How to Make " Revetments " 1/48 for diorama

I see this is your first post, so let me offer you a welcome to the forum. You will find many helpful people on the site and you can make friends fast.

There are no kits of 1/48 scale revetments. If there were I would have bought them out.

Revetments walls were made of several styles of steel. Most were filled with dirt, sand or concrete. Check on the base you are modeling to find out which style they used.

There are two basic ways to make the revetment walls. One is to take thin card stock and use thicker pieces glued on at regular intervals to make the raised ridges. Another is to make the wall out of wood and then vacuiform as many as you need. The second method would be much faster and you would have the master to make as many as you need for future use.

Ray, Berny, I believe that Verlinden makes a 'Nam period revetment with PSP planking for the sides and simulated concrete for the apron. I believe that they offered it in several scales. Check with GreatModels or Squadron. You might also check with Steve at ScaleHobby as well.

Keyworth.

The sides of the revetments in South East Asia were not constructed with PSP. They were made of corrugated steel with the ends overlayed and bolted together. The thickness was about 1/8 inch thick.

WELCOME to the forum!!!

The best thing for you to do is acquire a photograph as reference. Grab some styrene sheets and popsicle sticks or matchsticks and start building. The reventments were built in the field on the spot during wartime. If they can be built during war by hand, then you can surely build them at your home in peace :)

Good luck,

Berny, thanks for the heads-up. I didn't know what that stuff was called. I was only a grunt over there

Keyworth. My hat is off to you man. Any one that was in Nam with the Army or Marines deserves resprect. I spent my time on the flight line as a Crew Chief on the RF-4C. The only combat I saw was after January, 30, 1968, Tet. That was bad enough.

I have seen pics of revetment walls in SEA and i have actually seen the ones at Utapao in thailand that the Buffs used there, I believe they were the corrugated type except they were tall enough to block out a C-130 except for the tip of its vertical tail. That was a big revetment wall and that was a huge ramp. I have also seen pics of the ones used in Tan Su Nhut they were older sandbag and block style .

QUOTE: Originally posted by rigolosi II have also seen pics of the ones used in Tan Su Nhut they were older sandbag and block style .

I was stationed at Tan Son Nhut from '67-'68. The revetments used were the corrigated steel type. Only the 45 th TRS used the old French two sided revetments made of concrete block and steel rods. They were open in the back so corrigated steel was used to close in the back. Over on the Charley ramp, the revetments were PSP parking ramps. There were no revetment walls. After Tet, '68, sandbags were put around the revetments for a short time only. Part of Charley ramp was then built with corrigated steel revetments to house the C-123's and C-47's. The sand bagged area was torn down leaving only the PSP ramp which was used to park the C-7's from the Army. All of this was completed by March, '68.

When working with the F-4 RAM (F-4 Rapid Area Maintenance) support out of Hill AFB from '69-'71, I spent 18 months in SEA. I was on most every base used by the US at one time or another, repairing battle damaged and crash landed aircraft. Almost all bases had the corrigated steel revetments. There were a few of the French revetments left, but they were used only for transient aircraft.

If the base was built by the USAF, it had corrigated steel. If it was left over from the French, it was concrete or concrete and earth. If it was built by the US Army, sandbags, psp and corrigated steel. US Marines and Navy used corrigated steel. British and Australian forces used corrigated steel.

Guys ! The Corregated Steel Revetments are what I was refering to . . . . I was at N K P Thailand had some GREAT examples of Airforce Museum Stuff A-1s A-26s Jolly Greens
0-2s an I worked OV-10s lots of transit stuff RAM team was pretty busy to . . . . Revetments were first put up in our section of the flight line . . . . they were filled with dirt . . . they were pretty tall to . . . only thing that would be exposed was the top of an A-1's Tail ? ? ? . . . . So ya think those venders might have somethin ? ? ? thanks for all help

Ray

Check out Squadrons "F-4 Phantom II in Action", #1065.
It features some photos of Phantoms in revetments. I going to try to make a revetment for the 1/32 scale F-4E I am building.

Mark