Airfix A06902 Luftwaffe airfield set.

[Telegraphist]

This is my current and nearly finished project. It has the old tool (02048) Bf109E and the Opel truck and PaK40 cannon kit and also the Luftwaffe ground crew. There is a plastic formed base to play about with and set up a diorama with it.
There is a little problem with history though, the instructions give April 1941 for the Bf109E kit but have a very late North African appearance with the PaK40 Anti tank gun, so because of this I shall leave out the gun and keep the Opel truck.
So far, I have built the Messerschmitt Bf109E, painted, decals on and weathered. Have used cocktail sticks for wooden parts to shore up the dug out and used a plastic type fabric for the tents and to cover the crates with.
The base is covered with sand, just a few small areas need fixed. I have still to finish the Opel truck and paint the Luftwaffe figures and maybe add a few extra non kit issued parts like bombs and fuel tanks etc.
Some pics of the work done so far and what has still to be done. The Opel truck kit has a driver but it is in 1:72 scale while the truck is in 1:76, hence the driver broke the steering wheel assembly so that is the hold up for now. Most of the truck is built, just the wee parts and cab assembly to do.
I have been playing about with ideas as to where to site the figures, how to open up the fighters wings to show a ammunition reload.







Covering up the pre formed crates with a camo net over them has awkward, the tents went over the plastic forms a treat. Just to make them tent like now.
I got some small paper flags from Phil that help to show the national identity of the units in the build, they give that little bit extra I feel.

Still a lot of work to be done to finish this project, the Luftwaffe ground crew figures need painted, the truck needs repaired and finished, and some small 'tree stumps' need to be made into tree stumps. Will try some old radio or TV coaxial cable braid as the tree bark for the stump. Might work, might rust and fail, shall see.
Not sure how best to wire up the dipoles for the twigs (antennas) for the Emil, my old style was OK but better is achievable.
I am still not sure what to actually depict in this diorama. It shall not be 100% historically correct, I am not sure on the correct colours to use for the overalls, works out about for April 1941 that the crew would be there at the most 3 months so the old style 'European' black overalls would be the best bet to use, maybe 1 or 2 figures with a tropical shirt or trousers to give variation. Not sure about what poses to use, I have no refueling equipment, just figures so will skip them me thinks. I will think of something.

Please feel free to post up with any advice, ideas, or thoughts on how I could go about improving things. Thank you for reading and looking.
Dave.

[Lee]

Love the dio, will look great once the figures are painted for sure. Nice write up too

[Telegraphist]

Love the dio, will look great once the figures are painted for sure. Nice write up too

Thank you Lee for posting up, might be a while before I actually finish this build, I am just slowly plodding on with this project and a few others at the same time.
Dave.

[Paul]

Nice job on the dio

[DC87]

Liking what i see, looks superb so far. What did you use for the sand as it looks great. Best of luck finishing the Dio

[Telegraphist]

Managed to get some work done today, got the repairs done for the truck, got the main cab made and glued. Just to add the small parts once the glue is dry, a job for tomorrow.


Decided to leave the driver out the cab, will find a place for him somewhere on a dio somewhere. Will try to use soem Krystal Klear, a pure type of PVA glue to try and make some windows for the cab. I know it will work for the small side windows but not sure about the main windscreen so a few days might be needed to see if this works out or not. A bit late now to try and add an inside transparent sheet.

Might try to get some painting done on the figures this evening, just plod on slowly and get there some day.

For the sand I used Desert reptile sand from an online seller, it is held in place with just PVA wood glue as it dries clear.
Dave.
Dave.

[Telegraphist]

Got round to trying out some refined PVA glue to make the glassware for the cab. It will take about a day or two to dry clear so will have to wait to see if it has worked or not.



The side glassware is not so bad but the main windscreen is not so easy, have to go back and add more as it slips down and breaks the glue screen that will make the windscreen once dry. I have managed to get the side windows to go clear and stay like that before but not the main windscreen area, this is new to me. I hope I can remove the excess easily enough once dry, do not want to damage things as a try to neaten the excess up a bit.
Just now, I am having to moce the cab around as it dries so that it will not pool and drag down the rest, got to move it about every few minutes in the beginning, hope to get some time to get on with other stuff as it dries so will need to move the cab about less frequently then.
Dave.

[Telegraphist]

Well the cab experiment has turned out OK, not perfect but it has produced a windscreen as such. The steering wheel has spoiled it, not a lot can be done now but I shall remove the steering wheel and start again if I manage to break it while finishing of the building/painting phases of the Opel Blitz truck.





Side windows have had more layers of glue added to see how it looks with a few layers compared to just 1 or 2 layers of PVA glue. I also used cheap PVA glue from ebay for the 2nd attempt after the 1st attempt broke, so the cheap glue works as good as the expensive Krystal Klear PVA. Not sure how far a gap it can cover, I think I may be at the limits of what can be done. It took a few attempts to get the glue to dry as a sheet and not collapse with gravity upon its self. I had to move the cab about as it dried to stop pooling and bulging as gravity goes to work.
I shall leave it alone for today, get the work done tomorrow to finish the truck off, that lets me get on with the PaK40 cannon. It is too modern to use in the 1941 Luftwaffe in Libya base diorama so might just build and leave as is, I have painted it in DAK colours but easy to repaint it for other battlefields.

Been raiding all over the house trying to find some old TV or radio coaxial cable, I do have loads of it but where? I want to use the braid as the bark of palm tree stubs for my base. It might work, might not, but interested to see how it looks anyway, will it rust or be OK painted, what else could be used to give that palm tree like bark effect?

Oil drums, how can I go about making my own 1:72 scale German issue oil drums? I want some for simulating the sand filled oil drums for making defensive positions with as well as for refuelling the tanks and aeroplanes of the North Africa battlefield. How could I make impressions with some Airfix oil drums for the forward command outpost, is that the right type of oil drum for the axis? I need to do a lot of research into this. Maybe I am going to dig myself into a hole with perfections and attention to details instead of getting on with the projects.

I feel I should start again with the ground crew and repaint them all but in acrylics this time, use a dark grey primer as an undercoat then use black for the overalls. The more I play about with the figures for this base, the more I realise that less will give a better appearance than if I use more figures and repeating poses. I even think that leaving out the ground crew might be a good idea but what would be the point then of issuing them with the set and not use them. About 4 or 5 poses could be utilised, but not sure how to go about opening up wing cover hatches to show reloading ammunition for the machine guns and cannons on the Emil. I could use the figure with the small watering can if I can work out where he should be positioned on the Emil to show a water top up. I have no idea how to go about showing refuelling, or even how they went about it in the desert, what pumps were used, I cannot see them syphoning aviation fuel with a hosepipe from oil drums into the Emil, how did they actually go about it, more research for Dave then eh?
The best I can think about is to show some figures handling the small bombs and stockpiling them in the dugout, I could use the Opel truck then as the vehicle bringing the bombs to the Emil for the ground crew to load onto the Emil. Problem being is that I have allready got the bigger bomb attached to the Emil, pilot in the Emil, ready to fly into battle.
I am sure that the Luftwaffe would not store all the bombs together, small with big, or leave drop tanks about here and there also. More research but so far not a lot about it. Looks like it will be a non realistic dio, but at least it would get built and not get stuck in the planning stage for lack of realism factors.
Dave.

[Telegraphist]

Finally got all the parts glued onto the truck and completed the Blitz build, just 3 small optic parts to add to the cannon and that stage all built, just to touch up some paintwork and get onto weathering next. Will go over the windscreen again, try to get rid of the problem caused by the steering wheel.
Pics later.
Dave.

[Gav0909]

Interesting idea using PVA to make the windows in the truck.

Had you considered using some clear plastic sheet, often packaging is made of such stuff, and that might have been a touch easier to cut to size and glue in.

PVA trick has worked well though.

[Telegraphist]

Interesting idea using PVA to make the windows in the truck.

Had you considered using some clear plastic sheet, often packaging is made of such stuff, and that might have been a touch easier to cut to size and glue in.

PVA trick has worked well though.

I have thought about it Gav, I did quickly try to see how easy it would be to get some acetate sheet to glue to the inside of the cab but it was just too awkward I thought go get it all in place. I did try the PVA glue over the small windows a while back and it did dry clear after a few days. The bigger windscreen was untried but I am glad it has paid off so far. Will post pics as it dries, might be a few days before it all goes clear but I wait as I get on with other builds.
Dave.

[Telegraphist]

After what feels like eons of time, I have finished the building/painting phase of the Opel Blitz truck and PaK40 cannon build. Just to add some decals, weather and age the parts and it finally finished. Added more PVA glue to the truck cab to try and fill the bulge where the steering wheel has pulled the PVA glue inwards towards it. Hope it will sort itself out in time with gravity and more PVA glue. Might take a while to dry clear but I get on with other stuff as it happens and the atmosphere does it's magic to the PVA glue.
I did manage to paint over the slight excess that was on the bonnet area, no problems there so far, no flakes or blistering happening, has dried like a charm. So far so good but a long way to go yet.
Next stage is to give a quick brush varnish over the builds to protect the paintwork and give a better surface to add decals onto. Makes weathering easy as mistakes can be removed without fear of removing paintwork as well. I tent to add to much dark wash and it stains the model like a forgotten relic in a exposed position, being able to wipe clean and start again is very handy.

I have dug out some old bombs from old Airifx 02048 kits, spares parts recycling, just painting them (and a bigger bomb) in Hu91 to see how it looks. Airfix are confusing with the painting instructions, only the small bomb painting is clear in Hu91 so will stick with that. Drop tanks look out of place not attached to the Emil, so will leave them out unless I can work one flat. Not sure on colours to use, Airfix have conflicting colours through the various instructions.

Just not sure how best to group them, just how did the Luftwaffe store their bombs for reloading?
Dave.

[Paul]

Coming together nicely now Dave

[Telegraphist]

Got as far as varnishing over the gun and truck, even sanded down a bit excess on the bonnet top, it is taking ages to dry so will leave it another day to dry, I need to work out acrylic varnishes, hope they dry quicker over the oil based versions.
The windscreen is still not perfectly even, a little pit keeps appearing where the steering wheel is, so I add a little each time to fill it and it reappears once dry, It is slowly getting smaller, each fill makes it closer to being non existent but not there yet. Maybe next time will be the last filler needed for it. It shall take ages to dry clear, using the cheap PVA for now, saving the purer stuff for later.

Slowly getting there with this kit, the finishing line is in sight now, just got to plod on till it gets all fixed and sorted out. Still cannot get the urge to paint the ground crew figures, just not happening.

Nearly there now.
Dave.

[DC87]

Hope these help






Some bombs stacked on the left.

All the best with the rest of the build.