Well I may have found something to fill the bill.Here is a very simple engine stand made of tubing and sitting on castors.(although they are hard to see partially buried in the crushed rock)It looks like it would be strong enough to support the engine while it is being worked on .It also could be put on blocks or jacks(like my Model A)to raise it higher off the floor if need be.It think that I will just use a block and tackle with chains,attached to a sliding over head rail of some sort in order to raise the whole thing off the ground.

Engine stand.
The way I see it the first thing to do is to bolt the upper horizontal tubing to the engine support flanges.For this I am using 1/8th aluminium tubing drilled at the flanges and held in place with small brass nuts and bolts.
Next I will build the rectangular floor assembly using the same 1/8th tubing and add the wheels.

From my modeling friend Stephen Lawson:

Nice job Stephen! I really like the poses of the figures especially the guy reading from the box(so natural).
Yes I have seen these "in the field" type of stands but I wanted something a little more permanent although my first instinct was to go with wood because of all the weathering possibilities.Thanks for the pics!
Cheers! John.

The stand went together easier than I expected.I cut the posts to equal length and then drilled the tubes and pinned them together.I didn't even have to build a jig,the small pins within the tubes hollow structure allowed everything to move and line up very easily.I then glued exerything with super thin superglue and painted it with black gesso ,with an overcoat of french blue straight out of the tube.All the Reid & Sons ground equipment is painted the same color.
Now I will install the caster type wheels and weather it up a bit.The two major objects in the engine shop are now just about finished so now I can go about making the rest of the furniture ,tools and workbench etc....

The above view of the underside of the engine would not normally be able to be seen in the diorama.(The casters are yet to be installed.)
The straight on view I posted so that you could see how the less than vertical engine clylinders are not so noticable with all the other angles to distract the eye.When the engine is installed in the diorama it will be even less noticable.I point this out to emphasize how dioramas allow for a little more flexibility(freedom) in using less than perfect parts.A well placed rag or cloth can also help a lot . When taking close up pictures sometimes these imperfections will be picked up.The trick is to just change the cameras angle a little.It is this little bit of extra freedom that dioramas allows me that keeps me going.While I admire the work of the perfectionists ,that is not what I am about.

My Dad.
On this eve of Rememberance Day I thought that you guys would be interested in this little piece of history.
I was searching through my local hobby store and came across a 1/48 scale model of the Dehavilland Mosquito NF Mk.X111.I noticed that it was of the same squadron (409)that my Dad was CO of in 43-44.I came home and looked through his logbook and found that he often flew R-KP the exact airplane depicted on the box.Well I went back and picked it up as a memento of his RCAF career.
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It has been said that the difference between a "pilot" and an "aviator" is that a pilot is a technician,and an aviator is an artist in love with flight.
JohnReid (Aviator)