white waltham airfield

[woljags]

hi all as i'm going to be doing a large wall mounted display building many kits all be it not as detailed as most of you chaps on here i thought i'd start a tread over here for those of you to follow if your interested,could anybody give me some tips on how to make the grass surfaces look right,i will post pics of the models i have already made once i've taken some photos,along with pics of the next few models from the start including the buildings and display case,

thanks for looking

bob

[Airframes]

Probably best to use the 'hairy mat' grass mats, available in rolls. These can be found in various 'lengths' of grass, mainly at model railway outlets, and would be suitable for 1/72nd scale for the average airfield surface.
It's easy to create bare patches, by carefully wetting (just damp) the required areas, and scraping off the 'grass'. This can then be dried and used as clumps of weed etc, with the bare areas painted as desired, and/or add 'earth' scatter material, from the same source.

[woljags]

thanks very much,there is a model railway shop in bourne end,i will pop in to see what they have

[woljags]

[woljags]

a few pics of progress so far with a view of white waltham from the air,i plan to model the buildings and flight plan at the top proberly dated around 1958,at the time Fairey Aviation were working there as well as it being an RAF base,most of the work by fairey was on development of radar systems plus the rototdyne project[i remember Gannets flying all night doing touch and goes testing equipment right into the late 60's early 70's],the large engined model in the pics is a Lockheed Neptune,my Uncle who worked there at the time remembers one or two large aircraft with radars being tested,i don't think a Neptune was used there but i thought it might be fun to add my rare frog kit in the display in Fairey Aviation colours to go with the DC3 i remember,the RAF were mainly training crews at the time and i remember seeing gliders being towed as well as being winched up for cadett training ,any thoughts chaps

[woljags]

i've now started [buildingup/addingto] 4 fairey gannet's for the display[2 unbuild novo,1 frog built when i was 14,and 1 damaged frog kit i started as a 13 year old i plan to restore + make missing parts for]pics to follow shortly.The walls of my extention are now going up,i can see my display on the wall of my new office already

[woljags]

sorry i haven't been on for a while,i've been busy finishing one of my larger projects that today did its 1st wedding of the season in Windsor,back to the modeling i have just took a load of photos of the progress of the aircraft i plan to have in the display and would be greatful if someone could point me in the direction of someone who might have an airspeed oxford and persival provest in stock for sale,i found an old battered airfix kit i had made and played with some 40 years ago of a chipmunk,i've nearly restored this using card and plastic sheet and will post some pics of it in the next batch hopefully tomorrow

[woljags]

are there any chaps out there near Maidenhead in Berkshire who could show me landscape diarama techniques for grass airfields please,

cheers bob

[vikingBerserker]

Very cool work Bob!

[Airframes]

Somewhere in the modelling threads, I posted part one of a Diorama Guide (still haven't finished part two!!) which gives some ideas for various surfaces etc. It was a couple of years ago, and sorry, I don't know how to advise on how to search for it.
As WW was/is basically flat, meadow grass, it would probably be easier and more effective to use a 'hairy mat' grass sheet, available in rolls as already mentioned, and this is, as I remember, included in the Guide.

[woljags]

thanks for that i will do a search for your post

[woljags]

i plan to pop up the road to take some pictures of the buildings on the airfield this weekend,i will pop them on here asap

[woljags]

i'm going to have to stop this project for a while as i need to build the base and until i have finished having the extention built a long with all the decorating i need to do myself throughout the house i've no where to put it once made