Abandoned Nieuport

Completed December 2020

Some fortunate guy received this shadowbox diorama as a birthday present. The plane is an Italeri 1/32nd scale Nieuport.  Shadowbox dioramas used to be in vogue, but somehow disappeared from the scene. Maybe because it is not a simple slap and display type of build? This was my first attempt at a shadowbox and, because this was a simple shadowbox build, there is not much to say about the construction, really….

When you make a shadowbox diorama: first off  is the planning. Lots of planning. Then the  diorama is built followed by a suitably sized box. The diorama is put into the box, lighting effects are added and then it is all closed up. A shadow box diorama is also referred to as a “mood box diorama”. The lighting effects set the mood. As this was my attempt at making a shadowbox diorama, my build was very basic.

(One I would build at a later stage was much more complex and can be seen in the Diorama section of this site. “Old Plane Workshop Shadowbox”).

I started with the diorama floor, walls and roof. The walls were made from 5mm featherlite foam board. I draw the prick shapes, then scribed them using a rounded toothpick so as to dent, but not tear the paper. Windows were made from 1mm square wooden strips, with clear thick plastic, which was then coated with Rust-oleum “frosted glass” for the panes.

The walls were then coated using standard Rust-Oleum brown oxide. All bricks were kept a standard colour as this was an abandoned military hangar. After a dry fit, I airbrushed the yellow, white and blue stripes using acrylic, and wiped off the various sections with a damp rag to simulate fading.  I finished this off with some moss effects pigments.

The roof beams were designed from measurements taken from my own house roof and using SA pine. 
I then applied various shades of wood stain, followed by some dry brushing with brown and black Tamiya acrylics.

Using my usual dried java moss method, I added some creeping  “foliage” up the walls and on the rafters, followed by the floor. I rounded this off by making a pool of stagnant water using varnish. I also fashioned a few odds ‘n sods to lie around and added my traditional logo sign board to the scene.

Then I made the plane and positioned it on the base. I carefully drilled a vertical hole into the wheel, shoved a piece of copper wire in, then drilled a hole in the base where this would go, and glued it in. Easy enough.

The display box was made from SA pine, Taking the inner measurements from the already made diorama. (It had to be a snug fit). 
I then stained and varnished the box, and rounded it off with a 6mm glass top.

For the lighting effects, I painted the back panel of the box white, and the back of the display, black. The 20W white AC lights were positioned so as to create the illusion of sunlight from the skylights in the roof.

And then I called it done!

Passing comment: I wonder why modellers have lost their desire to make shadowbox dioramas. They are truly challenging, and all the more rewarding for it! I definitely plan on doing another one (or more?) in future...