This is the view through the dispatch office window.You can just see the back of Harley's head and ears in the lower left corner.This inner door looks out upon the main hangar floor.As you can see the boss allows me to park my motorcycle against the carpenters shop wall.The inner window on the right looks out upon the carpenters shop itself.During the winter we leave this window open to provide heat for the office .The window does have shutters though when things get too noisy.Providing heat to the hangar floor can be a problem on very cold days.We have a removable tarp on the carpenters shop ceiling and another coal stove in the engine shop which helps with the heating also.

A friend asked so I thought that you guys would find this of interest also.

Hi Jason ! these dioramas were originally made for kids and were to be displayed in a classroom setting.The teacher of course would be there to answer questions and help tell the story.I was planning to do a small booklet with a lot of this stuff in it for the teachers reference purposes.

The museum has since changed its mind and they now plan to display them on the main museum floor,maybe even one in their new lobby.The plan now is to do some kind of audio/visual thing where you push a button to get pictures and some of the storyline.I don't know exactly how all that stuff works and it should be interesting to see what they come up with.

These dioramas were made for my own picture taking purposes as well and I lit them in such a way as to have a more dramatic effect.Unfortunately I think that a lot of this will be lost with only natural light.Also such areas as the carpenters shop,engine shop etc... have only somewhat restricted views.Therefore to really appreciate the dioramas there will have to be some kind of slide show and dialogue to accompany them.

Cheers! John.

Here is a better view of the carpenters shop from the office window.You can just see the back of the bosses gray hat that I swear makes him look like a gangster.Along the right wall you can see some carving and lathe tools with the lathe positioned in the background.On the workbench we are making a special prop for a racer pilot who is experimenting with a new design.The shop is not big but it is cosy and warm and besides most of the big stuff is done on the main hangar floor.A lot of the guys use it as a lunch/meeting room as well,you should hear some of the jokes and stories told when the ladies are not around !

On the top R/H side of the pic you can see the dispatch office door that opens onto the hangar floor.The boss looks like he is discussing the next booze run .As you can see the carpenter's shop is a closed unit separate from the main shop floor.The door on the left leads to the WC/coal storage room which then leads to the backdoor.
As you can see part of the tail of the Canuck has been replaced with a JN4 wooden one.Interchanging of parts is a common practice around here depending upon what is available at the time.Pilots will often ask us to change the flying characteristics of their airplanes to suit themselves.Often the C of G will be modified to carry heavy loads or make the airplane a little more unstable for some of their aerobatic maneuvers.

Usually things are not so neat and clean around here.We have taken a little time to clean up some of the junk that was lying around.The prop designer has been hard at work trying to shape the prop to the proper specifications using mostly hand tools in the process.

Note: I included this pic in the storyboard line up mostly because I like it.Some of you guys may have noticed that the view from the carpenters shop windows looks out on to the hanger floor and not a wooden wall as depicted here.

Another pic

Its been a long night for Chester chasing all those mice around the shop.Now he is flaked out near the stove ,in his favorite spot, sucking up the heat.

Note: I have put 4 animals in this diorama for the kids to try and find ,with various degrees of difficulty ,and Chester is the most difficult.I find that kids love this kind of thing and it really is a great way to get them more involved in the diorama.

Hi guys ! I had a little fun with this picture.If you look closely at the newspaper you will see pictures of the first men on the moon.I just couldn't resist making this prediction.

Well here we are back in the engine shop again.The WW1 era Mercedes engine is undergoing a bit of a tune up after being mothballed for awhile after the war.There is lots of surplus stuff like this around now,including pilots and airplanes.For a lot of us it has been a real struggle to stay in business.It seems that hardly anyone is interested in aviation these days apart from its entertainment value.I guess that people are just fed up with war and anything that was associated with it,including airplanes.Even the Wright brothers are having doubts about the whole thing and are saying maybe it was a mistake to help invent such a tool of destruction.

another pic

Ya know sometimes I wonder if I am going to way too much trouble with this diorama to tell a basically very simple story,an airman's return from the war and his continued relationship with his backyard Flyer.At times I wonder if there is enough of a storyline to justify such a huge space.
Rockwell's painting is tight with lots going on ,mine is spacious with little going on.His painting is of a joyous occasion ,my diorama is somewhat the opposite,just a GI and his thoughts for the future.
It is an old story told in many ways before.The split in the road and the road not taken tells of fateful decisions made that change everything forever.
I remember as a child being around men such as these,how important family and just being alive was to them.A lot were great fathers while others were just lost in their memories. I remember how important things like growing a community garden was to them,how they tended those gardens and how everybody respected those tiny spaces .I have included a garden in this diorama for that very reason.
Roads,gardens,airplane it just grew over time I guess.