West Germany, late '70s

 Usual finish of handpainted craftstore acrylics and dry pastels. Moss groundcover from the roof gutter. I bought these kits about 50 years ago, took me this long to think of a diorama for them.

Holland 1944

Just this week I found these two photos of a diorama from 1977 or so. I didn't expect it would survive the trip to Ecuador, so I gave it away.

Rufe

 Tamiya's 1/48 scale Rufe, posed on the patio table. As usual, handpainted w/ craftstore acrylics; finger applied dry pastels; electrical tape canopy frame. I made up the camo, although I may have seen something similar.

Pas de Deux

This creature's overall shape kept reminding me of wingsuits. I decided to make the resemblance explicit by adding the flying human. 

The propulsion unit is an LED headlight module from my son-in-law's motorcycle.

Turkey sled

Loosely based on 20th century Russian aero-sleds and ekranoplanes; and influenced by blue-footed boobies and albatrosses. Odd bits: old lavatory faucet cartridge, pulltab seat for the rider, lower side-fins carried by gypsum-board wall anchors. 

 

USS Olympia

Pyro's USS Olympia, 1959 molds. Still a delightful kit, considering its age. Hardware store spraypaint on hull and deck, the rest handpainted with craftstore acrylics. Masts are bamboo skewers, mylar sails scaled and traced from drawing below.  A bit of necklace chain for the anchors.

RAF P-40

 Another shot at Revell's 50+ year-old 1/32 P-40 kit. New decals. Handpainted w/ craftstore acrylics, topped with finger-applied pastels in assorted shades of brown & tan. As with the prior build of this kit, I thought the kit exhausts were too understated, and replaced them with bits of plastic straw. Left off the pitot tube, I would have broken it off sooner or later. Canopy framing made with strips of painted electrical tape.