PHOTOSHOP COMPOSITING - Model aircraft / dioramas

Here are a few examples of model compositing, where a plastic aircraft model kit is overlaid on a new background. With this method you can even apply all the paint work and decals in Photoshop, it makes it a very flexible way of creating period or imaginary dioramas.

1. Original frame, hand holding the model

2. Final composite, with cleaned up glue lines, aerial cables, prop blur and coral atoll

3. Original hand held B17 model

4. Final composite, with an FW190 attacking, added ejected canon shells, puffs of smoke and prop blur.

5. A6M Zero fighter cut out stages

6. Final A6M scenario, with new background and other aircraft

7. F86 Sabre, Korea

8. F4 Phantoms, Vietnam

9. F4U Corsairs, Pacific

10. Lancasters over a coast

11. Rear gunner on a Lancaster

12. Night attack

13. Lancaster's over a burning city

It does not really matter what you shoot the model against, yes a green or blue screen and access to a studio is preferable, but if you have a pool or blue sky handy, then you can do it!. Where your hand or support device eclipses any part of the model, take a second detail shot and add that to the composite. Remember we are in the land of Photoshop, we are working with layers, and you are limited by your imagination….
Click the link for a pdf on how to create a digital circular moving propeller in Photoshop.

PILATUS PC24

Because of my model dioramas, I was commissioned in 2013 to produce 20 realistic dioramas of the new Pilatus PC24 jet for press releases and a sales book, for when the aircraft would be unveiled to the public in 2014. It was a very secretive job, only Pilatus and I knew what the new aircraft would look like, and we watched the daily aviation press speculating on whether they thought it would be a jet or a turbo prop as nobody at the time knew, only that Pilatus was producing a new aircraft. I used an existing shot of mine of a PC12 on a desert airstrip from a previous Pilatus shoot, then composted the studio model into this. I had to detail the model to include flaps, static devices, white communication humps, and more. The other frames here were created the same way. It was a fun assignment!

1. Studio model of PC24

2. PC24 model with Photoshop detailing

3. Original background image of PC12

4. Final composite with new PC24