Home

THE SQUARE AIRFIELD

  
     
  Following the success of the Control Tower diorama - and of the Airfield Embankment diorama which mixed aircraft with trains - I was asked by Gloucester Folk Museum to build a setting for a collection of 1/72 scale model Gloster aircraft.  
     
  Following the success of the Control Tower diorama - and of the Airfield Embankment diorama which mixed aircraft with trains - I was asked by Gloucester Folk Museum to build a setting for a collection of 1/72 scale model Gloster aircraft.

These model aircraft - suitably displayed - would add to the photographs, documents and other displays in an exhibition to celebrate both 90 years of the Gloster Aircraft Company and the centenary of the birth of Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, inventor of the jet engine.

The 1/72 scale models - from the Jet Age Reserve and Tony Neuls Collections along with airfield vehicles loaned by Ron Brooks - would be placed at the base of a 4' square glass cabinet while a larger model of the Gloster E28/39 would be firmly suspended above them. The cabinet would be in the centre of the exhibition room, which meant that the diorama had to be attractive from all angles. There was also no scope for hiding things "round the back"! It was also hoped that, being close to floor level, the diorama would appeal to younger visitors.

Given this brief, a simple airfield apron - like that used in the Airfield Embankment diorama - might not give enough sense of place to the models, so I went back to an idea that I had almost used on the well-established planes and trains display box.

This was for a series of grass-covered earth-built blast pens: built on airfields all over the World to allow aircraft on the ground to be partly protected from enemy air raids without the risk of sabotage associated with dispersal. Being close together but separated from each other also made the aircraft easier to service and maintain with fuel bowsers and ammunition vehicles travelling less distance from central stores.

From a Museum point of view as well, Gloster aircraft from different eras could also be separated into themes and arranged chronologically.

Building a diorama based on earth bank revetments also meant that the normal approach to baseboard construction could be inverted. Normally for structures such as a model railway layout, the aim is to present a clear, smooth, stable deck for track laying and scenery building by placing all the supports and stiffening members underneath. In this case however, the 12 inch long wooden cores of the pen walls would act to stiffen the 18mm thick MDF sheet beneath and prevent it warping while also supporting the filler slopes of the revetments.

I decided to use sturdy 18mm MDF as I hope to re-use the diorama after the end of the GAC / Whittle exhibition in September 2007. Although it currently lacks any integral way of displaying information panels ( unlike the other dioramas mentioned above ) it would be ideal for displaying large numbers of aircraft and / or ground vehicles from territories where railways are either not found or suitable models are hard to source. For example, the post-1945 Swedish Air Force could be presented with enough room to park a Saab Viggen on hard standing but without the need to acquire rare and expensive Swedish trains.

For such practical reasons too I limited the square airfield to 40" x 40" so that it would not only it the Museum display case with 4" spare round the edge but also fit in the back of my car!

  
     
  The two smallest of the six blast pens were in the middle of the diorama but even these measured a generous 12" between the wooden pen wall cores. Alllowing for the angle of repose of the filler this still allowed a Gloster Javelin ( or a pair of smaller aircraft ) to be parked and the initial 16" between wall ends would even permit an Avro Vulcan to be taxied up the middle!  
     
  The two smallest of the six blast pens were in the middle of the diorama but even these measured a generous 12" between the wooden pen wall cores. Alllowing for the angle of repose of the filler this still allowed a Gloster Javelin ( or a pair of smaller aircraft ) to be parked and the initial 16" between wall ends would even permit an Avro Vulcan to be taxied up the middle!

At this point I would also like to thank Martin at Homebase in Eastern Avenue, Gloucester, for his help, care and precision in cutting the MDF to my specifications. In this instance, machine rather than manual cutting made a huge difference to the final crdibility of the diorama.

As can be seen from the picture above, once the wooden components had been glued together, water soluble filler was used to create the earth banks. Starting at the top left in this view I soon ran out of the Polyfilla I had been using for another home DIY project and was persuaded by a local shopkeeper to invest in the slightly less expensive Mangers filler. This lay at a shallower angle, which looked more natural but resulted in fatter pen walls. Luckily though, the smallest pens still passed the Javelin test - even if the whole diorama was now around 2 kg heavier than when I started!

  
     
  Once the filler had been applied, shaped with a putty knife, allowed to dry and sanded I painted it and the outside edge of the pen walls matt Dulux Terracotta. The concrete apron of the Airfield Embankment diorama had been painted matt Dulux Soft Stone but as this seemed to be in short supply at the time of building Wilkinson's own brand matt Feather made an excellent substitute and was extended down the vertical limits of the woodwork to hide the fawn colour of the raw MDF.  
     
  Once the filler had been applied, shaped with a putty knife, allowed to dry and sanded I painted it and the outside edge of the pen walls matt Dulux Terracotta. The concrete apron of the Airfield Embankment diorama had been painted matt Dulux Soft Stone but as this seemed to be in short supply at the time of building Wilkinson's own brand matt Feather made an excellent substitute and was extended down the vertical limits of the woodwork to hide the fawn colour of the raw MDF.

Once the paint had dried, 70mm squares could be carefully pencilled on the "concrete" to represent drainage lines and the Terracotta "earth" covered in grass flock powder. As it happened, this too presented a challenge as the single bag of Dark Olive I had left over from another job would not be enough to cover all the pens and all that Antics could offer was the lighter Dark Meadow and the very bright Light Green. In the end I bought three bags of Dark Meadow, one of Light Green and mixed them all together with the Dark Olive in a clean, dry plastic container. The result was a very credible "RAF mix" which not only completed this diorama but can be stored for future projects!

Once the glued flock powder had dried and the excess brushed off, it was possible to position the selected Gloster aircraft on the diorama and see what room was left for the addition of airfield vehicles and figures, as seen at the top of this feature.