The Art Of The Storyboard Diorama

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

Meet Harley the company mascot.His bark is worse than his bite ! All the employees love him ,in fact if you look closely through the engine shop window you will see a picture of him hanging on the wall.One of the pilots took it of him sitting in a mail plane cockpit usually however he sits here on the chair just inside the dispatch office door and keeps it warm for the pilots.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

This is where Harley and I hang out most of the time here in the dispatch office.Today it is pretty quite but it can get busy in here at times especially in bad weather.
One of the pilots was just here and told me a pretty funny story that he had heard.It seems that these two guys were out practicing their wingwalking routine .The wingwalker began climbing a seven foot ladder atop the upper wing of the plane as the pilot prepared to execute a loop but he fell off in the process and landed in the cockpit on top of the pilot.One of his pant legs slipped over the control stick."There I was my flying controls up the wingwalkers leg wondering how the hell do things like this happen to me.I told him to hold on and I will try to land." They did with the pilot holding on to his leg and the stick too.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

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.

[JohnReid]

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 these dioramas were originally made for kids and were to be displayed in a classroom setting.The teacher of course would be there to answer questions and help tell the story.I was planning to do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.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

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 !

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

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.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

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.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

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.

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

[JohnReid]

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.