1/48 WWII Airfield Diorama - Somewhere in the South Pacific

[30sqnatc]

The three weekend projects in fresh coat of Olive Drab paint are the subject of conversation by three Servicing Unit personnel. Surpose I should have turned the bomb around the hide the holes

[30sqnatc]

After studying numerous photos of original and surviving M5 tractors I have made start on the crane mount. I figured out each support leg is different - yeah

[30sqnatc]

The supporting structure for the crane is definitely robust.

[30sqnatc]

A little bit of oragami last night to see if a US 16' x 16' tent could be made free standing from a sheet of paper. Answer yes with some thin card inside the walls to stop them bowing out so it looks like the airmen will finally get some Pacific four star accomodation. Now to figure out how to make a tent with the sides rolled up exposing the interior and false floor.

[Dave Homewood]

If you roll up the tent flaps you also need to have mosquito net.

[30sqnatc]

Feb 18, 2023 10:51:59 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

If you roll up the tent flaps you also need to have mosquito net.

Yeah I was thinking of that. How to make it in 1/48 scale ... possibly just a texture on a solid surface. I assume the WW2 issue net was for individual beds as per the 1970-1990s issued nets.

[Dave Homewood]

Individual bed nets, yes, but also a lot of the tents used mesh walls when the canvas was rolled up.


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And don't forget that most of the tents had a fly which extended past the tent itself to form a buffer around the tent walls, like a verandah. And most also had vents in the roof. Nte the one in the middle distance has extra canvas sheets hanging from the fly too.

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Here is one with the canvas rolled down, covering the mesh walls.

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Most of the tents used had wooden floors that were all raised off the ground to allow air flow, protection from the rising water in heavy rain, and to minimise the rats and crabs getting in, etc.  The first tents used by the RNZAF in the Pacific were ex-Indian Army tents that had no floors and were quite  inadequate. I guess the later ones must have been US-supplied.

Here is a good example of the raised floor height. Many of the floors formed porches outside the tent too, this one is flush.

 
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The wooden structure of the floors and some uprights were mostly supplied by the RNZAF Sawmill Squadrons. These ones have extra wooden structure around the eves by the look of it.


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Note that due to the wooden superstructure most do not have guy ropes, yet these ones do and they seem to also have no floor structure, which is interesting given that this is 1945.


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There seems to be a bit of variation in the tents so I guess you can use modeller's licence a bit.


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Also do not forget that next to the accommodation tents there were also dug out bomb shelters covered with palm logs and sandbagged, etc. Usually one for each tent I believe.

As for the mosquito mesh walls, I wonder if something opaque like cellophane, Gladwrap or the like might work, perhaps spayed with the opaque Tamiya smoke paint, to give the effect there is something there you can see through into the dark tent. Not sure.

[30sqnatc]

Dave,

Thanks for those photos and info. I had not twigged to the lack of guy ropes on the raised floor tents. I believe they are modified US M1934 pyramidal squad tents. See qmi.be/en/tentage/pyramidal-tent-m-1934.html and www.med-dept.com/articles/ww2-medical-tentage/

[30sqnatc]

Filling in the details begin

[30sqnatc]

With the boom started now it looking like a crane. It is depicted with the sliding boom about half way out. Now to make the rather small pulley wheels.

[30sqnatc]

Big day today, after much procrastination, the surface of all the crushed coral aircraft parkings aprons were repainted to a dirty brown colour. The bright off white is gone. In celebration almost the whole of the MT section was lined up to show the great progress since the last mass photo. Captured Japanese road and rail stuff on the left and a few NZ Army interlopers in the front.





I also realised that perhaps this project should be retitled the 'RNZAF Servicing Unit MT Section somewhere in the SW Pacific' as I still don't have a single aircraft finished.

[Antonio]

I can't wait to see you sectioning an engine ..... 

[30sqnatc]

Feb 25, 2023 16:56:24 GMT 12 Antonio said:

I can't wait to see you sectioning an engine ..... 

This one. Hmmmm.

[30sqnatc]

Today I set about completing the jungle cover on the forward slope of Control Tower Hill. With numerous bushes and trees made from ground foam and plastic fish tank plants the vegetation quickly filled in all the gaps.





A few large trees have still to be made and added down on the flat so fighters can be parked between them.

[30sqnatc]

Proof the railway does run all be it rather fast at the moment as I need to get the track throughly clean again.

[Dave Homewood]

That is very cool Paul! Nicely done.

[30sqnatc]

Six pulleys added. Now to make the two wire drums that the crane uses, one for boom raise/lower and one for hook in/out

[30sqnatc]

Final paint and rigging to do



Cross drive for crane drive.



And the off side

[30sqnatc]

External rigging done but I need more light to wire up the two drums that control the hook and boom on the prototype

[30sqnatc]

Nearly there. I just realised I have not fitted the headlights on top of the radiator.