World War Two RAF Airfield Diorama by realworkingsailor - Airfix and others - 1/72

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow, this is looking really great Andy!  Fantastic job!

[popeye the sailor]

hey there Andy........your diorama is coming along nicely     reading your ideas with the figures,  I had the thought about just embedding the bases in the foam.  but after seeing how rough the foam was after sculpting out the mud holes,  I see now it would be a terrible idea.  look'in forward in seeing this all come together    great job thus far!

[realworkingsailor]

13 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

hey there Andy........your diorama is coming along nicely     reading your ideas with the figures,  I had the thought about just embedding the bases in the foam.  but after seeing how rough the foam was after sculpting out the mud holes,  I see now it would be a terrible idea.  look'in forward in seeing this all come together    great job thus far!

Thanks!

 

The roughness of the foam is proportional to the roughness of the tool used to carve. If I had a hot wire foam tool it would have been much cleaner. 
 

I guess I could have carved recesses for the figure bases, but I don’t think I could have got the bases in any kind of presentable shape. The Airfix figures are moulded in a soft acetal plastic, akin to Delrin, and from a very old tooling… there’s lots of rubbery, hard to remove flash, and they really don’t take paint all that well, and if they do, they don’t tolerate any kind of abuse. 
 

I’ll hopefully get a hold of some static grass soon, there’s a model train show not too far away this weekend, I may poke my nose in the door for a gander; see what’s there.

 

Andy

 

[chadwijm6]

This is brilliant Andy. I've been wondering about doing a diorama and I think you've inspired me

[realworkingsailor]

Some goodies arrived today:

 

Let the fun, games, and a hopefully not-too-unholy mess begin!

 

Andy

[pennytimeline]

Very cool!

[realworkingsailor]

As always, I would be remiss if I didn't start by thanking everyone for your kind comments and "likes"!

 

I've managed to make something of a start with the static grass. What a fun process it is!

 

First up, the glue. You don't have to spend exorbitant amounts of money buying specialty glue. I made my own with some watered down PVA. I initially tried a 3 parts water to 1 part glue, but found I had to add a little bit more glue, so it's closer to 1.5 parts glue. I also added a few drops of isopropyl alcohol as a wetting agent (helps break down the surface tension). This was dribbled and brushed on to where I wanted to apply the static grass.  

 

I should mention that I don't have a static grass applicator... at least, not the fancy electrical variety. A few weeks ago I saw this video about someone who just used an inexpensive condiment bottle to apply static grass:

 

 

So rather than spend a ton of money on a fancy grass applicator, or putting my electrical mad scientist to work mutilating a bug zapper racquet into a homemade Frankenstein-ian Van de Graaff generator, I decided to give this method a shot. It does work, and very well, but it does restrict to a small working area... there's only so many times I can rapidly "poof" a condiment bottle before my hands get tired!

 

 

Don't fill up the bottle too much, about the amount you see in the above photo is more than enough, and it will cover a surprisingly large area (big enough that your hand will be start to cramp!). The results shown here are using 4mm static grass. I did try a test area using 2mm grass, but it came out too quickly and became somewhat clumpy. Not altogether horrible, but not the effect I was after. 

 

 

The repeated "poofing" action generates just enough static electricity for the grass to do its thing. The lighter area in the photos is just due to the glue having not yet fully cured. The ground foam underneath provides a great stable base and the state grass grabs really well, after letting the glue set up for only a couple of minutes.

 

I have some "burnt grass" and "straw" colours that I will layer on later to add highlights and break up the monotonous green. For that I'm planning on using some inexpensive hair spray as an adhesive. From what I've read, the odourless "extra hold" stuff works just as well, if not better than so-called specially formulated static grass adhesive sprays. For the more well trodden areas, I will reverse the colours, starting with the burnt grass and adding green highlights.

 

I should mention, that I have managed to keep the mess under some level of control... so far.....

 

Andy

 

 

Edited March 1 by realworkingsailor

[Landlubber Mike]

Very cool - interesting way to apply it.  I think on my Buffalo diorama I just took a pinch in my fingers and sprinkled it on like I was sprinkling on seasonings on a piece of meat.  This looks like it gives more control.

[king derelict]

Thats an interesting way to apply static grass Andy. I've wanted to give it a try but didn't want to end up with more kit that is infrequently used. This looks a good way round it.

The base is looking very nice with the addition of teh grass

Alan

[realworkingsailor]

10 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Very cool - interesting way to apply it.  I think on my Buffalo diorama I just took a pinch in my fingers and sprinkled it on like I was sprinkling on seasonings on a piece of meat.  This looks like it gives more control.

Thanks Mike! It’s definitely precise, in that you can target the bottle spout into various nooks and crannies, rather than broadcasting the grass all over the place and hoping for the best. I think the key benefit over just sprinkling, is that it does impart a modicum of a static charge to the grass (one that builds up the longer one repeatedly squeezes the bottle), so the grass does more or less what it is supposed to do (stand somewhat upright). 
 

Andy

[realworkingsailor]

8 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Thats an interesting way to apply static grass Andy. I've wanted to give it a try but didn't want to end up with more kit that is infrequently used. This looks a good way round it.

The base is looking very nice with the addition of teh grass

Alan

Thanks Alan!

 

We’re definitely on the same page here! After hand sprinkling, I would say this is the cheapest method, followed by the bug-zapper approach:

 

 

Andy

[Old Collingwood]

What an excellent   way   of  applying the  grass   -   static  science  in a  bottle.

 

OC.

[chadwijm6]

Fascinating! And very effective. Looks really good.

[AJohnson]

That grass looks really good Andy, things have moved on since I used to chuck railway “green stuff” at some board coated in pva.  

[Egilman]

4 hours ago, realworkingsailor said:

I should mention, that I have managed to keep the mess under some level of control...

Well your a better man than me.....  I had grass all over the workbench, table, chairs floor.... the Admiral asked if I was turning my model room into an garden room... (not that she minded)

[realworkingsailor]

12 minutes ago, Egilman said:

Well your a better man than me.....  I had grass all over the workbench, table, chairs floor.... the Admiral asked if I was turning my model room into a garden room... (not that she minded)

Thanks EG! 

It’s not without concerted effort… many times I felt like I was one flailing finger away from a green disaster… to say nothing of the risk of tipping over a bottle of diluted white glue…. 
 

Andy

 

 

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks for the comments and "likes" everyone!

 

Progress as of this morning:

 

 

Surprisingly, it didn't take as long as I had initially feared after my first test areas, and I think I managed to do fairly well around the mud puddles.

 

 

In that area, I used a small brush to apply the glue to the areas I wanted it, rather than risking dribbling it in to the puddles by accident. The line between the runway and the field is a little stark, but I plan to soften that by blending the colours in both directions when it comes time to add more layers of grass. 

 

I think the variation in the green colour is probably due to the inconsistency of the grass coverage, which isn't a bad thing. The darker areas are where the underlying ground foam is showing through somewhat. I think it adds a nice variety of shading to the otherwise uniform green. You can even make out a subtle under shading in the runway area where I had put streaks of green foam as well.

 

Now it's on to blending, mixing and layering. 

 

Andy

[Old Collingwood]

Looking very  good  -  cant beat  that grass  medium.

 

OC.

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments and likes!

 

Well, I think my grassy field is finished. Overall very happy with the way things turned out.

 

 

There's a nice variation in the colour of the green grass , and I've added some patches of burnt grass to add some further colour changes in select areas. In the "runway" area I added more green grass towards the edge, gradually lessening the amount as I worked towards the hypothetical centre.

 

All the characters have had their bases removed and a length of 0.012" stainless steel wire inserted, usually into one leg, and then into the scenery base, so they can free stand securely. I haven't added the mechanic yet, he will be glued to the trestle after I add a bit of weathering.

 

 

I connected the refueller to the bowser with a length of wire. I kept the black rubber sheathing on, and it looks like a proper hose. Its a close enough match to the short length of moulded hose he is holding.

 

 

 

I still need to add a few final details, touch up some paint work, and add a little weathering to the vehicles and other objects. But things are slowly coming together.

 

 

Adding some "mud" to the back of the Tilly is going to be interesting.....

 

 

I will also have to figure something out so the bomb train sits down in the grass, rather than floats on top of it... 

 

 

Even the other vehicles will need to be settled down a bit. It will probably require a little bit of delicate grass removal from directly under the wheels, we shall see what I can come up with.

 

Andy

 

[king derelict]

Wow Andy; that looks really good. It shows the Wellington off beautifully. The variation in the grass colouring stops it looking like artificial turf.

 

Alan

[Canute]

Nicely done, Andy. The erks are toiling away, getting the Wimpy ready for another go against Festung Europa.

[realworkingsailor]

16 minutes ago, Canute said:

Nicely done, Andy. The erks are toiling away, getting the Wimpy ready for another go against Festung Europa.

And like any typical public works type job, a suitable number of “supervisors” observing (there’s at least three standing behind the Bedford…..) 😜

 

Andy

[Old Collingwood]

Excellent work Andy,  I know  my late farther  would have been  very impressed   being an ex Erk  him self.

 

OC.

[Jack12477]

Very impressive and real looking, Andy. Nice work !

[Egilman]

6 hours ago, realworkingsailor said:

I will also have to figure something out so the bomb train sits down in the grass, rather than floats on top of it... 

 ...

Even the other vehicles will need to be settled down a bit. It will probably require a little bit of delicate grass removal from directly under the wheels,

What you need to do brother is create driven pathways, places where the grass is trampled down along a vehicle track... The vehicles would always take a path repetitively and would wear down the grass eventually turning into mud paths.... Much like your mud puddle...

 

They would be wider than the tires by two or three times, of course the grass on the airfield never got that high in the first place, but in the traveled areas and passage tracks it was always laying down... from being driven over...

[mtaylor]

EG seems to have the solution and he's right about the worn paths.  There probably would be a "path" even from the runway to where the bomber is sitting.   I remember hearing tales from my uncle (B-24 pilot) who often described the issues with the airfields in England and the mud or "@##$%^%$$  mud" as he put it.  (use your favorite words for the full description).

[realworkingsailor]

I’ve been basing my scenery on a few photos from a museum pdf file I found online.

 

One colour photo in particular:

 

 

According to the label on the package, the 4mm grass I used is supposed to be roughly 8” at 1/87th scale, so probably a little over 6”-ish for 1/72nd. Not much different in height from the grass these guys are lounging in. Admittedly, the grass in the photo is much more beat up than mine!

 

Andy

Edited March 13 by realworkingsailor

[wefalck]

On static grass seeding: when Faller or Noch (don't remember who) first came onto the market with these grass flocks in the early 1960s (before that it was dyed sawdust), they sold for it application PE bottles. When I was into railway modelling in my teens, I have never been very successful with them, but at that time the fibres were sticking too much to each other or I put too much into the bottle.

[realworkingsailor]

16 minutes ago, wefalck said:

On static grass seeding: when Faller or Noch (don't remember who) first came onto the market with these grass flocks in the early 1960s (before that it was dyed sawdust), they sold for it application PE bottles. When I was into railway modelling in my teens, I have never been very successful with them, but at that time the fibres were sticking too much to each other or I put too much into the bottle.

I think it was the early to mid 00’s when Noch brought its static grass and electric applicator to the North American model train market. 
 

The model scenery “industry” had come a long way from the days of dyed sawdust!

 

Andy