A Temporary Aircraft Standing - My first ever dio attempt

[AlanG]

Got bored earlier tonight and it's to hot to do any painting so i decided off the cuff to do a little temporary hard standing for one of my 1/48 kits. I've been wanting to do this for an absolute age and tonight i just went for it.

The idea is that as the Luftwaffe are being pushed and pulled in all directions they are being denied access to airfields due to allied air attacks. So are more and more operating from temporary airfields.

Here's my efforts so far. Cut all the planks from balsa and have PVA'd them on. In this heat it won't take it to go off. I'll be adding mud, grass and bushes around it later. Need to find something to stain the planks with.

Any advice most welcome.

[spanner570]

Al' to stain the boards get yourself some cheap children's acrylics. I use the ones in the little tubes. Otherwise you will be wasting your good acrylics.

Paint your boards in a watered down coat of brown. Let this dry a bit then go over various boards with a slightly different shade of your original colour (Use a bit of dark blue mixed with the brown)......Repeat, but with a touch of green so you get a nice variation of plank shades.

I'm sure the base will turn out fine, but keep in mind balsa is not so good on small scale stuff. The grain is not 'Tight' enough and sort of fluffy. A far better alternative would be coffee stirrers.

I hope the above will be of some help.

Ron

[AlanG]

Cheers Ron. Coffee stirrers are hard to come by here in the middle of nowhere. So i thought the balsa would work. It's only a trial thing and a massive learning process for me. I have a big dio planned and that'll be more work for me so this is just to get my creative juices flowing as it were.

Someone way back somewhere did say to use brown ochre oils and just thin them down instead? What's your thoughts?

[PaulTRose]

i bought a little bottle of wood stain from ebay.....cost a couple of quid and will last me a dozen or more projects

[minitnkr]

Balsa really soaks up whatever you put on it unless you seal it w/paint/varnish/etc. I use ice cream/Popsicle sticks or scale lumber in Douglas Fir. These have tight grain & take a razor saw, adhesives, wood stain or paint nicely. PaulE

[SimonT]

Al - ebay is a good source if you can't grab free ones

Coffee stirrers

You can also get a lifetime supply bundle of 1000 for about £6

[AlanG]

Cheers guys. I'll know for future reference. This was just a spur of the moment thing and also gives me something to use to photograph some other builds on. I might even do a 1/32 scale one eventually.

[Tim Marlow]

Anther source is pound shop garden plant markers, they are like big ice lolly sticks, nice and smooth ( slightly bigger, but better quality wood than coffee stirrers) and the ones I got were fifty for a pound.....

[spanner570]

Cheers Ron.
Someone way back somewhere did say to use brown ochre oils and just thin them down instead? What's your thoughts?

I'm a cheapskate re-cyclist and always looking for the cheapest and 'free-est' options, so why waste money on relatively expensive stuff when dirt cheapo options work just as well?

Anyway, thinned oils stink!
I always use those cheap acrylics for any diorama base work and thinned down with tap water they don't smell!
I would experiment and find what suits you best. Dioramas are great fun, especially when you don't know what ideas are likely to come along whilst building them.

Don't get me wrong Al', balsa is great and easier to cut. It's just that for smaller applications lolly sticks and stirrers are a better option. Keep them in mind for any future work.
Jump in, have fun and enjoy watching you creations come to life.

Ron

[AlanG]

Cheers Ron. I also like the 'free-est' options too lol

[spanner570]

Good man yer'self!

Nice to see staggered joints on your boards. A sometimes forgotten detail.

[AlanG]

Seen a few pics around of German wood hard standings. Most weren't symmetrical and all had staggered boards.

[AlanG]

So started to progress with this today a little. Going by the Ron theory of free-est, i got some mud from the garden and cooked it/dried it out and mixed it with diluted PVA. As you can see it is drying on the board. It looks a little rough but most of it will be grassed over.

Any advice or tips?

[scottie3158]

Alan,
Sound advice from the others. the base is looking good.

[AlanG]

So i stained the wood with some highly diluted brown paint. Think it was enough to make it look like it was new(ish). I've then gone over some planks with a darker brown and for around the engine/fuel tank area some black. I can always add more if needed. Less is more as they say.