Ls1in600s

Building a 1:600 scale airfield (Part5) Scratch Built Buildings

2010-11-04T13:46:00.000Z

I wanted to create a few representative military looking structures to embellish my airfield so here is a selection:

Weapons store

Made from appropriately shaped polystyrene packaging inserts, asymmetrically cut, stuck to a 20x20cm cardboard base with 'No More Nails' glue and stippled to create a grass texture

After priming it white the Grass was painted in

I then added in a roadway using a Microsoft word creation

Command bunker

Made out of an instant coffee jar lid

Lid stuck to base and the polystyrene layers added and result stippled with No More Nails

Base sprayed white and grass area added

Final concrete finish

Securing s base to the construction

Small Bunker complex

Made from another polystyrene infill

Black infill based and then stippled with No More Nails

White polystyrene inserts added for 'concrete' fronts

Painted grass and concrete added

Storage Bunker

This time made from a clear plastic blister mould for my son's 'Ben 10' watch

Based and surrounded by polystyrene then stippled

Grass painted on after base spraying white

'Igloo' and paths painted to represent concrete. 'Outbuilding' uses the strap buckle cover

Scratch Building a 1:600 scale HAS complex (Part4)

2010-10-18T13:38:00.000+01:00

Exhaust Ports

Bricks assembled

Having failed in my attempt to cast from the moulds I created time constraints of a looming game meant that I had to cut corners. So back to my son's Lego hoard for a 'long term lease' of bricks. As some of his Lego was inherited from my childhood then these pieces, being 30-40 years old had taken quite a bashing. My source was a 1970's era Lunar Lander in blue - no doubt worth a small fortune if complete but I know it was far from.

Lego bricks of the type chosen

The design was the same as my initial prototype (middle top still sporting 'Green Stuff'' from it's mould mission) and were duly offered up to the HAS board.

Initial Exhaust Spacing

Upside down view with Exhausts in place and painted

Only 5 sets of Lego components were super glued together, covered with a thin coat of No More Nails and then stippled. All shelters and ports were then glued in place and any touch up paint applied.

Board with HAS, final taxiways and hard standings
plus vegetation plus some aircraft for scale

I knew I was tight for space on one HAS so I ended up with a simplified single brick design (bottom right above) so no engine run ups in this HAS then.
Vegetation
I then stuck on some Woodland Scenics Clump Foliage in light green and medium green to represent trees. I also touched up some final paint work to leave me with an acceptable product in time to add to the airfield for the game we planned. Time will tell if i come back to this model to apply detailed finishing touches.
In the mean time a few motivational shots with aircraft out front of shelter or on taxiway.

Tumbling Dice F-15's

Tumbling Dice F-16's

Tumbling Dice F-15's & F-16

Tumbling Dice F-15

Tumbling Dice F-15's & F-16

Scratch Building a 1:600 scale HAS complex (Part3)

2010-10-06T12:25:00.004+01:00

Now that I have my shelters how can I mount them?
Well find a board suitable for mounting a number of shelters - my choice was to recycle an old thick card calendar backing (420mm x 330mm) that has already been utilised by my 8 year son for a school project, waste not, want not.

The recycled board with initial layout

I cleaned the board up by demolishing the large cardboard church that had originally been erected plus I removed various grave stones (the small oblongs upper left and right). I then sketched out the approximate location of where I thought fairly random HAS would go plus the associated taxiway. I then suck down various black polystyrene terrain features (these were cut from Pizza bases) with "No more nails" glue, utilising bulldog clips to temporarily secure in place.

HAS layout revised

I then textured the polystyrene to represent grass areas and then, once dry, spray painted with white primer. Next I refined the HAS locations and introduced spaces either side to allow for door opening resulting in additional cut outs. At this stage I had settled on US / RAF 3rd generation HAS design, see RAF Upper Heyford for examples. You can see silhouettes of my Lego / glue tube prototype with circles for aircraft hard standings and areas to allow the doors to open This revised the layout from my original with several HAS rotating up to 30 degrees just to fit them in especially once the exhaust ports were fitted.

Most topography painted up

I then embarked upon painting up the board with grey concrete hard standings and green 'natural' areas. The main taxi way is still unpainted at this stage

Taxi ways and hard standings

I had two choices for the how to proceed, either to paint markings or to use a graphic package and print them out. The downside of painting is probably my ability especially when it comes to circles. The advantages of using a computer is that of consistency, correctability and repeatability so it is this direction that I went.

I have used standard Microsoft drawing tools in the past for anything from house plans and furniture layout of my home through to creating shop frontages for my scratch built 1:600 buildings. So I turned to MS word and generated the markings for the hard standing area in front of the HAS.

Board with hard standings in place

I then took these markings and placed them on the board in conjunction with the HAS prototypes as another check that every thing fitted OK.

Board with final taxiways and hard standings

I then used this layout to correct with pen markings on the taxi way that was also created in word. This was then revised in word.

Both hard standing and taxiways were then printed in colour and permanently stuck down

Finally, revisions were made to the concrete and the natural areas using paint.

Painted HAS added to Board for final fitting check

Scratch Building a 1:600 scale HAS complex (Part2)

2010-09-28T13:32:00.003+01:00

I next took different directions for my door and exhaust port solutions.

"H" section joint

I wondered whether the doors could be fabricated rather than cast as I also wanted some hangers to have their doors open. A trip to the local DIY store for inspiration saw me leave with a plastic "H" section jointing strip.

I intended to use computer drawn door frames to cover the solid mould so I then found myself having to slightly revise the door shape to fit.

My eventual approach, after a little trial and error, was to cut a 50mm section of plastic, then remove the small side of the "H" on the outer 10mm on either side, remove one of smaller 'H' quarters for the central 30mm. I then clipped either side into an isosceles triangle with the hypotenuse becoming a hinging point. Not as difficult to do physically as to explain. I also wanted to portrait a shelter with doors open so it was a simple case of cutting this in half. My next step was to add a base to the shelter and glue on the doors

oblong base - closed Doors

Doors added to base - filling to be done

half doors applied the to a polystyrene quarter circle backing

T-shaped (open) card base.

I next applied a thin coating of glue and textured the outer surface by 'bouncing' my finger over it. One dried I cut the bases to size and sprayed on a white undercoat. I tend not to buy off the shelf acrylic paint as I prefer to mix my own.

Essentially, this was a dark grey/green first coat with an olive green over coat. I then used coloured varnish to finish and protect.

When it came to actually applying the printed doors I just didn't like the effect as id just did not sit right with the shelter's colour so, in a reversal to my approach with the taxi ways, I painted them on.

Scratch Building a 1:600 scale HAS complex (Part1)

2010-09-24T14:53:00.002+01:00

No modern military airfield representation is complete without a HAS complex. I have not seen any commercially available 1:600 HAS models apart from some sold by PicoArmour but they look a little crude for my liking. So if I want to build my own (cheap) HAS complex then then what do I need to consider?

What do they actually look like?
What can I make them from?
How can I mount them?
How do I represent Taxiways and standings
Environmental setting

HAS appearance and dimensions
I have scoured the internet for information relating to HAS (also known as TAB-VEE or PAS) and the design I wanted to represent was the US/UK 3rd generation types introduced in the early 1980's. They supplemented rather than replaced the indigenous UK first generation in the UK and Germany - I have seen an RAF Laarbruch photo of the both types next to each other. I think the change in design away from a half hexagon was more to do with the available internal space, i.e. there was room for an aircraft and the swinging cat, rather than improved protection offered. Incidentally, during tests on the American version I understand that they were demonstrated to withstand a 500lb bomb direct hit and a 1000lb near miss.

My choice of the 3rd generation type was due to their wide distribution across Europe giving a greater chance of appearing in a scenario and the easier looking construction. They have a semi-circular dimensions with externally braced, centrally split, sliding doors but with different design exhaust ports distinguishing the UK and US variants. I have failed to find any dimensional drawings and the only information I have is on length and diameter (37.5m by 23m / 120 feet long x 70.8 feet wide), I assume relating to the tubular part only. However, I have found a number of aerial photographs with aircraft parked out front so as long as the finished article looks right then that is good enough for me.

Materials

Unibond 'No More Nails' glue tube

My first task was to find a tube that was of the right dimensions. Having looked at various bottle tops I finalised on an empty glue gun tube. I split the tube length ways and then divided it into 6 equal sections (73mm long x 50mm diameter). I used both hacksaw and Stanley knife to achieve this but I will admit that this produced some rough edges that needed sanding down but illustrated that I had chosen a robust material that held it's circular shape well.

I then offered the resultant semi circle up to some thin polystyrene (a frozen Pizza packaging base) and pushed to give an indentation. Once cut out I used my favoured 'No More Nails' glue to fix this together. As I was making a prototype I only advanced with one shelter to iron out the problems.

The Shelter 'closed'

Shelter with Lego Doors (red) and exhaust Port (blue)

Next up I embarked upon the door and exhaust port design. Thanks must go to my son, Jacob, for allowing Dad to use his Lego in the design process. I duly constructed a solid door profile (20mm deep by 50mm wide), having long given up any hope of making the external bracing and a jet exhaust port design (45mm deep by 40mm wide).

My initial goal was then to take the Lego items to create moulds for use with either plaster of paris or Resin. Having never done this sort of thing before I was in full on experimental mode.

Exhaust Mould

The door mould was constructed out of Milliput and the exhaust out of air drying clay. I tried both out with plaster of Paris and both took several days to dry out and the result easily crumbled when I came to try and extract the plaster cast. Does this stuff have a shelf life like building cement? (I have since use plaster from a dinosaur fossil science set of my son's and it seemed to be ready to take out of the mould within an hour).

Door Mould

I also damaged both moulds trying to get the casts out. The Milliput one has a bit of inherent flexibility whereas the air-dryng clay is brittle. Having subsequently asked about at my gaming club the recommended approach was to use latex rubber moulds. This smacked of professionalism and as I was running out of time but only needed 6 sets of both. So necessity became the mother of invention and I went back to the drawing board. I took totally different directions on what proved to be my final solutions.

Building a 1:600 scale airfield (Part4)

2010-09-23T13:48:00.004+01:00

So let’s scatter some of my buildings onto the airfield back drop and see what we get.

Looking 'North' over a provisional layout

There is still a bit of painting to do to remove the original wider black runway but essentially this is the final layout. On the far side of the runway is the HAS complex with 4x F-16's and x2 F15's (both Tumbling Dice) added for scale.
In the foreground, left to right are the four buildings of the Barrack block, then the control tower, 'round' hanger, Fire station, square hanger, and workshop (the grey 'concrete' hard standing has yet to have any markings applied), then three warehouse / shopping Malls (two scratch built) and the school complex.

Looking 'East' over the finished Airfield

Airfield painting completed, though I'm still not convinced by the colour of the lighter 'concrete' taxiways as they look too yellow to me. Also, the hand painting to remove the original wider black runway needs to blend into the main field area better.

This picture was taken before a game of Cold War Commander but the layout is the same as above apart from the HQ building barging into the place of the school that has now moved further 'East'.

Firestation, hanger and workshop hard standing

I've added markings to the hard standing to give a car park and aircraft movement lanes as well as some hazard markings around the fire station

HQ Building warehouses, hangers and the school

This picture shows, from top to bottom, the HQ Building, a collection of fox-holes, warehouses, hangers and finally the school with houses. The numbered markers were used to 'hide' combatants during the game

HAS Complex

And finally the HAS complex, similarly marked up, this time with British Jaguars and Harriers (both from Tumbling Dice) providing scale.

The making of the HAS complex will be the subject of my next few posts.

Building a 1:600 scale airfield (Part3) Sky Wave Models

2010-09-22T00:16:00.001+01:00

I also have a number of plastic buildings (1:700 scale) from Japanese company Sky Wave:
Set 23 is for airfields:

Hanger Type A

Hanger Type A again

Hanger Type B

Set 24 contains factories but I do not own

Set 25 is a town building set with houses & school / hotel :

Building a 1:600 scale airfield (Part2a) Cruise Line Models

2010-09-20T14:17:00.002+01:00

2. I had sourced a number of excellent resin airfield buildings (1:700 scale) from Cruise Line Models some time ago and whilst constructing the airfield I was also painting these:

CLM7000005 Headquarters/Hospital building

This building is impressive (Dimensions: 175mm x 100mm x 37mm) and could form a centre piece to a number of scenarios acting as a presidential palace, seat of government or administration, a hospital or a college/ university building. Unfinished -grounds need car parking to be added

CLM7000001 Air traffic control tower

The control tower (Dimensions: 80mm x 46mm x 31mm high) is painted up in limited camouflage and probably only has airfield / airport applications. There are separate aerials but adding these will cause storage problems.

CLM7000004 Fire Station

The Fire station (Dimensions: 75mm x 55mm x 19mm) is painted up in limited camouflage though it could be used in any urban context. I need some vehicles as fire appliances to finish it off so will probably have to convert army trucks. Unfinished.

CLM7000007 Workshop

This building looks more like a factory than a warehouse (Dimensions: 124mm x 52mm x 18mm high) so again will have a universal application. Unfinished.

CLM7000008 Hanger

This hanger (Dimensions: 85mm x 85mm x 15mm) has had a very rudimentary first coat applied. It is open with 2 sets of doors yet to be applied (there is also a closed variant available). Unfinished.

CLM7000003 Workshop

This general utility building (Dimensions: 124mm x 52mm x 18mm high) looks like a warehouse or small industrial unit with office space so again will have a universal application. Unfinished.

The following buildings have not yet been painted or based:
CLM7000006 Warehouse
CLM7000002 Workshops

Building a 1:600 scale airfield (Part1)

2010-09-17T14:17:00.003+01:00

Can't recall exactly what drove me to it but I wanted an airfield as a back drop to a CWC scenario so I set about building one. Elements to include / Considerations:

Runway - scale representation, permanently put onto a board or mounted onto card sections
Buildings - Bought or scratch built, what to include and where to put them

1. They were clearing out the warehouse at work some time ago and I chanced upon a large 1500x800x4mm sheet of plasti-board abandoned by our Marketing department so it was duly liberated as a "that will come in handy" addition to my gaming materials. This was to form the basis of my airfield.
I aimed to make my airfield double sided (somehow) so I cut the sheet in half width ways and rejoined it both sides with silver/grey duct tape. In that one action I had reduced the storage space by half by "hinging" the board. Next I spray painted one side a mix of greens and the other side in desert colours. I then added more duct tape lengthwise as a prototype runway. That is how in languished whilst I worked upon some buildings to put on it (a later blog).
I then worked on a layout for said runway by researching Google maps over most American / UK airfields in Europe. Apart from realising how many had closed and been put over to container parks I quickly realised that there really is no such thing a standard layout. So I took the features I liked and created a fictional layout. The other thing that also became clear was that if I stuck to a 1:600 scale then I could only fit on about a third of the length of the airfield and probably would not be able to locate any buildings - not really what I wanted. I also wanted to be flexible with where my buildings went but had came down in favour of permanently sticking down the runways and taxiways.

Runway under construction looking "South"

My compromise was to represent the "landing end" (to left of picture) of the airfield and to locate some buildings off the taxiways / hard standings. Hence the runway was fixed but the buildings could be placed wherever.
I created the various runways and taxiways using the drawing suite in Microsoft Word, colour printed them, cut them out, located them in an aesthetically pleasing and representative way and then stuck them down.
Assuming a prevailing wind from the west this view is looking south; you will notice the taxiways are quite often different shades as this represents either: different materials (concrete or tarmac), repairs and different time frames. The black line running the length of the runway was my painted attempt over an original duct tape runway but it just too messy and the runway seemed too wide when I offered 1:600 scale models against it.

Runway under construction looking "West" with HAS complex in the distance

Gaming Modern conflicts in 1:600 scale

2010-09-16T16:41:00.001+01:00

A small group of us at the Scimitar's wargame Group in Coventry, UK have been playing Cold War Commander on and off for the last 12 months with 1:600 models from Tumbling Dice for aircraft and Oddzial Osmy who also produce vehicles and troops.
I feel that this scale looks particularly impressive on a 2400mm x 1200mm (6'x4') layout and the scale also seems to sit well with rules fire range and movement distances.
We have played a number of scenarios primarily using British and Soviets armies from mid '70s to mid '80s owned by two of the guys, Neil and Richard respectively, and I've fallen into the niche of terrain provider (I also have desert camo’ Arabs and Americans but they haven't seem much action yet - they may show up in future blog entries).
We have played encounter scenarios mainly but now that we have got a hang of the rules we are spreading our wings a little into more complex scenario's, however, one factor that seems to be consistent is that the Soviets always seem to do better than the Brits. This may have reflect that the Soviets are good value for money (kit for points) or that Richard is a far better player than Neil or myself (I suspect the latter).
The latest scenario we planned to fight was a Russian airborne Assault on a British Airfield in Germany, around 1981 and I will report on that soon.