Because of the small scale the heavy feather relief and bright painting looks overdone.However once the bird is placed on the joists of the hangar behind the lighting it looks fine.If need be a couple of very thin coats of raw umber will tone the whole thing down.

Yesterday I took a little trip to the local hobby store that sort of
specializes in RR stuff,looking for out side building materials.
Because of the scale that I am working in ,and the fact that the
level of detail that I try to represent, makes things a little more
difficult than I first anticipated.(ex:blades of grass would have
to be laid almost one by one to look convincing.)
Being an airfield though means that it will all be pretty flat terrain.
which shouldn't be a problem.
The oval base will have to go as it is just too big.Right now I am looking at
a 4X6 foot rectangular base with the building set square to the edge.
I usually don't like to do this but because the building itself is so irregular
I feel that maybe I can get away with it.Also, if I do the outside
I will be placing large objects such as cars etc at angles to the base.
I called the museum and evidently they have exhibit designers
on staff that can help me.I plan to deliver the dioramas on a piece
of finished plywood with or without an outside a let them take it from there.
Two of the dioramas are meant to be hooked ,up to transformers
and one to an ordinary wall plug.I will leave the rest up to them
to make sure it meets safety standards.
When I was doing the Nieuport diorama, which is basically designed
as a shadow box to be viewed from the front only ,I wanted to put
it in an old TV cabinet with lighting both inside and out now I think
for safety reasons I will leave in only the overhead Christmas
light type bulbs.I have taken lots of pics of the original design
for my own satisfaction but safety comes first.Anyway I will put up a few
pics to illustrate what I mean.
I can't believe it but we a expecting more snow tonight.Cutting
plywood is still on hold.......

Almost disaster but I was lucky! one end of my worktable collapsed
almost to the floor and everything that wasn't screwed or glued down
ended up on the floor or in a jumble on one side of the hangar.
Mostly only minor damage to a couple of cars but I am glad
that I took pics to know where everything belongs.Whew!
that was a close call.A few screws should solve the problem
with the table.
Tomorrow I will begin to take the whole thing apart for the last
time and make ready to screw the hangar floor to its yet to be cut 48X68
plywood base.

Well now this is where I am at after nearly 4 years(I think) of building this diorama.Lots of parts and pieces are now stored away and I can finally begin the base.
I am going to compromise on this one and build a bit of an outside the hangar walls too.The first diorama the Albatros is strictly a five sided kind of shadow box viewable from 5 different angles.The 2nd ,the Neiuport is viewable only from the front.This time I am going to try my hand at doing a little ground cover which is totally new territory for me.Unfortunately I have seen a few dioramas where the ground cover actually wasn't up to the standard of the rest of the diorama,which I hope doesn't happen here.
The first step will be to cut out a 48X68 inch base and attach the hangar floor to it.Unfortunately we are still in Winter mode here in the GWN so no plywood has been cut yet.

New figure.
While awaiting Spring here in the GWN ,I think that I will start painting a new figure.This figure is of a German pilot of WW2 ,which can quite easily be changed into a barnstormer of the 20's.
This figure looks a little tall in the saddle compared to my other 1/16th figures.The distance between the knee and the bottom of boot looks a little long to me but I think that it is probably within normal human proportions.Maybe he played for the Luftwaffe basketball team!!!!!

Luftwaffe/Barnstormer
I am really anxious to get on with the dioramas' base so I may not complete painting this figure now but I will start it anyway
while the weather improves.
The figure has a nice relaxed pose and could easily fit in anywhere in the diorama.Because of his size I may leave him as a solitary figure away from the others.Except for a few minor changes ,insignias,medals and fancy flying boots the body can be used as is.The flying jacket has a nice fur collar which most had in the 20's.The head however is a different matter and I may change it completely.Besides a kind of goofy smile on his face ,the hat will need some redesigning .
The casting is clean except the need for some minor flash removal.

One question, I read somewhere in your post that your scale is 1/16. Don't you find the finished product to be rather large? While the smaller scales are harder to get the fine detail you have, they are more space efficient. Do you work in a number of scales?

Best Regards,
Phil

1/16th scale!
Hi Phil ! nice to hear from you.I kind of fell into 1/16th scale by accident .I did a ship in 1/72 ,dabbled a bit in 1/48 and 1/32 ,discovered the open structure Albatross and have played in 1/16th ever since.I have a woodcarving background so it was a natural for me.It turned out to be a good thing because 1/16th is kind of considered to be museum scale.(I have a book on models in the Smithsonian and most of them are 1/16th.)
In the beginning ,I had no idea that my stuff would ever be accepted as museum quality, especially because it is not 100% scratchbuilt.But I have since learned that with dioramas that is not the case.Someone in the museum community actually understands(or understood) that the most important factor here is the storyline.I was pretty amazed by this ,especially because even some of my fellow modelers are not up to speed with this fact.
Although I now work only 1/16th what I really admire are the guys who work in in really small scales 1/144 and 1/72 (especially biplanes)If I was a collector that is the scale that I would personally collect.I have tried to build in those scales but I just don't have the patience for it.
As far as the space factor is concerned you are right,if you are going to keep these you would need a rather large home.

Head gear changes.
On 2nd thought after looking at this figures' head,it may have potential with a few minor changes.
Although the facial expression is not what I would like to see ,the head is in good proportion with the body.
The military hat has to go but that can be changed quite easily to a style more popular in the 20s.The problem I had was ,shouldn't he be wearing a helmet or something more appropriate for a barnstormer/airmail type pilot?Until I discovered the following picture

Another pic

Modifying Eric!
I think that those hats popular in the 20s were called "Buster brown hats"?anyway it seems everyone was wearing them including air mail pilots.(maybe he sat on it during flight)
With that in mind I now feel free to modify Erics military uniform hat into something more appropriate for the era.
In the last pic you can see where I have modified the flying boot into something simpler, as well as removing that thingy from his belt.The wings have been removed from his chest and the medal around his neck is now a tie.The hat has been built up with epoxy awaiting re-shaping.

Body mods finished and a couple of thin brown gesso coats have been applied.
The hat has had its initial shaping and a new layer of exopy has been applied to build up area above the brim.Most of the peak has been removed.

Another pic

Spring has arrived!!! (I think) I finally got the plywood base
cut out for the diorama, now I can finally get back to work on
the ground work.Eric/barnstormer painting will be now be saved
for those rainy days.

Another series of quality updates. Four Years and running. Its been quite a ride and well worth it.

The TV cabinet idea is a great one for the shadow box.

The figure you are working on sometimes come across with too long a neck. It could just be the putty you're using for test fits. Just be careful (listen to me, telling you to be careful, I know it will come out fine).

I like the owl.

Gday John
Been a while since I've perused your thread...
The owl is a hoot! A good find, and it is little things like this that keep people looking within the storyline of a diorama...
Your latest pilot (Eric Hartmann?) as Scott said, seems to suffer from a long neck. Now I don't think this is the fault of your putty in its temporary placement, but seems that it has been sculpted as such? Imagining him topless(?!) would show a steep incline from the shoulders to the neck... Whether you want to shorten him is up to you of course!!
Cheers
Brad

I agree the long neck has to go but the head is only temporarily stuck on using that tack stuff which makes it look even worse.