"I prefer my Friedrich". Two plane desert dio.

[stona]

From the beginner's sand questions I've already posed you may be aware that I have a desert dio in the offing. It should be something like the attached piccy.

I started with a couple of 1/72 aircraft as I figured that I knew how to do them. Here they are,nearly done. The sharp eyed will spot the missing swastikas,they are on order as I didn't fancy making such tiny masks. There is also a bit of staining etc to do.

Fortunately,financially,though not for modelling, I shall be working away for the next 11-12 weeks so I'll be away from the bench. I'll still be checking in when ever I can and hereby solemnly promise that this dio will be done!

The Storch, from Academy,is a gem of a kit. I found it a bit fiddly in this scale (all those struts and the canopy comes in six seperate clear parts) but lovely fit.

The Kittyhawk,from Airfix, is obviously from a different era but still looks like a Kittyhawk once built. I copied the non-standard camo on the nose as I know this machine was previously with 112 Sqn RAF and had a shark mouth which has been sprayed over at an MU.

Cheers

Steve

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[Guest]

Going to be a nice dio this one Steve. I have had my eye on the 1:348 Tamiya Storch for some time, got too many other things on the go at the moment though. Looking forward to seeing the finished job, great choice of subject.

[Guest]

I have had my eye on the 1:348 Tamiya Storch for some time.

Woah! thats tiny! :P

[Guest]

OK, hands up.... 1:48th :laughing: Tryping wus nuver mi bestist thung.......

[Guest]

this looks like a cracker of a dio when done steve.

scott

[Centurion3RTR]

Very nice Steve, looking forward to the dio matey.

Have fun, John

[yak face]

hi steve, great job on the storch and kittyhawk, looking forward to seeing them in the dio. The little academy kits are excellent arent they, great value too. cheers tony

[stona]

It's been a LONG time but having had a day at home yesterday I decided to push on with the desert diorama today. Here is the progress so far. I need to do a bit of "dusting" and other finishing touches but for my first desert attempt I'm reasonably happy. I'm afraid that it's back to a proper (large) scale for me after this but I may well try another one another time.

Snapshots ,I'll try some proper piccies once I'm finished:

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

That looks very nice Steve and very convincing. Look forward to seeing the final dusty shots, I assume y dusting you are referring to the crashed one rather than the flying one. I assume it would get dusty quite quickly out in the open. I like the overall composition to, great use of space, gives that 'desolate' feel to the scene.

[stona]

Thanks Graham,and yes I'll muck up the crashed Kittyhawk a bit,maybe a bit of muck around the oil stain as well. I haven't finished weathering the Storch either. I did want some space but a £2.50 picture frame really set the size!

I'm glad you picked up on the sense of desolation (and isolation),it's exactly what I was trying to get.I put the guy preparing to take my reference photo and the fella walking to the plane as far apart as I reasonably could in an effort to keep the space. That desert is a vast expanse of....well...nothing!

Cheers

Steve

Well I've tried a bit of literal dusting and it looks sh*te so I'm going back to basics and will do a very light grey overspray. Hopefully piccies tomorrow.

Steve

[spanner570]

The sense of isolation is very apparent, you have caught the atmosphere just right Steve.

The 'dusting' will be the icing on the cake...

Ron

[Guest]

That's great, I love dio's if only I had a spare room or two to create some myself.

Do you make your own decals Steve, noting the correct registrations of the planes in question, if so, what do you use?

[stona]

That's great, I love dio's if only I had a spare room or two to create some myself.Do you make your own decals Steve, noting the correct registrations of the planes in question, if so, what do you use?

I do make my own but not for most of these. The Storch ones came from a sheet of British codes that I had (they are close enough for jazz) and the ones on the Kittyhawk were begged from a friend. I think they may actually be French!

I did make the swastikas as,despite having dozens in larger scales,I didn't have any in 1/72. I used a laser printer at work and the laser decal paper,from the stash,was,I think,from Bare Metal Foil. The ones I ordered from a well known large emporium beginning with H arrived about two days later and have since found a good home.

Cheers

Steve

[Gern]

Two really good 'planes which are very nicely laid out Steve. Despite the small(ish) frame you've got a sense of distance which looks perfect.

I hope you don't think I'm being picky, but there should be some sort of tracks from the Storch. I know they're only little aircraft but they would still leave wheel marks.

Gern

[stona]

It's a good point Gern, not at all picky,I can take it LOL! I made some vague skid marks from the Kittyhawk and thought about the wheel tracks of the Storch. The desert sand,in my experience is very fine and the desert base somewhat hard/rocky.Obviously the Storch would land under power. I suspect that the propwash would pretty much obliterate any tracks. I may do a little something close to the wheels or tail skid but I don't want to over-do it! I can't simulate a "pushed in" or scuffed stone at this scale.....I can't see them!

Here's the finished item.

The crashed aircraft is a Kittyhawk MkIa of 3 Sqn. RAAF,serial number was EV319. It was shot down on 25/10/42 in an engagement with Italian Macchi 202s. The pilot was either Sgt. NR Caldwell or Sgt. AJ Richardson.

It is being approached by a Luftwaffe pilot who has cadged a lift on a Fiesler "Storch" coded NM+ZQ,WNr5618, of Wustennotstaffel 1 (rescue squadron),based on his airfield.

He is not impressed with the "Kittyhawk" surmising,quite correctly,that his Bf109F is a much superior machine.

The pilot of the Storch is clutching his camera and preparing to take the photograph that will appear in "Fiesler Storch in action" many years later and provide the basis for the diorama. His photographic ability luckily far exceeds mine!

I quite like this diorama malarkey,the problem for me is scale. I do like my large scale aircraft and SWMBO has already asked where exactly I think I'm going to put this one. It's only in 1/72 scale.

Cheers

Steve

I just noticed a bust strut and wonky wheel in the last photo which I'll fix!