hand.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

I have glued down the fittings but have left the wires themselves unfinished until just before installation in case they are subject to loosening.Like I thought the turnbuckles are hardly noticeable.

[fetubi]

John,

This is a truly remarkable model. Doubtless you've heard it all before, but you are a master! Well done.

Trevor

[JohnReid]

Thanks Trevor for your kind remarks.Cheers! John.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Fire and Smoke damage.

Fire and smoke damaged engine with a little rust thrown in.

For the first time I tried using blackening patina on the metal.I put it on with an old soft brush and kept applying until I got the degree of darkening I wanted.Then I used a little thinned down raw umber acrylic here and there and finally some black and sienna rust pastels.Any final weathering will be completed upon installation of the engine in the fuselage.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Lower wings.

Well now it is on to the lower wings.After their completion, I will begin the final weathering and fire damage on the fuselage, once the lower wings are in place.

Then it's back to the rear half of the fuselage and the tail assembly.

I can't tell you how much that I am enjoying this piece. It really is a challenging and fun thing to do,to let your imagination run wild.

I was always just a little unhappy about the weak storyline of the original diorama ,when it was just a self-contained box like structure.Now, that part of the diorama is just a tool to draw the viewer's attention ,so that I can tell the real story that is half hidden behind the open hangar door.

The real story here is only hinted at by the title "The Aces Who Never Were".There are so many stories out there about the well known national heroes that through fate or just plain luck made it to center stage.I want my diorama to tell a different story, using the well known dog-man relationship as a vehicle to tell the deeper story,of not just the dogs loss but the loss off all those who lost their loved ones to war.

All those young lives never realized by circumstances beyond their control.I think that theirs is a story worth telling.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Decisions and compromises.....

The rad piping helps to support the upper wing to the fuselage and the skid base,this was necessary due to the soft nature of the N struts metal.Unfortunately the piping somehow got reversed and I only noticed this after gluing it in.If it wasn't for the support factor,I could just break the pipes and call it accident damage.I have two options here,redo the whole thing and take a chance of screwing it up or strategically placing some debris and hide the whole thing. I think that I will chose the latter.

Why do I bother to point these screw-ups out? because in the beginning of this thread I committed to showing this build as it really is,warts and all.

[JohnReid]