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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

WnW Junkers J I "After the Armistice"


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My diorama, "After the Armistice", will be inspired by this photograph and will contain two J.Is', one mostly complete and the fuselage of another, as well as the wings and many other parts of at least four other WnW kits. All of this will be seen inside a hangar similar to that in this photo. That is the basic plan as it stands now, but aspects of it may change. I may use a combination of natural lighting and LED lighting. There will most probably be figures, possibly the Canadians who first discovered J.I 596/18. It is far too early in the process to make these specific decisions and I am giving myself a lot of artistic leeway.

 

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I have pulled J.I #1 off the shelf of doom and blown off the dust...and there was a lot of it. I had stopped work with only the parts for the cockpit being painted and began work again last weekend after I heard about the Group Build.

 

I am really looking forward to this diorama and the opportunity it will give me to work in multi media: the wooden and plaster structure of the hangar, the figures, the weathering and aging the duralumin, replicating the look of ripped fabric, and aging the many other parts I plan to include.

 

BTW, to make sure I am abiding by the no more than 25% completed rule, allow me to state that J.I #1 will make up only about 25% of the entire diorama. As it is only about 15% done, I feel I am well within the boundaries.

 

Cheers from NYC,

Michael

 

 

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Most definitely.....Allied troops, probably Canadians, crawling around and ooh-ing and ahh-ing at an airplane made of "metal".

 

I'm coming across more and more pix of German airplanes in storage after the Armistice but few of the photos have any dates. I'm sure it was a while before those that were crated up and brought back to the US and Canada were moved out. I'd like the setting to be as long after the end of hostilities as possible in order to have them covered in a heavy, but plausible, layer of dust and grime.

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  • 2 months later...

Finally, some progress to report.......

 

It is April of 1919 and this derelict hangar has been open to the winter weather since the Armistice five months before.

 

In the back of the structure will be seen the wingtip portion of a Staaken. It is carved from balsa wood, with ribs made from styrene and multiple layers of wood filler and Tamiya primer.  The decals are the excellent Irregular German pattern for "G" and "R" planes offered from Aviattic. There is also a section of Aviattic Night Lozenge used as a patch. (Thank you, Richard, for supplying us with these amazingly fine and esoteric products, so that we can take our projects to the highest levels of accuracy!)

 

Cheers from NYC,

Michael

 

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

OK, gents,

 

Here're some pix of the progress on the J.I.

 

The scene will be men holding up the insignia they have just cut from the fabric as souvenirs. I scraped away a lot of plastic from the interior areas where the insignia would have been, then used a lighted stick of incense to carefully heat the plastic so I could make it look wrinkled. The interior tubing was made from Albion brass.

 

There is a long way to go but I am having fun.

 

Cheers from NYC,

MIchael

 

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Hangar construction has begun.

 

I'm using individual strips of basswood and coloring them in advance using a wide range of brown and grey tones. Once the piece is assembled, this will all be unified with filters.

 

I'm using slow setting, waterproof wood glue on the walls. Once they are assembled, I soak them with water and, gingerly, intentionally warp them. I leave the clamps on overnight and am left with sagging walls, suitable for a derelict hangar. Once everything is assembled, the sag will be reduced, but the overall effect will be plausible. I'm sure other people have used this technique, but I worked out my method on an old stone building a long while back.

 

Cheers from NYC,

Michael

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hello, all,

It's been quite a journey, but I'm back after sending my mom off to Heaven. I sincerely appreciate the support from my friends in the model building community, as it has made all the difference.

So....back to the bench and very glad to be there.

Work on the hangar continues with the side wall and roof. This section of the hangar was damaged during bombing and portions later re-built. I'm trying to show the difference between old and new by varying the color tones in the wood and the methods of construction used.:

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As I did with the side walls, I wetted down the roof structure, then weighted it to give it the sagging look:

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Cheers from NYC,

Michael

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Thanks, guys...I appreciate the feedback.

Back to the plane, itself....I was able to get hold of a bunch of shots of the J.I that's in Canada and those shots proved invaluable in representing the damage sustained in combat and storage in a damaged hangar open to the elements...and pigeons.

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Cheers from NYC,

Michael

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks to you guys for weighing in. I had to finish a piece for an exhibition in Philly...been working on it since August but finally delivered it to the gallery yesterday with positive feedback from the curator! So back to the J.I!

For my hangar diorama, I wanted to do drop down lighting as seen in a lot of period photos of factories and in some of the photos of hangars. I was pretty surprised to see the wide variety of both very large bulbs and lamp shades, and felt using 5mm LEDs would replicate that look. But, just like happens when you spend months doing a conversion of a certain aircraft and someone then releases an off the shelf kit of the same,  after making all the shades and doing all the wiring, I discovered Chip LEDs. So, out came half the work I'd done. More on that in a later post.

I made a master of the lamp shade on my lathe, then used the Mattel Vac-u-form I got for Christmas the year they were new! (yes I am that old) to make shades. I wrapped the lower portion with tape to look like insulation. But, after living with it a while, I decided I didn't like the look of any of it, including the incorrect cool bluish look, so, like I said, out they came and I started over. The photo at bottom below is the before image, but will give you some idea of where this is all going.

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OK....all ahead full now.....less than two weeks until this GB is over!

Cheers from NYC,

Michael

 

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First two of eight figures finished...remember, these guys are souvenir hunters!

I don't mind that this man's upper half is in shadow. Once everything is in place, it will make sense to the overall scene. This also gives a sense of the size of the Staaken wingtip!:

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The LED in the stove actually works to create a sense of fire.

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Cheers from NYC,

Michael

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I used coal from the model RR world and set it in place using diluted white glue. I was amazed at the fire LED. All of those I've seen in the past were really hokey looking but this one really looks the part. I have been getting all my LED stuff from Evan Designs. The people could not be more helpful answering questions, super for someone like me who is a rookie in the field, and usually ship the same day. Working with them has made all the difference and I wish I'd known about them before I installed all the honker 5mm LEDs which are now coming out. http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/ I tried posting the video I had of the stove but I think it's too big for the site.

Cheers from NYC,

Michael

 

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