Hi Guys
Im thinking of making a diorama of the RAF Red Arrows half way through their display like in the picture below. The only problem I have is how to make it look like the aircraft are flying, I would like to do it in 1/72. Therefore I would be very grateful if you guys could give me some tips on how to 'make things fly'!

Thanks for your help. Cheers. Nick

That's it Nick, baby steps mate
Boy oh boy. It IS a difficult one, but there are things in your favour.The coloured trails could be used to support the jets in formation, and the jets banking each way would add to the illusion of flight. So therefore your biggest hurdle would probably be to recreate real-looking smoke trails.
I would recommend even smaller than 1/72? (Is there any smaller? 1/144 perhaps?) so as to not make the smoke trails as small in scale as possible.
Best of luck though!
Brad

Hi Brad
I think your on to something with using the smoke trails, maybe a very strong wire attached to teh rear of the aircraft going down through the smoke and into a base. Im not sure if there are any hawks smaller than 1/72 I was going to use the airfix one:

Nick

Docdios has made a dio of a SAM being launched. to get the smoke effect he used CA glue sprayed with water - maybe you could PM him for more details.

Andy

Or investigate the technique Don used to simulate flamethrower flames

http://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/1816

David

Hi guys
David, i had seen this and thought it may be the way to go, but thanks for the help
Andy. I shall pm docdios and see what i can find out.
Cheers. Nick

The flamethrower flames feature Davis sited is a good place to start.

FAUST has done a bazooka blast that would be similar too. You may want to touch base with him.

One thing I would do is to get a large picture of the sky and put it on a sturdy backing and plan on mounting it on the wall. Then use a piece of wire/rod for each plane. Insert it in the jet exhaust then cover it with smoke, then drill a hole in the backing and have the planes come straight out from the wall mounted piece.

Pipe cleaners might be a good start. The cotton wool wrapped around wire thingies used for cleaning out tobacco pipes.

You can always add more coloured cotton wool.

Just a thought...

For the smoke effects I can only echo what´s already been said but I would like to add that if there´s a dental prosthetics lab nearby or in the yellow pages,give ém a call,explain what you´re doing & ask about the wire that they use for making braces & stuff .It´s surgical quality & about the only thing strong enough to hold shape ;might need a well heavy base to hold that lot up though. I look forward to seeing it finshed. Good luck!

If my math is correct, you're going to need 7.5 meters to display this in 1/72.

I wouldn´t bet on that AJ because I´ve never seen ANYBODY fly so close & they´ve got an amazing safety record considering that. You should see when 2 fly head-on then break off at the last second (or fraction of a second). Before new safety rules for airshows regarding safety routes& distances from spectators it was in my opinion advisable to take a change of underwear to one of their performances !!!

Hi there

What about transparent rod into the exhaust and three scales 1/48 for lead aircraft, 1/72 for second row and 1/144 for tail end charlies. Would mean that you could give the impression of distance but close in the model spacing.

Clear rod would allow you to make the smoke more whispier further back without metal rod showing. The clear plastic rod could be heated gently to allow the route of the smoke to be curved for those on a banking manouver.

Hope it works out.



Nige

Pick either scale for the syncro pair buzzing into or out of scene.

MAYBE 1/72 at foreground and 1/144 to rear heading towards each other with smoke off.

Nige

Hi Guys
Thanks for all your help so far.
Nige, i think the problem with using different scales is that as Mike has said they fly so close anyway it may not look right. However i may get 1 1/48 hawk and 1 1/72 hawk and see how they look together and have a think. It will probably be a while though before anything happens as i have a few kits that i want to get out of the way first! Nick