Each year I look forward to the Heritagecon held at the Canadian Heritage Warplane Museum in Mount Hope. The mastery of the model builders is always inspiring to see and the atmosphere is pretty cool too. This year I was able to get my hands on the old Airfix Stirling Bomber Kit in its original packaging. I also found a book about Hendon and the contributions of the Graham-White family to the airfield and to aviation as well. To clarify, my Great Grandfather worked for the Graham White Company, so this allows me to delve deeper into that side of the story.
The turnout for the venue seemed a little down from last year and I don’t think I saw a single paper model on display but there were a lot of very innovative and even evocative dioramas on display. Some of which I found very effective in their portrayal of a particular moment in history.
The other side of the coin is the event allows me to really indulge my Macro jones. I mean we can shoot close ups of flowers or even insects all day long but for me, it’s not a very interesting experience but I find the aspect of trying to pull emotion out of a scene rendered in miniature satisfying as well as being really difficult.
One of the choices I made in this set was to shoot the majority of my exposures with the intention to put them through the HDR process in post. This really does increase you post workflow but my feeling is that any model or diorama is about texture as much as it is about context. HDR does amazing things when you’re looking to add texture to the shot.
The other choice I made was to shoot at pretty high ISO settings for a couple of reasons. One, the lights in the main hanger are high, which means the light at table height isn’t optimal. I could have used a flash but I prefer to work with natural light as a rule. Two, higher ISO in my opinion, gives an image tooth, which adds to the reality of the diorama you are shooting.
I will admit, my focus was split. Part of me wanted to document the skill of the model makers but the stronger pull for me this year was to do service to the idea they are trying to put forward in a way that doesn’t detract from their art.
I thought this was a stunning piece and not typical of what you see at a model show. A diorama of a very quiet moment I’m guessing, towards the end WWII. The stained glass window is really stunning.
A better shot of the work on the stained glass window.
I can only assume this is Claire Chennault. I wish there had been more info by the display.
1/144 scale or as I like to call it, the scale of ultimate frustration. However, this is a very well done model.
Not the best model I saw at the show but the sign on the side of the van made me laugh.
I thought this Beemer was pretty cool.
This CB1100R was also pretty cool.
The only thing missing from this bus was the faint smell of pee.
An impressive model of a German Rail Gun.
I loved the Canadian entries this year.
And so ends part one. I’m still working my way through a bunch of the shots but the next set will deal more with the dioramas. Hope you’ve enjoyed this though.
The Rough Draft 