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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

"Loss Of Innocence,Will It Ever Be The Same"

I know that some of you guys are asking yourself why does this guy keep on keeping on when he gets so little response to his work?
Is it the scale? or is the subject matter too far out of the mainstream? lack of interest? etc...
Well I know that it is none of these.How? By the number of hits I get, not only on the websites but on my photobucket and my photobucket albums.I average 150,000 hits a month on my photobucket and 1,000 album visits as well.
For some reason things really took off around last March and I still really don't know why.
The sites that I contribute to are all over the map,RR,car,airplane,figure,ship,diorama, armor and diecast.
I also understand that what the hell else can you say after making the same comments over and over(usually positive).I also know because of my workload I can't participate much on each of the individual websites but as I said in the beginning my main interest here is in promoting dioramas of all genres.Call it a labor of love I guess.
A special thanks to all those who have taken the time to express their opinions and comments to me directly, especially those offering their constructive criticism.
So now it is back to work! Cheers! John.
 
Some, like me, perhaps take a sneaky view wile at work John, but don't have the time to log in and reply. However, rest assured that I certainly enjoy your updates and I am subscribed to this thread. Because of this, I've also become a member of two other forums you post updates in because of the fascinating models that are being built.

So as I have a spare second (at work), thanks again and please don't stop posting your updates.
 
It's funny you should say that as, as I looked at your last post with your repairs I was about to type a responce but it would have been just the usual "nice work" kind of thing so I didn't. This is kind of a work log and was afraid of cluttering it up needlessly with a short response you've seen many times already.

I use to build a lot of model kits and would scratch build many parts for myself and that was a lot of work but what you do is an entirely different level. I would make simple little dioramas to "frame" the model.

This thread has me thinking of my airbrush and that big chest of unbuilt models I have in the basement. Do I want to open that can of worms again? Hmmm, maybe but for now FSX takes up a lot of my hobby time. We'll see.

I think your post and photobucket hit count more accurately reflects the interest in your work than the amount of replies in this thread. I know I check every update.

It looks great so far and I eagerly await more progress.

Rob

edit- Nick mentions other forums, could I be let in on their names please?
 
One of the great by-products of doing art is how it makes you much more aware of your surroundings.I mean what is more mundane than a brick wall?
Really boring stuff right? I know that I never gave it much attention before actually building one.Now I find myself looking at the colors,the designs while driving down the road ,watching TV etc..Not only that but many old brick walls have a history if you look closely enough.Additions and subtractions made over the years.The builder never really being able to match the weathered color of the old brick.Windows and doors walled up which makes you wonder why?Additions of extra stories to a building,weathering,old signs for now non-existent products etc..etc.. There is a lot of our history tied up in brick walls for those who care to read it.
A lot of what we do as artists/craftsmen is "paying attention" to what has always been there.Most of us never really look at a flower until we come to paint it or an airplane until we come to build it or even a human face until we draw or carve it.
 
Backyardfliermairs2.jpg
 
<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> Many thanks to Kees(Varese2002) of The Aerodrome forum for the above picture ,which up until now I never knew existed.
It is a glass negative from the Chicago Daily News and it shows Mr J.E. Mair in his backyard at 3106 W Fullerton Ave Chicago in 1910.There is no record that it ever flew.Evidently the backyard is still there on Google maps.
Of course like so many other things that have happened to me while building these dioramas, this info has come to me just when I needed it.(strange but true)
My thoughts have recently been turning to the next step, the landscaping of the backyards.I see from the pic that the backyard is just like I thought it would be ,lots of mud in front and overgrown vegetation in the back.(Who the hell has got the time to worry about things like that when there are much more important things to be done?) Sound familiar?
I also noticed a smaller version of a boardwalk along the L/H fence line, which if I install it will have to run along the opposite fence due to the positioning of my figure in the composition.
Mr Mair and I have something in common, his backyard looks like my workshop/studio.Note the angle measuring device laying on the boardwalk's bottom left in the pic, and what looks like a yardstick on the ground under the wing.
Funny how he just had to install the pilots seat and control wheel even if it now gets in the way.Mr Mair must have sat behind that wheel many times during this build with wonderful dreams of flight running though his head.
Fifty years later and we were headed for the moon.Thanks Mr Mair.
 
2Low said:
It's funny you should say that as, as I looked at your last post with your repairs I was about to type a responce but it would have been just the usual "nice work" kind of thing so I didn't. This is kind of a work log and was afraid of cluttering it up needlessly with a short response you've seen many times already.

I use to build a lot of model kits and would scratch build many parts for myself and that was a lot of work but what you do is an entirely different level. I would make simple little dioramas to "frame" the model.

This thread has me thinking of my airbrush and that big chest of unbuilt models I have in the basement. Do I want to open that can of worms again? Hmmm, maybe but for now FSX takes up a lot of my hobby time. We'll see.

I think your post and photobucket hit count more accurately reflects the interest in your work than the amount of replies in this thread. I know I check every update.

It looks great so far and I eagerly await more progress.

Rob

edit- Nick mentions other forums, could I be let in on their names please?
Click to expand...
Thanks Rob! what other threads ? I contribute to about 25 altogether.
 
You are welcome John. I was wondering if that photo was your inspiration but I see it was not.

Nick mentioned that he joined 2 forums to follow your posts and that they had other wonderfull modelling going on so I was wondering where. If you could recomend one or two that would be great. I prefer aviation modelling but do like automotive, millitary, and trains as well.

That photo makes you want to root for him and hope he gets it off the ground. There may be no record of it but as they say "Reality is a word in the English language that should always be used in quotes" and in my reality he did fly it.
 
I'll check them out, thanks.

Oops I went back to the start of this thread and see now that Mr. Mair was the inspiration just a different photo. My brain's not what it used to be and it wasn't much then :)

I'm still going with my "reality" and he flew it ;)
 
<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> <!-- google_ad_section_start -->Kees found me a third pic to go along with the other two.Mr. Mair is on the left in this pic the other man is unknown.
There is a lot of good info in this pic besides what our builder looks like.The front building facades confirm this to be a fairly well off neighborhood.I can't see a roof on the building but this could be a separate apartment building ,different from the row houses that I am building.
Some of the airplanes structure is shown but on first impression it looks like what you might expect ,a very primitive build.This has been identified as a copy of the Wright Flier but I beg to differ for many reasons.First and foremost is the square wingtips more reminiscent of a Curtiss design. I still believe that this was a true backyard flier of Mr Mair's own design, with a little Wright and Curtiss thrown in.(more on this later)
From the picture Mr. Mair looks like a young ,intense,intelligent man(look at the eyes)who got caught up in the excitement for aviation at the time.An early EAA'er for sure.
If you look closely above the upper wing you will see what looks like a porch or veranda probably from where the first two pictures were taken.
Note Miss Nosy Parker peering from behind the curtains,I guess there is one in every neighborhood.
 
This is the pic that first inspired me to do a backyard flier.Somebody identified it as a Wright brothers copy, which is wrong for a number of reasons.Besides that, what is really interesting is that the builder looks like he was experimenting with some type of design for longitudinal control, other than wing warping ,a patent at the time that was jealously guarded by the Wrights.If you look carefully at the pic you will see a hinged flap sort of design outboard near the wings leading edge.He has cut the ribs at the spars and hinged it to the trailing edge of the front spar on both upper and lower wings.There also seems to be the beginning of some sort of rigging for their control.If this is what I think it is Mr Mair was surely involved with some very early innovative and creative aeronautical engineering.
I love this pic as it tells so much about the human creative spirit.Don't forget this is 1910 when many looked upon aviation as a oddity and a foolish thing to pursue.I can only speculate what his family and neighbors might have thought.
 
I was going to use 3 different colored bricks as seen in this pic, but I am afraid that those long vertical lines between brick wall separations may distract the viewers eye away from the airplane to the wall.
When I first look at this pic I see the policemen,then the brick wall and then the cars.In my diorama.I am looking to reverse this a bit and put less emphasis on the building and more on the airplane.The figure because of its position in the diorama would not be the first thing the viewer would notice but would probably be replaced by the "welcome home" sign.
I know that I seem to be going overboard with all this but it really is very important to the success of diorama.The connections to the storyboard part will come after the initial visual impact.The solitary figure,the sign,the weathered flier,the different backyards etc..will come later into the viewers imagination. (I hope)
 
John thanks for sharing you thought process on this. We the general public get to see finished works and never really know about all the decisions made to achieve what we see.

As far as going overboard, no I don't see that. The attention to detail, what to put in, what to leave out, the juxtaposition of this to that, how bold or subtle to make any feature, and more all come together to differentiate the museum worthy from the games room worthy. Your work is in the former category and I'm really enjoying reading the thought process that makes it so.

Rob
 
I am so glad to hear that you enjoy the process as much as the finished product. Cheers! John.:ernae:
 
<!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> More what to leave in and what to leave out decisions that I soon will have to make is regarding the flier itself.As you guys who have been following this thread already know,my storyline is a lot different than what is depicted in the original pic.
As it is already it would make a very nice story about an early EAA'er building a flier.The very busy Mr. Mair working intently on his flier pretty much unaware of all the things going on around him. The kids more fascinated by the lady with the dog (I think but hard to see) ,the boys sitting on the fence either too shy to approach because of the girls(this is 1910 remember) or maybe Mr Mair doesn't want them around his airplane.The washing on the line etc..etc leads me to believe that the photographer really knew what he was doing when he created this composition.Mr. Mair himself was probably staged but the rest is probably spontaneous.A wonderful "slice of life" story in itself.
I have however decided to cut down on the complexity of the story .I want to make it simpler but with more emotion.My story revolves around a single individual and his relationship with his love for aviation.It is a story of the loss of innocence both of the individual and aviation itself.What seemed like such a wonderful,innocent thing to do in the beginning now turned out to be just another instrument of war.Looking at his flier he is probably wondering "can I bring myself to complete it" knowing now what I know to be true?
The feeling among the general population after all the killing in WW1 was not very positive about machines of war,airplanes included.Most fathers would not encourage their sons to become pilots.Most pilots couldn't even find jobs other than exhibition pilots or barnstormers.So it was the mood of the times that I want to capture in my diorama.I am not sure that everyone will get it but I bet a pretty high percentage of servicemen will.Those who don't will still have something interesting to look at.
 
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