making a diorama (need help with making an airfield)

I'm with ya on this. I've never done one either and want to do one in 1/32. Mine will be a Iraqi MIG-21 being serviced. In my case, the'll be sand instead of grass next to the tarmac. At this point, I have no idea where to begin!!

Quite easy really! Simply use sheet styrene (plastic card) to create your runway. Cut it to shape, then engrave the 'tile' pattern. Paint the whiole thing light grey, then using a fine brush and black paint apply, NOT very regularly, the tar that's between the 'tiles' and to replicate any cracks in the concrete. Next paint your airfield markings, if any (I either airbrush them or use rub-on transfers). Then weather according to your tastes: I use pastel powders, in the light brown range to 'paint' each 'tile' a different shade than the others, and use black and brown washes for the stains (by either applying the wash directly onto the runway with a fine brush, or by flicking the paint over from a stiffer brush or an old toothbrush.

Add wood glue/tea leaves or the paris plaser to replicate grass or sand.

Check references though, as you do not find any old type of road markings on runways. Also the tile pattern can be different from square or rectangular: Russian airfield often have hexagonal tiles.

Never engrave your tile pattern perpendicular to the edges of your base: it just does not look right!

stukah,

I have been doing just what you are looking for. Look at this thread and see if the base is something that will work for you.

http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24439

if so, e-mail me at RSaddlemire@sc.rr.com and I will see if I can be of help

Richard

bones-coa,
that mig looks good!I know how it feels to want to build somthing but you dont know how to.I am getting help.will your hanger be a open one or a closed one?good luck!-brad

Another option for the concrete area is the inside of a box of breakfast cereal! This is cheaper than plastic card. Have a look inside the box - you find with many of the manufacturers that the cardboard is often a pale grey/sandy colour! Cut out the box and place it on your base. Using a ruler, mark out the tar lines (don't make them parallel to the edges!) using a black felt tipped pen. Use powdered pastel chalks to lightly brush on variations to the overall colour. Make stencils to put on the white/yellow markings and put the paint on by stippling over the stencil cut-outs - this looks better that trying to paint in the normal method with a brush. At the edges use household plaster powder/water mix to make the earth and then add grass after painting the plaster green when dry. If you want a sand edge, mix in fine sand with the plaster when you make the earth. When dry, paint in a sand colour and then use watered-down PVA woodworker's glue and, working a couple of square inches at a time, paint the glue onto the plaster/sand mix and then scatter more fine sand. Work till you cover all the ground area. When the glue is dry, gently brush off any spare sand and then drybrush/spray sand colour until the finish looks right. And there you have it!
The advantage of using cardboard as the concrete base is that - in my opinion - the board 'looks' more like concrete than painted plastic card.
Hope this helps. Good luck!

Actually there was an articlle a few years back on making airfield and strips (in FSM i mean), I remember the autor used (here is my English starting to fail) cat-litter-filling, or however you call that stonelike stuff you put in that thing where your cat does his...
The other items used were an empty bottle to roll the litter-stuff (mixed with glue I suppose), and seringe where you put in black artists' oil or acryl in, however you will need a muscular seringe, not a sub-cutane, because of the thickness of artists' paints.
The litter, rolled out looks like tarmac, and with the seringe you make the tar-joints, so no airbrush, or whatever is involved in this operation.
I remember also that in the article thay also spoke of the shape of the tarmac joints, I know there is a big difference between Nato and Warshau airfields concerning those joints, but I don't remember.
It's certainly worth looking in your older issues of FSM.

Well, another idea is well...concrete! I don't know about you guys, but I have bags of concrete laying arund, left over from a project we did. I haven't done it but you know....it would look very realistic!

Thanks for all the ideas gentlemen! It'll be a few weeks before I really need to try and do something, but I figured I'd better start looking into it now.

Thanks again!!

QUOTE: Originally posted by Colin Russell Another option for the concrete area is the inside of a box of breakfast cereal!

I've just discovered another option for cardboard: the inside of the box lid on most of my model kit boxes are just like the cereal box cardboard! in other words, it's concrete!

QUOTE: Originally posted by Colin Russell Another option for the concrete area is the inside of a box of breakfast cereal!

I've just discovered another option for cardboard: the inside of the box lid on most of my model kit boxes are just like the cereal box cardboard! in other words, it's concrete!

Great discussion! Getting all kinds of good tips here, thanks!

Frank