¹⁄72

Drumming of Daybreak

VICTORY: THE DIORAMA

My goal in making this Victory diorama was to appeal to the curiosity of the twelve-year-old kid in all of us (before the discovery of girls and fast cars). Personally, I prefer not to build admiralty type models, as I find the interest in them is usually limited to my fellow modelers or a few collectors.

I have noticed over the years that, in general, people are mostly attracted to models that have human figures involved in telling a story. Although the Drumming Daybreak ceremony is the main storyline, there are many other mini stories going on here, sort of dioramas within a diorama. I also wanted to depict some aspects of daily life aboard a warship.

My objective is to broadly educate and not necessarily to show things as they actually were. A good example of this is the two sailors hauling on the davit ropes to raise the boat. In reality, there would probably be twenty men on those ropes. Another example is the two sailors par buckling the barrels up the rails on the hull (let’s hope they’re empty!).

The most important factor in doing a good diorama, I believe, is to tell a story, to capture a moment in time, to take the viewer back to a different era, to hopefully raise an emotional response to what is being seen and thereby create a three dimensional work of art.

In my work I am not a purist or a rivet counter, however, I do like to have lots of detail to keep it interesting. I try to be as accurate as I can but I will use artistic license for effect. I spend a lot of time both before and during a project researching the ship and its history.

I did not work on Victory continually over the twenty-five year period of her construction, as my other interests are woodcarving and building World War I aircraft dioramas. However, it was never long out of my mind. During the periods I was not actively building, I was doing research, pouring over pictures and plans, writing letters and daydreaming.

personal bio...

I am a retired pilot and flight operations officer. I spent 28 years in aviation doing everything from sweeping hangar floors to flying instructor.

In the 1960’s, I helped my father restore a full size 1929 Curtis-Wright Travelaire biplane D4D (CF-JLW) that now resides at the Reynolds Museum in Alberta.

The last 17 years I spent in the visual arts, teaching woodcarving and making decorative birds of prey sculptures.

I have been married to the same women for 40 years, as only she (Micheline) could put up with me and my hobbies.

I presently have a Neiuport 28 – 1/16” diorama underway and am also working on a Wright Brothers Flyer. I hear through the grapevine that Model Airways has a 1/16” scale Jenny in mind. Hmmm! Now if I can only keep this 62 year old body in shape.

dedication...

This model is dedicated to all those hard-bitten sailors of yesteryear who knew that, in the age of sail, the sea could only be truly loved from the land.

In conclusion, thank you for letting me tell my story. If I can be of assistance to anyone building future models of Victory please feel free to e-mail me. Cheers! John