Ed's Hangar Background

Woodsy,

Here's a few shots showing how I did the hangar background for my air field diorama board.

I took photos of several different types of hangars while attending air shows at Nellis AFB (I'm only showing one here though).

Any distractions - like modern era halogen lights - were Photoshopped out, the photos printed on heavy cardstock, then mounted to foamcore.

I attached a flap at the back with about 2" sticking below the bottom of the foamcore which allowed me to insert the photo between the back of the diorama base and the larger backdrop.

This prevents the photo from just flopping over as well as allowing me to place it anywhere I like. So far, it's worked pretty good.

The in-progress photos were taken on my older 20" x 8ft shelf runway where I used Woodland Scenics 'Top Coat - Concrete' as the color for my ramp (the area in front of the hangars).

It is more of a tan color but did the job for me at the time. You'll notice however that the photo of the actual hangar shows a more realistic light gray forward of the doors, and this is how the new board is painted.

From Vegas Air Field

Ed

Ed's Tarheel Project Sword Probe Force 2 Prepping For Take-off

Woodsy,

I haven't figured out if my Tarheel PF2 is taking off from the Project SWORD field in Woomera or London .....

... But, here it is just outside the hangar on my new runway display board!

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's New Runway Diorama/Display/Photo Board

Woodsy,

Back in 2018 I built a runway project out in The Cave, a 20"D x 96" (8ft) L runway to display various space and aircraft toys on for photography.

 It was a good concept but ended up falling flat.

Why? Well, first and foremost it was a shelf - a long shelf - and I really needed that space to store toys on. Secondly, in order for me to take in all 8ft in one photo, I'd have to knock a hole in the opposite wall and make the shot from outside!

I've had a couple of 2'x4' framed pieces of particle board sitting out in The Cave waiting for me to come up with some kind of idea for their eventual use. I thought, heck, I have soooo many spaceships, aircraft, helicopters, hangars, launch pads, etc., it's nutz - and no decent way to photograph them. The project isn't finished yet, but just good enough to start taking photos on, which I will send in a follow-up e-mail. The project was worked on top of our washer and dryer out in The Cave as shown in these photos.

From Vegas Air Field

Ed

Ed's Red Alert!

Woodsy,

An urgent communiqué has been received warning of an incoming alien fleet.

 Our outpost has been placed on alert and our fighter's scrambled. Missile defense vehicles have been posted on the perimeter and Space Marines deployed to defensive positions.

HG Toys spaceships flying over MPC 60mm ringhand space troops and mobile missile launcher.

Ad is a scan of an original comic book ad from the 1960s. Now, that is a scene I'd love to recreate!

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Alien World Diorama Base

Woodsy,

My red diorama base was built back in 2012 and made from a 29.5" x 11.5" piece of shelving (cut to fit within a shelf unit in The Cave), Styrofoam sheets for the rockwork, carved then covered with lightweight patching plaster, and lastly painted. 

I didn't want a gray Moonscape look for this one, but rather a red Martian-esque look. The photos show an additional rock outcropping which is actually a separate piece and removable, depending on whether I want to use it for a shoot. 

The background picture I painted myself - also in 2012 - on black foamcore. It's not made to represent Earth, just an alien world. I chose blue because it was a nice bright color that stood out from the black backing.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Starry Starry Night

Woodsy,

This time I've included two snaps - the original photo without stars, and bottom one with stars added. 

Does the addition of stars to the background add or detract from the image?

From Vegas Base

Ed

Close Encounters of the Ed Kind

Woodsy,

Here's another 2 photos of my GIANT spaceship. Having landed, its troops are now deployed to scout for alien presence - which they found!

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Small Space Toy Photo Set-up

Woodsy,

Here's the set-up I use for a bunch of my small space toys.

Sometimes I use the Tri-ang Moonscape, other times the MPC Golden Astronaut Moonscape.

Those small plastic background hills are included in a lot of Little Green Army Men buckets as terrain pieces and have come in handy for these shoots. The background picture I painted myself many moons ago.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Diorama: Hannah-Barbera's Flintstones Joy Ride

Woodsy,

This is one of the very first small dioramas I built w-a-y back when. These were the only photos that survived some unfortunate computer issues a long time ago.

From Vegas Used Car Lot

Ed

USA

CENTRE THE DRAGON: BOYLEI HOBBY TIME'S INSPIRATIONAL 'DEFEND THE TAVERN' DIORAMA

 Sometimes you see someone with such incredible skill that you just want to give up there and then and start shelling peas.

My mate Mark introduced me to such a one, Boylei Hobby Time.

Based in Colorado USA Boylei is a gifted diorama modeller. His use of lighting seems particularly inspired to me.

This diorama just blew me away, Defend the Tavern.

You can watch how Boylei makes this diorama on his You Tube channel.

Check out his other fabulous creations including his latest, a train lay-out.

https://www.youtube.com/@Boylei

What do you think?

Sherlock Holmes Book Nook Diorama

Book nooks are small dioramas, which will fit on a book shelf. They are very narrow, but fairly deep. Apart from making your own, there are now kits available. Wood seems to be the main material.

In this series of You Tube videos Brad hair looks at a kit called Library Prague. He turns it in to a crime scene for Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson to investigate. The figures used are 3D printed.

I had not seen these kits before, but had a look around the shops recently, and found some. Not the same as the one featured in this video, but similar. They include lighting.

Fairly expensive, but they look like fun.

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag86Fhcmev8

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JKYuPNoMvE

Part 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQJru61ZdIM

Part 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgEvu-U1LiU

Part 5 - all finished. A highlight of this episode is a guest appearance by his cat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLpd3E1AstY

Paul Adams from New Zealand

JOSEPH SVEC'S INCIDENT AT ALPHA 1 BASE CAMP DIORAMA

Here are photos based on the movie Forbidden Planet.

The space cruiser is homemade wooden. The space accessories and figures are reissue Marx. the ID monster is 3-d printed.

Here is an original scene, “Incident on Alpha-1 base camp”

It uses LOD Space Aliens, SCS-Direct, and Marx astronauts and accessories. The flying saucers are from the movie Mars Attacks.

The terrain pieces are reissue Marx.

I hope you enjoy the photos. 

Joseph.

JOSEPH SVEC'S SPHINX AND TIME MACHINE

Here are more of my diorama photos for H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine.

The time machine and sphinx building are homemade, the Sphinx figure, Eloi, Morlocks, and character figures, were purchased online.

Hope you like them.

Joseph Svec.