CHAPTER VI - Concrete apron display base construction
I found nice idea to place the Wallis WA-116 Agile autogyro model on a display base, simulating a maintenance & refueling area with short grass sprouted between concrete slabs. My goal is to recreate a scene of an airfield apron area where pre-flight activities were done. An apron is any area for parking and maintenance.
I add some grams of plaster powder and few drops of water into a soft rubber cup to make the right mixture. Materials like plaster, start as a dry powder that is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Plaster remains quite soft for few hours after drying and this characteristic make it suitable for the job.
Keep in mind that:
- Adding salt into wet plaster mixture, reduce the plaster's hardening time,
- Adding vinegar into wet plaster mixture, extend the plaster's hardening time.
When the first layer of thinned plaster applied on a clean surface, a flat glass were pushed against the plaster to form a flat basic strong cast. The basic idea, is to produce a totally flat cast and later add some detail or apply extra stuff where is needed. I left it few hours to get harden in order to be sure that the cast wouldn't break when I would try to cut it into desired shape. Meanwhile, I took the soft rubber cup which I used to make the plaster mixture, squized it to break the last hardened plaster left inside, so it would be easier for me to clean it afterwards and prepare it for any future mix. That's the reason this soft rubber cup were used for.
As soon as the plaster cast got harden, cut into shape and the concrete plaques were lined with a scriber, I used my airbrush to paint it. As I usually like to do, three different acrylic paint layers were applied on the plaster surface. First, mat black colour covered the area and then a light grey applied with airbrush, spraying in almost zero degrees angle, to let the darker areas between the concrete plaques remain naturally dark. The corner was paint with lighter grey & earth tones and as soon as the acrylic colours dried, I tried some drybrushing on selected spots using sand tones.
As for the vegetation that grew between the concrete slabs, I used some
Heki static grass found at my local hobby shop. Heki, specializes mostly in train dioramas.
Water based white glue for wood, which becomes transparent when it dries, is just the right for the job. So, I opened a 500gr canister bought for 2€ only, pick a small quantity, add just few drops of water with a syringe into a small metal container to make the right mixture and finally I applied on the desired areas to be filled with grass & plants, using a wet brush. Because the mixture is enriched with water based glue, it is easy to correct possible mistakes.
As soon as the result was OK, I sprayed over with Humbrol enamel mat coat, to seal the paint and grass, so far. I left it overnight and as soon as the enamel mat coat dried, I add very few light & dust effects with chalk dust and pigments. For those who may say that the vegetation sprouted between the concrete slabs looks excessive for an active apron, think again. I 've seen European capital international airports, with jungle-like grasss on apron ground area.
From my local store, I bought a 20x30 cm shiny laminated wooden picture frame. The empty space, filled with 5 mm thick sheet of balsa wood. The plaster made ground, paint already, carefully moved on laminated wooden base and secured in place with silicon glue.