 curtis remington wrote: |
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now the leutenent colonel wants l.e.d. taxi lights any suggestions on how to do this?
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Curtis;
For the L.E.D. lighting look in your yellow pages under electronics supply (or if I remember right in Kitchener there is a place under surplus where you could get these in bulk) Once you have them it is a simple series circuit much like a string of Christmas lights. The can be tacked down to the base once wired and covered over with basic groundcover.
Now on to your buildings, hangars etc.
Depending on what tools you have available these can be made quite easily. If you are intent on the quonset hut style (semi circular ribbed steel type) You can cut the ends from balsa or a similar softwood. To skin them and to keep your costs for materiels down, visit a local dollar store and pick up as many "FOR SALE" or similar type signs. These are normally printed/painted on thin styrene and the reverse side is plain white. Trim the length and glue the skin to the two end formers you cut. You can add windows doors etc. with scraps of styrene from the signs or other sources for the trim work and the door(s) and use clear plastic from packaging materials or cut from an old CD case.
To make square, rectangular etc. tyoe buildings. Use a piece of wood as the center and build around it with styrene from your signs from the dollar store.
The Control Tower can be made the same way if you want a square base if you want a round base visit the plumbing section of the hardware store and use a piece of ABS tubing. The main windows are normally tinted. Use either Tamiya's clear colour selection or cheat and load thinned food colouring into an airbrush and give each pane the colour of choice.
The runway(s) apron etc can be made anynumber of ways. For the scale you mention you could use strips of baseboard from the hardware cut and slotted together to form the various areas. These are cheap by the foot and usually you can find off cuts for next to nothing.
To lay in the various ground work etc. visit a hobbyshop with a train section. You can use the pre-fab "grass" mat that comes in a roll for the various flat areas around and between runway and this can be cut with scissors. To vary the terrain around you can either use scraps of insulating foam to build the terrain up or you can use the train modellers method of strips of cardboard and paper mache. See the folks at the hobby or train shop for more on that method it is easy.
To paint the overall area. Don't waste your hobby paint. When you're at the hardware store have a look in the mis-tinted house paint section. Look for earth tones (or ask) Usually you will find a number of various browns, greens, etc. and because they were not right and the store wants to get rid of them it's good paint for cheap. You can use a roller for the larger areas. Bristle brushes for the rest. Don't use your good modelling brushes for this work. By some of the cheap house paint section brushes or the foam type.
If you want to add a pond or similar water area use a scrap piece of plexi-glass cut to the appropriate shape and secure it to the base, but remember to build the groundwork up around it.
Other than that this should (I hope) get you started. If you need more information. Let me know.
Cheers;
Gregory