I took some styrene sheet and fitted some end plates to the tank.The pill bottle was sanded down and burnt umber gesso applied .The visible line around one end will be covered with a strap.The tires were worn down with a belt sander and just now need to be weathered sometime in the future.
This could be a horse drawn wagon by adding seats over the front wheels but I think that I will leave it as a trailer-type wagon as shown in the pics.
Does anyone know what that is at the front of the tank that looks like a bunch of wheel cranks welded together?
I added the straps,filler neck,drain pipe and water drain spigot under the tank.

Fuel ,water or oil ?
Until I can find more research material on this as a fuel wagon,I think that I shall just call it a tanker wagon of some sort ,as it could have been used also for oil ,water or other liquid.
The problem I have with it as a fuel wagon is that I don't know how or where a pump and hose would be connected.If used for water gravity feed would be enough provided by the tap at the rear of the tank but if used for fuel a hand operated wobble pump of some kind would have to be installed but where?Then there is the hose to consider, where and how would it be properly stowed?


This same wagon could be built in any scale,horse drawn or whatever.Just find a nice set of wheels,chassis and springs and use your imagination from there.A lot of this ground equipment was actually built this way.A car maker would supply the chassis or a beefed up version thereof, and the rest would be constructed as need be.Even on military fields I have seen a wide variety of stuff that was adapted for "in the field" use.For a semi-scratchbuilder like me that suits me just fine and is one of the big reasons that I do WW1 dioramas, as it gives me lots of room for artistic license.

Another pic

Another wheelbarrow.
I would like to build another wheelbarrow that I will casually prop up against one of the hangars doors ,holding it in the open position.The first one shown here is in the Jenny diorama.
This is a nice little project for those not used to working with wood and would be a nice warm up piece if you would like to do something more complicated like the tanker.
All you require is a few lengths of basswood obtainable from any hobby store especially those that carry RR stuff and a few coffee stir sticks.Most modelers would probably have an old wheel or two laying around from some past project or you could simply use a round piece of wood cut from a dowel.A piece or rod or tube for the axle and that it about it.
As far as tools are concerned I use a Xacto knife with a #18 blade and a small hobby saw and miter for most of my work.Although I do have power saws etc..I find that none are really necessary for this type of model work.(I also have a fancy airbrush that I hardly ever use)My advice to beginners would be to learn to do all this by hand and then if you want to you can buy the fancy stuff later.For sanding just take some various size sticks and dowels and glue some cloth backed, belt sander type sandpaper to them.Buy several grits mostly the finer stuff.
The wood sizes required will depend upon the scale you are building in.In this case you could measure your own wheelbarrow and reduce it to the scale you require.Have someone hold the wheelbarrow and take a pic or use
a scale figure as a guide.Anyway wheelbarrows come in lots of sizes so no need to be too accurate here.Where you have to be careful is with the grip on the handle,don't make it too big.I have sets of scale hands for this.
Water based flat acrylics are recommended for painting and caulk pastels for shading.That is about it.

Major change in plans!
Diorama #1 the Albatros and diorama #3 the Jenny are now almost finished.Diorama #2 the Nieuport, is a little different than the other two, in that it is more of a traditional type shadowbox.It is mostly finished on the interior but the exterior requires some work.I had originally planned to put this dio in an old TV cabinet and display it in my home but when the CAM expressed an interest in acquiring my dioramas,I just put it aside in storage until I could figure out a good way to display it.Well I think that time has arrived!
It could be built into a wall as a traditional shadowbox or put in a box of some sort and displayed that way or some other way that I haven't thought of yet.
That is where I would welcome some suggestions from you guys.
I am sure that the museum has staff for this kind of thing but I would still like to have some input as to how it will be displayed.Mostly this will involve the lighting.
I envisioned an old barn type setting with the light of dawn or sunset coming through the cracks in the boards.Not the kind of place where you would want to spend a Canadian winter but maybe a place in France behind the lines where an aircraft could be rebuilt during the summer months or even a school type setting where mechanics could be given an engine conversion or aircraft rigging course.Anyway I so like the idea of the light shining through the boards the story will be adapted to fit.(artistic license comes to the rescue again)
The interior lighting is really simple with the whole thing lit by a single Xmas type bulb hidden in the ceiling.
Some of the rear and side panels are removable for picture taking purposes but of course this access will be lost once it is on display.
Please bear with me if I seem to jump from diorama to diorama but on a long project such as this (almost ten years)a change is as good as a rest.

I will open up a new thread for this called "Finishing up the Nieuport diorama"

A couple more figures!
I feel like painting figures for awhile.I have chosen to do two WW2 Soviet tank crew members that I have acquired recently.I want to put them in the area shown in the picture that is in the rear of the hangar well away from any confusion with the main storyline.The final composition or arrangement of the objects in this area will be made when the figures are finished.I thought that I could add a little life to the area without having to show a lot of activity which is not my style.I like my figures in relaxed poses.I haven't quite decided what the truck will be hauling or if it will have any obvious connection to the figures.
It could just be parked there or temporarily stopped.I thought that one figure could be holding a map and another pointing in a certain direction as though it had stopped to ask for directions.These guys are dressed in what looks like officier's uniforms so they will have to be depicted as doing something other than grunt labor.(like unloading wood)
These figures will not require too much modification to make them into WW1 German types.In fact they could be used as is with a few minor uniform adjustments.
I have already put the torso of the first figure together and like what I see so far,minimum flash and the parts fit well together with minimum adjustments.Any unwanted seams can easily be filled with super thin ,super glue and sanded smooth.

John you have done some incredible work with this diorama, I hope you are going to submit a build log to Aeroscale. This will be a popular feature I believe.

Harley,the fighter pilot's dog and I are sharing a great feeling of loss today.My beloved Dolly,a 14 year old Siberian Husky/Arctic Wolf mix died of old age last week.

Thanks guys for your kind words about the loss of my doggy companion.

I finally have started back to painting the last two figures.I have discussed my painting methods many times before so I won't repeat it here.Sufficient to say that it is based upon Jo Sonja flat acrylic paint and pastels for shading.A little unusual way to paint but it works for me in a diorama setting.
Both figures have been given a couple of coats of a burnt umber/water mix.The figure on the left has been given a single coat of nimbus gray undercoat to approximate the final color.
The WW1 uniform experts will notice a few discrepancies here and there but they are pretty close for my purposes.I understand that there were,in the beginning, a lot of different uniforms accepted in the German air force as many of its members were from cavalry units and were allowed to wear their previous uniforms or parts of them.So in keeping with that fact I am leaving them as they are.

The possibilities are endless with digital pics!
Just havin some fun with pics!
Through modern digital photography we can all now be great dioramists.Using all the digital tools available to us now ,just add a little of your own creativity and before you know it the simplest diorama can take on new life.
For some pics black and white are perfect for the era that you are trying to recreate.Lucky for me my eras of choice are mostly before the color stuff was invented anyway.
All you budding dioramists out there now have a lot of options.Do you want to create an actual , physical ,3 dimensional diorama or do you want to be a Steven Spielberg type and bring all the elements of your ideas together and get your stuff on film(or digital in this case).Everyone recognizes that film makers, such as Spielberg in our era, are great artists but what do they actually have to physically show for all their creativity? A few cans of film?
Storyboard dioramists can do exactly the same thing but our challenge is even greater because we only have one frame of our movie to work with and no dialogue.Our dialogue exists in our viewers imagination and we as artists are only there as guides to help point the way.
As an artist it is such a wonderful time to be alive!
__________________
"Once upon a time......." Storyboard dioramas by JohnReid.

This is how I would envision what a shadowbox storyboard diorama would look like if it was hung on a wall.It is a little weak on story line,(more like a vignette), but you get the idea.Note the inner black border that acts as a reveal.
These are great visual tools that can be used to plan your diorama and change things as you go along.
Even as an ordinary picture it works well because of the feeling of depth that is given off because of the floor boards and the single lit window.
The border colors and frame were chosen to harmonize with the colors in the diorama.