No. Nein nix, niet, u bout beu coupe dinkidau... uuuhhh thats a no.

Gotha had two engines this has four. It is depicted as being in Germany...there are 722 figures. Don't tell me ya'll don't have any reference material?

Hi

I know little of airplanes (as my post will show) but I only count 2 engines . If it's in Germany, and considering that there are some other German planes on show, some without wings, I would assume that the occassion is a launch or just a "look what we have" moral boosting event? No idea where or when though, but using history and some deduction I would guess the later part of the First World War. Planes look more advanced than before the war, but Germany would not have had such a display after WW I. Could not be later as the planes had moved on from bi-planes before WW II and there seems to be at least one lady in the audience carrying a type of umbrella which wwent out of fashion after the 1920's. Hey, You got to admire the amount of detail in his dio :-) .

Like I said, I'm rather ignorant on the subject of planes but I thought I give it a go, never to old to learn something new.

Cheers

Henk

Ola People

I would like to give a try on this.

Indeed this is not a Gotha being not really good in WW1 planes I know virtually nothing of them still..... In my opinion after having done some research on the web I think I can Identify this plane as being a Zeppelin Staaken R.VI 31/16
The site where I found it said there are only a small number of them produced. Also from the same site I found out that the plane was accepted in 1918 and that almost means it can`t be from before that unless we are talking about a prototype.
Since being it a german plane it is possible that we are dealing with an Airshow somewhere in Germany but very early in 1918 as the war wouldn`t take that long anymore. Can`t find any account of an airshow like this really did happen.

Well this was what a lost hour at the office brought up for me. Am I correct?

Thanks to Faust for giving the clue. Stephen Lawson has shown great patience over the 11 years to build the plane and dio (if I read it correctly).

Here are a couple of excerpts from his story:

The Zeppelin Staaken R.VI type: Eighteen examples of the R.VI were built by a total of four different contractor's. The profile seen here was built by the parent firm, Staaken Werke , Berlin. R.VI 31/16 left the factory with four 245 hp Maybach D.IVa engines. This power plant combination was usually seen on the Naval Staakens type 'L' with floats. She was accepted in January 1918 and is seen here before her assignment to Riesenflugzeug Abteilung 500 at Custinne airfield in France. It was thought to be covered in 'Splinter pattern' lozenge camouflage. Notably its sister the R.VI 30/16 was covered in a more 'Regular pattern' where each lozenge was closer in size and shape to its neighbor. Staaken was the only builder to use the both cross colours of black & white. The others used only white borders. The R.VI 31/16 crashed at Beugny near Pronville on the night of September 15/16, 1918. On that mission she was caught in a group of searchlights and a Sopwith Camel night fighter (D'6102) of RAF 151 sqdn fired 500 rounds into the fuselage and engine nacelles. The British pilot, Lt. F. C. Broome saw the fire break out in 'tremendous severity.' The German pilot, Lt. Wohlgemuth left the his chair of R.VI 31/16 and ran to the aft gunner's station calling for his crew to abandon the giant ship. The pilot was the only member to survive. Its wreckage was given the British capture number G/3rd/24.

The Diorama: This is a fictionalized account of a proposed air show/ display that would have been put on in the first weeks of April 1918 outside Berlin at the Staaken Works. Vendors of dried food stores, beer, baked goods and spirits, were to be invited out. Several Circus' were to be recruited and with a railroad spur nearby the Staaken factory for everything to be made ready. Old captured aircraft were going to be on display and whole families would have been permitted to have their photos taken on them. Center stage attraction was slated to be the Zeppelin Staaken R.VI . For unknown reasons the air show was canceled. My display represents only a segment of the total proposed festivities. The project includes 1@'Airfix' & 723 @'Preiser' figures, 27 @ different types of 'Preiser's' products (some in multiples), 1@ 'IHC' Carousel #5111 (modified to a 1900 configuration) and 3 @ 'Jordan Highway Miniatures' vehicles.


All I can say is AMAZING.

Brian

And yes Jackflash - I realise that it is your work.

I assume that the engine configuration was push-pull on each wing which made the 4 engines hard to detect, or was this actually a prelude to the system used in the ill-fated He 177?

Brian

Bilko and Faust, right on and Henk points for noting the details. Also, thanks for the kind words! The story was run in Scale Aircraft Modeler for Aug. 2004. (My premier article for this pub. group.) Paul Eden Mng Ed. is a grand fellow. Though I haven't seen it yet. I have gotten near to 50 responses from other sites. Yes her power plant was a pushme pull you arrangement. I'll be glad to answer any questions here. JackFlash

My might I add not a drop of simulated blood was spilled in the building of this diorama except my own. It was on a summer day in 1984 that I was working with the old steel cutter wheel on my Dremel motortool. I was chopping the top wing wooden spar and my left index finger tip 6cm. Ouch! I have truely bled for my craft. JackFlash

Here is a bit of fun.
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?cp=1252&FORM=MSN6B&q=Zeppelin+Staaken+R.VI

For the benefit of any neophyte that might occassion here. I ask a question to all who can answer...What makes a diorama?

Since most of you will be aircraft devotees (wingnuts) that reads this hopefully you will avoid the blood spatter issues that plague the treadhead domain.

Jackflash

Being a bit of a beginner myself in the art of dioramas, this is my opionion.

Well without going to any dictionary a diorama is basically like a 3 dimension photo i.e. a depiction of a moment in time. Be it real or imagined.

Some tell a story alone others need some written explanation with them so that the viewer understands what they are seeing.

They all represent a great deal of time and patience by the maker.

Brian

.....................Cool planes.....................
(Don't do WW1)

LOL, Ralphidus

Why? Not up to it?

Now about dioramas... There are multiple threads about how to but what makes a diorama. The modern idea is a model in a setting that tells a story. Is it better to have a title or not to have a title?

wow, those are great dioramas!! but where is the blood?!?!? just kidding, I see you did not forget that old discussion.

I love WWI aircraft, but I don't like to build them, don't know why, maybe they challenge my patience.

I think a good diorama does not need a title to get its point across, and if it needs one then it is probably not a strong enough idea.

so it is better to have one and not need it, that to need one and not have it.

Hmmm ... blood splatter ... treadhead ... and the question ... "What makes a diorama?" ... how can I not reply ...

BLOOD SPLATTER! Blood splatter makes a diorama ... ONLY KIDDING!

According to Webster:




My first diorama was one my mother and I did when I was in first grade ... it was a caveman (plastic soldier with a loin cloth (Mom's design) and spears in place of a M1 protecting his papier-mache cave against a plastic T-Rex. It's was constructed in a cutaway shoe box ... it was quite cool ... BUT alas ... no blood ... I was but a neophyte at the time.

My favorite diorama when I was a kid was the dogfight scene I set up on the celing in my room. Three B-17's fighting off a slew of ME-109's and FW-190's ... I had just finished the Martin Caidin's book "Black Thursday" about the first Schweinfurt raid ... I was inspired ... a very blood splattering story ...

yes at one time I was a Wingnut and now I'm a Treadhead ...

reminds me of the musical tune in Oaklahoma ...

" OHHH ... the Windnuts and the Treadheads should be friends ..."

Anyway I digress ...

Windnuts? :-)

If it ain't got no mud, it ain't no diorama. Blood is optional. Mud...need more mud .. NURSE. :-)

If man was meant to fly, he would have been born with wings

Cheers
Henk

And if man were meant to drive tanks his eyeballs would pull out of their sockets to see out of the slit. (no periscope needed.}

Now back to what makes a diorama. The modern use of the term is a minature or full sized replication of a scene from history. Aside from depiciting Cromagnan man or tankers, the eating of raw meat is not a requirement. After all; '...flyers are gentlemen and do not dig in dirt...like peasants...' Ok , ok ...too over the top. The essence of what makes a diorama is;
1. The story.
2. The objects that convey the story.
3. The viewer.

The story must tell the human condition.
The objects must convey the story well.
The viewer must identify with the story enough to share in its effects.

Some say the simplest diorama is the most powerful.
The more powerful an image the less you need a title. The tough part of the equation is the viewer. They will undoubtedly come from a wide variety of people and experiences. The closest thing to real life that people readily identify as truth are photographs. Shep Paine says that he doesn't like to duplicate a photo scene in every detail. But I like to show the image in 3-D and thereby tell the rest of the story. often it is what is just out of the camera lens range that can be employed to tell this story. The image of war is crowded with the the results of combat. ruined streets, death and shattered lives. Theheart of war is the struggle to survive in short 'courage to face the enemy'. The honors, the medals the heraldry are simply the trappings.

The test is can we recreate the the moments that most affect the outcome of war. With plastic , resin and white metal we forge the scene sculpting the ground work, getting the faded colours right, the facial expressions and flesh tones. Then ask yourself will it be memorable, will the work you pour into it be remembered? Or will it be just another Verlinden knockoff? Even if it is marked only by the one person who it was made for(the builder or the viewer) then you have done something. Then ask yourself could I do better next time. The most critical questions you can ask are ...what is the story? and ...did I convey it well? The probables are the possible stories that can be told.

To make a further point first let me qualify this as a model that includes WWI aircraft parts but is not an aircraft. The best we could say is a soft skinned vehicle...dune buggy

I ask you is this a diorama?

Ola

From what I can see in the picture this is not a dio but more of a vehicle display. Only a Vehicle with 1 figure on a little display. It`s not really telling a story either. I think that on most events and contests this will be considered being a vehicle display. Something among Civilian cars scale ???? something something.
Of course I don`t know how many guys the maker of this dio managed to hide behind the Dune Buggy and what story they tell. In that case it could be considered being a Dio but what is visible now... Nope Not a dio but Vehicle Display.

I think this would qualify as a vingette.. Not to sure were the transition between a vingette and diorama lies, but then, what do I know. Love you're little homebuild, but the tyres wouldn't get you very far on the beach, me thinks . looks more like a drag racer to me. What scale is this?

Cheers
Henk

FAUST has a valid point. While the display has aircraft parts and details the story is not readily apparant to most people. So here we are looking at the viewer ... the third part of the equation.

This display needs a title or at the very least a paragraph to explain itself. Most military dioramas need a time frame, a date or location as reference. Like "D-Day plus 10" or "Tet 68." While some builders could create a humorous title for this display like 'The Baron's Staff Car." The historical figure in the correct uniform of a Bavarian Col. from the chief of staff, detailed the engine and Spandau machine guns may refer to a time and date, the impossibilty of the Dragster removes this from a historical perspective. So at most vehicle display or humorous entry are possibilities.

The problem with civilian vehicles is we almost always see them a displays no matter what their setting. The action has to be very visual and to imply a story is simply not enough.

1/24 scale