My Diorama, progress thread

[Lucky13]

A case for Erich I'd say....

 

[Matt308]

Take your time Zeiss or you will be disappointed.

I would give you my masterful advice, but building your bloody wing 4 times is not very efficient.

 

[Zeiss]

Yeah Ive been taking my time, a little too much maybe for some of you
I have narrowed down that I want it to take place in late 1944. If it were any earlier I wouldnt be able to have half the axis involved. Also the location will be an "action station", a small airstrip the germans made to defend againts bombers.

 

[Wayne Little]

One thing kinda holding me up, Im debating paint schemes for early me-262s, ive got alot of pictures but I am undecided. Any suggestions? early photos dont really indicate any sort of pattern.

early 262's were in the 'then' day fighter scheme of 74/75/76 switching to 81/82/76 shortly thereafter, so it would depend on production batch issue as to whether you do Grey or Green camo 262's....or a combination?

How accurate do you want to be?

 

[Zeiss]

I dont know if '44 would be considered early for the 262 or not. They were produced earlier but never saw action until 44. Also, I think im missing some of those colors for acrylic. The majority of my paint is enamel, should I switch to acrylic? I would need to run to the store again then
Also, keep in mind I dont use an airbrush.

 

[Catch22]

The only thing I've personally noticed is that the acrylic dries faster and is easier to clean out of your airbrush, but you don't use one, so you don't need to worry about that. But the drying times are generally faster.

 

[Zeiss]

Yeah, easier to thin acrylic also, but this brings up a good point. Can I do a good enough job without an airbrush? Considering some of the elaborate camo patterns....Ive been debating this over the last few weeks.
Also, is it safe to say the runway would be short grass? or did they have some "gravel"
I need to find more images of things like that

 

[Matt308]

Hey if you are going to make the plunge and dedicate a WHOLE ROOM to your divorce... er I mean diorama, I would invest in a airgun. Especially if you are serious.

 

[109ROAMING]

With what Matt just said you can still do a VERY nice job using a brush(as proven by Terry)

but dedicating a whole room ....hmmmm just do what you feel comfortable doing

 

[Wayne Little]

Hey Zeiss......maybe this might help you with Early and late scheme comparisons.

 

[Zeiss]

Thanks, Wayne. The wife will let me change an entire room into a diorama, but she may not let me buy 300+ dollars worth of airbrush equipment. So I may stay with the brush...
One more question. The runways were short grass, but for a 262 it would need to be longer, anyone have photos of a small airfield from ww2?
Then I can decide on my buildings and gun placements. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Zeiss]

I found this, its kind of interesting.
Me 163B airfields: Wittmundhafen

 

[Airframes]

Hmm. Hard-surfaced runways, apart from the eastern end of one. I guess at least 800 to 1200 yards long, minimum, taking a scale from the buildings. In 1/72nd scale, that's 33 to 50 feet!
Going to be a BIG diorama!

 

[Zeiss]

Thanks for the info Airframes, seeing as I wont be able to do 30 feet I will just do the best portion I can, including the buildings which Im sure I will have to make custom

And since this is just a smaller airfield I will just use short grass for the runway. I dont think the ME-163 can land on anything but grass anyways. I could be wrong though.

 

[Airframes]

You're right, Zeiss. Far as I know, the 163 had to land on grass, on its skid, to avoid a possibility of any dregs of fuel exploding!
Check out some model railway buildings for some that you need, you may be able to adapt them, or at least some. European buildings are available from a number of companies, the most common being Faller.

 

[Zeiss]

Ok guys I know its been a while and my diorama with plastic models wasnt working out. But! I did stay with the project of converting my upstairs room to a WW2 airplane haven. I repainted the room, built some shelves, and now am in the process of filling the room with 1:72 die cast planes, as well as other ww2 airplane items such as large scale blue prints, and old ww2 photographs. More info on that coming later. Here are some new pics, sorry they are not great quality, if you would like better shots of specific planes let me know. The planes are on a 10ft x 2ft shelf with 136 led lights built into the front.
Enjoy

There is much more room yet to add more planes

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Very cool Zeiss!! I like them all but I'm partial to the P-47s.

 

[Airframes]

Neat !

 

[dirkpitt289]

This should be fun to see come together. Bring it on

 

[Zeiss]

Here is a list of the planes that I have and their pilots/info.
P-51d - Down for double, Gordon Graham
P-47d - No guts no glory, Ben Mayo
P-47d - Maggie, Kenneth Chetwood
F4U - VF84 Jolly rogers, Roger Hedrick
Bf109g - Alfred Gislawski
Fw-190d - Papagie staffel, Waldemar Wubke
Ju-87b - 3./StG2 Immelman
Me262a - Adolf Galland
A6M2 Zero - Carrier Akagai

Comming soon
P-38J - Marge, Richard Bong

I also have a very large blue print of the P-38J, its basically a large poster size. These will go nice with an old photograph I have of Richard and marge sitting in a cockpit of a P-38.

I have alot of the "newer" aircraft right now, but in the future I will get some older models as well as the always exciting bombers! The bombers are the spendy ones!8)

If you guys have any suggestions whether it be involving future planes or otherwise let me know.
Thanks for the comments