Model Kits : Airfield Accessories...

[Maestro]

Greetings ladies and gentlemen.

I've been looking on several web sites to find some accessories for a RAF 1:48 airfield. (Yeah, I'm thinking about building a WW II airfield, in the futur.)

Unfortunately, the few building kits I found were either very expensive or not availible in North-America.

Here are two examples of the best I could find on an North-American web site :
http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=VE1736
http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=VE1794

Like I'm not the kind of guy to pay 30.00 $ US for a simple tent, so I would like to know if any of you know any company (whatever it is located in America or in Europe) making accessories like control towers, hangars or any other airfield buildings at the 1:48 scale.

If only I knew the damned dimensions of those buildings, I would buy some wood, make some calculs and do it myself...

Anyway, any help is welcome.

[Maestro]

Okay, I found some dimemsions on a website about hangar size in a French airfield. Unfortunately, it is a French civilan design from 1921-1923. So the hangar is friggin big.

Taken from :
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~struct/...inet_orly.html

The two hangars were 175 meters long, 91 meters wide and 60 meters high and were constructed on a small airfield.

At the 1:48 scale, it would give me a hangar of 3.65 meters long, 1.90 meters wide and 1.25 meters high... HUGH !

I'm not an engineer, but I think there were smaller hangars on fighter airfields. Does any of you has any informations (or dimemsions) on those hangars ?

[JCS]

You might want to try looking through some O Scale (1/4 model railroad sites, most of the stuff is train related but theres got to be some hangars and control towers and whatnot.

http://www.internettrains.com/o-scale.html

Try searching this site too, they have just about everything you can think of that has to do with models here:

http://www.towerhobbies.com/

[Maestro]

Thanks for the links, JCS.

The lone Control Tower kit I found was at 1:72 scale made by Airfix. However, they gave the dimensions of the finished kit on the web site. With a few calculs, I'll be able to create one in 1:48...

Manufacturer - Airfix
Scale - 1/72
Material - Plastic Injection
Further Info - 80 parts, Length 122mm, Width 103mm, Height 124mm. Includes duty crew.

In 1:48, it would give 18.3 cm length, 15.45 cm width and 18.6 cm height.

[Maestro]

Hey, I just remembered about a game screenshot I posted on this site. If I remember well, the airfield's drawing was based on pictures of Tangmere airfield.

The last pictures are 3D models of Belfast Truss Hangars that were made by a man called Dan Hamblin. His website is here :
http://www.danhamblin.btinternet.co....es/belfast.htm

Using these shots, it should be relatively easy to build a Hangar at approximately 1:48 scale.

However, any help on dimensions is welcome...

[Maestro]

Okay, I know I seem to speak alone in this thread, but I did it for me first.

And I have good news (for the ones who may be interrested) : I found plans of a small hangar (looking like the "Belfast" type). According to the plans, that would be a hangar of the Barton airfield, near Manchester. I made a few researches, and I saw that it was used as a training airfield during WW II.

At the 1:48 scale, it would give me a 54cm X 54cm X 9.5cm high (excluding the "bubble" top).

Sorry it's in meters.

By the way, if any of you got any informations on Barton airfield during WW II, I'm interrested to hear about it.

[evangilder]

Sorry, I have been watching the thread and had nothing to contribute. Sorry. I am not even sure where to dig up stuff like that.

[Maestro]

Sorry, I have been watching the thread and had nothing to contribute. Sorry. I am not even sure where to dig up stuff like that.

Don't be sorry, I was only making a joke about this thread. I know that stuff can be VERY hard to find.

I made this thread because I thought that may be a guy on the site could have worked on building a hangar like that on an airfield and still have the plans.

Also, I could have a nice place to post everything I found linked to "airfield accessories".

In a year or so (when I'll find a steady job whatever within a police corp or in a prison as a Correctional Officer and have my own home). I will start building a 1:48 scaled airfield.

[Maestro]

How far can a bloke goes to know something ? Well, to the top !

I E-mailed Dan Hamblin (the guy who made the 3D model of the Belfast Truss Hangar) to know if he knew the dimensions of it. He answered me and said that he no longer had the model on his hard drive and that the dimensions has been forgotten for a long time. He also suggested me to send an E-mail to Duxford Museum. That's what I did.

Here is the reply from Carl Warner, the Assistant Exhibitions Manager at Duxford :

Dear Mr Tremblay,

Thank you for your e-mail. The best publication that I can advise you
to look at is called 'British Military Airfield Architecture - From
Airships to the Jet Age', by Paul Francis. It is published by Patrick
Stephens Ltd, ISBN 185260462X

This volume is both a good introduction to the subject and a good
source of scale drawings, plans, measurements and explanations. It
should provide you with all the assistance you need, and should
certainly show the dimensions of the Belfast Truss Hangars.

I hope that this information is useful to you, and I wish you the best
of luck with your model.

Yours sincerely,

Carl Warner
Assistant Exhibitions Manager
Imperial War Museum, Duxford
01223 497986

www.iwm.org.uk

I think I'm gonna buy this book... If I can find it.

[Nonskimmer]

Cool.

[evangilder]

Good, I am glad that you were able to get the info.

[mosquitoman]

I've got a couple of airfield accessories in 1:72 but I've never been able to find a hangar. The airfield vehicles Airfix does aren't too bad if you're after 1:72

[PETERTHEEATER]

BARTON airfield is near Manchester, England. It was never a military airfield, only civil light aviation (grass surface). It is still active.

regards,

Peter

[PETERTHEEATER]

Hello Maestro, I have searched my records and data for a site plan of Tangmere but, no luck.

Try contacting this British company via e-mail (address on their website).

If you are interested in the Second World War - and want to know how the places where it was fought appear today, in what remains to be seen and the discoveries that are still being made - then After the Battle publications will interest you

They used to publish a large range airfield site plans legally copied from MOD sources and Tangmere may have been amongst them. Failing that, I can scan and e-mail you a couple of items that should help.

Looking more closely at Tangmere's history, I see that, at the beginning of WW2 it had 7 Belfast Truss Hangars. Three coupled pairs and a singleton. In August 1940, it was bombed by the Luftwaffe and 2 hangars destroyed and three damaged. Just after the war, all surviving hangars and remains were removed and 3 T2 type hangars erected on the old bases.

So, I think that your diorama should show a Belfast Truss Hangar (or section of). I can provide you with sketches and dimensions of a Belfast. I will look up the data tonight.

regards,

Peter

[chippy12]

Hi. There is no 1/72 hangers on the market at the moment but you can make one out of ply wood or any thing like it. All you have to do is work out the formula

lets say the size is 4ft 6inch =54" / 48 (for 1/48 scale) = 1.25" all you have to do is change the 1/48 to 1/72
the other way is to X your size by 0.01389 to get the size


I am starting to make one my self but you will need the size of your hanger to get the right size it's not easy but give it a go you have nothing to lose good luck and please let me no how you get on