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Classic Wings Magazine WWII Naval Aviation Research Pacific Luftwaffe Resource Center
When Hollywood Ruled The Skies - Volumes 1 through 4 by Bruce Oriss


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2016 2:29 pm 
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Location: Addison, Texas
Wow, its been years since I posted here, lol I decided not to lurk anymore.

This is so cool, I absolutely love it. I have that same Woodland Scenics convertible on my N Scale model railroad. You gave me a great idea, I think I am going to buy one of these lil models (P51 more than likely) and make a "plane on a popsicle stick" for the train layout.

Keep up the good work!


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:03 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:54 am
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Location: Stratford, CT.
Well... after about six years of starting and stopping,... additional research, ...a little bit of artistic license, ...and a hard deadline; I was able to finally get this little diorama to the point of temporary completion. My goal was to get the piece completed in time for the Connecticut Air & Space Center's: Pearl Harbor Memorial Day event that was held on Saturday Dec 11, 2021. We had three speakers discuss some fascinating topics on the matter! Local author Ernest Arroyo explained a play by play of many of the days events, with special focus on some of the 19 casualties from Connecticut.

CASC board member Jerry O'Neill gave an interesting presentation on the making of Tora! Tora! Tora!

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And master modeler Bob Bracci went over the build of his amazing 4 ft x 4ft diorama of Pearl Harbor (on display at the Pearl Harbor Air Museum).

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Not to mention many museum members had Pearl Harbor related models on display. Including mine!
Here is an overview of the display I put together. There was also some amazing USS Arizona and USS Ward models on display on a table (that I forgot to shoot).

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I just had to bring down my 1/72nd "Filming the Haleiwa Scramble" diorama, along with my unfinished Tora! Zero and Val. A Kate is in works, but I've yet to decide how to display these planes in a diorama.

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I built the OD P-36 as Brown's mount from Haleiwa that day. The silver Rasmussen P-36 is a Wings of Valor toy, along with the "160" P-40B is a Forces of Valor diecast. The non-descript P-40B is a model built by Leonardo Flores who graciously donated the model to the museum for the display. Vehicles are from the Johnny Lightning Pearl Harbor series. Harley Davison is a Hallmark ornament.

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Atop an original Hinomaru is our Wildact group. "F-15" is a beautiful pre-built Easy Model, while "6-F-5" is another Wings of Valor toy. The final Wildcat in the back is a 1942 era one in Thatch markings (also from Leonardo Flores) so I decided to keep it in. And the Zero is a diecast Forces of Valor toy. The small diorama in the center came to me as I was looking around my work bench, thinking if there was anything else I should bring. Then a lightbulb went off. I had this third and final Wings of Valor B-17C toy that I had modified and weathered, and thought that would be neat to add, but how? That's when I remembered I had a Micro Machines P-40B and a Zero that could pass as the same scale. I quickly searched around and sure enough, I found them. And they looked pretty good! My father had cut off the bulky inaccurate landing gear when I was a kid. All I ended up doing was adding some stars on the fuselage of the P-40, and touching up the diagonal blue band on the Zero. Then it was just bending some wire I had, drilling holes in everything, and putting it together. Last was the plaque. Not bad for a 20 min diorama at the last second!

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But my real submission for the event was of course my 1/144th scale Scramble at Haleiwa! diorama.

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So the final things I did to get this diorama ready for display was to complete the P-40s (mostly), P-26, military truck, detail, figures. plaque, and felt underneath.

P-40s: Both P-40s needed to weathered, landing gear permanently attached, canopy painted and attached, touch ups etc. I'm overall happy with how they came out. I still need to add the small doors for the landing gear and maybe some wires. I have to still build the third (correct) P-40, number "155" that I'll add to the diorama eventually. And both canopies did not go on as easily as I'd hoped. I might remove them and see if I can shave them down a little more so they fit better. Not to mention the third P-40 I'd like to have open.

P-36: My father's amazing P-36 (chronicled earlier) was a great addition to the diorama, before the plastic kit was released. I didn't modify it at all.

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P-26: I decided to include the P-26 as the older workhorse, shoved into a corner and being slowly worked on. I realized that the scene would look a bit more dynamic if it was half tarped and covered over. So I got to making some 1/144 canvas. Rolling papers in a 50/50 solution of Elmer's glue and water. Make sure to try and remove most of the water from the paper. Then it's just a matter of applying and working the wet piece over whatever you want. Once I got it to where I liked it, I let it sit over night. The next day it was SOLID! I painted the tarp, detailed / weathered the P-26 a little, threw two stars of it, glued it into place, and covered it with what I thought was a flat clear coat. It's still a but shiny, so I'll be going back to knock down the sheen.

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Details: Since I had the mixture for more tarps, I decided to make a few more and place them strategically. One half covering the radial engine on a skid in the back. I might still add a few more ladders / work benches somewhere.

1941 Ford Truck: I finished this truck in time to add it to the diorama. It's supposed to be the resident field truck at Haleiwa. I still need to add stars, and might scratchbuild a small rig / crane system on the back end.

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Figures: These are the Pegasus 0852 World War II American Infantry painted figures. I modified two of them for Taylor and Welch and I plan on adding 4 to 5 additional ground crew to be helping with the planes.

Plaque: This was easy since my day job is a graphic designer and I thankfully have access to a laser engraver.

Felt: Always something I plan on doing BEFORE you build anything onto the base, but I always forget. So that was a fun experience trying to line up the felt underneath.

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So in the end I'm happy (overall) with the result. And I'm certainly glad to have it off my workbench and out someplace where people can enjoy it. So eventually I will swing back around to it and finish it off with the following checklist:

    Build, paint, weather, etc P-40B "155"
    Add stars and crane to 41 Ford Truck
    Apply flat coat to P-26
    Add gear doors to P-40s
    Build workbenches / tables / chairs / fuel cans / etc and add them to diorama
    Paint 4 to 5 ground crew and add them

So I hoped you liked this wrap up (for now) of this little pain in the a$$ diorama! I will eventually return to this guy and complete the list above. Thanks

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 9:01 am 
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
Looks fantastic. :drink3:

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 9:12 am 
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Location: Just outside of Grosse Ile N.A.S.
That came out great, nice work.


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