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WWII RAF airfield diorama


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Help please

i need help designing an airfield diorama for the following models:

1x bristol blehnim mk1 being repaired

1x bristol blehnim mk1 engine on fire 

1x RAF bommber re supply set preferably with the blehnim being repaired

1x airfield controll tower

please help me as even though i am an experienced moddeler i have never made an airfield diorama before

 

 

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If I was to do this I'd find out if there was an old airfield nearby that the Blenheim flew from. As it happens I know that they flew from RAF Collyweston, which was a relief landing ground for (and was later incorporated into) RAF Wittering. I'd then do a Google Image Search to find out what the airfield looked like. Did it use dispersal pens, the type of hangars on site, what the Watch Office (control tower) looked like etc. Best to look for images on line for inspiration because only you know what appeals to you.

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I've never done a diorama myself but I would like to and have been turning it over in my mind for some months. I bought several Airfix 1/48 'accessory' kits like the refueller, the Bedford truck and the crews, all of which I am yet to do anything with.

 

I did complete the 1/48 Hurricane which I was going to use as the starting point but I don't think it good enough to justify the diorama; this will be a project for the future when I fully intend to do the new Spitire and/or new Hurricane again.

 

Whilst I do strive for accuracy and perfection, at least as far as the kit itself will let me, I'd be more inclined to 'artistic licence' as far as the diorama goes. I would certainly look at web images to get the overall flavour, but if no airfield ever had the layout my diorama ended up with, I would not worry too much. At the same time, I'd not let myself depict an airfield that was clearly of the 1950s onwards because it would be historically inaccurate.

 

But that's personal taste. If one wished absolute accuracy the only way is to recreate airfields known to have operated the type and as Ratch suggests, that means visiting known bases or finding specific images. My own justification to myself would be that nobody could really tell what airfield it was meant to be anyway (is anyone really going to go 'ahhhh that can't be RAF Burnleasefoldingham, they had two adjacent dispersal areas and only ever flew MkIV Blenheims'?). Further to that (whether historically accurate or not and to justify it to myself only), during WW2 any aircraft would have landed anywhere due to the state of some airfields after a bombing raid.

 

I'd love to see some photos of the finished item so that I might get some inspiration myself.

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I should have said, I also bought some 'grass' used for model railways. It is therefore at a smaller scale than 1/48 but I wonder if it will look more accurate for my purposes in 1/48. It's the foam, scatter, type. I also got some 'earth' at the same time so with careful laying, I will have some muddy grass. If there was ever any concrete or hardstaning areas, I will look at proper 1/48 scale commercially available bases which I know exist. That, wtih the scatter material, should produce something. I hope.

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Here are various airfield elements I've put together.

My first attempt.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1312/4776356/10048213/142535681.jpg

And another.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1312/4776356/10048213/193424770.jpg

This was inspired by Grafton Underwood.

http://pic100.picturetrail.com/VOL761/13303934/24438612/407602021.jpghttp://pic100.picturetrail.com/VOL761/13303934/24438612/407602024.jpghttp://pic100.picturetrail.com/VOL761/13303934/24438612/407602028.jpghttp://pic100.picturetrail.com/VOL761/13303934/24438612/407602035.jpghttp://pic100.picturetrail.com/VOL761/13303934/24438612/407602038.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1312/4776356/16163162/283961803.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1312/4776356/18877177/409847061.jpg

Based on King's Cliffe. Originally known as Wansford, it was RAF Wittering's second relief landing ground. The Air Ministry renamed the airfield RAF Kingscliffe, contracting the name of the nearby village. It served both the RAF and USAAF.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1312/4776356/20071953/410714809.jpg

These aircraft are from the 77th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Group, USAAF.http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1312/4776356/20071953/410714811.jpg

Two Airfix 40mm Bofors guns (02314) and various Airfix figures on a Bellona (?) vac-formed base.http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1312/4776356/19793783/410293965.jpg

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Ratch, there's probably too much to go into too much detail, but are you able to explain, even if broadly, what materials you used and how you constructed your diorama?

 

For instance, though not limited to, what did you use for grass and how you got the bunkers shaped? I'm also interested in the hardstanding: my guess it is a commercially avaiable base?

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