Need advice for a simple landing strip dio

[Apokalipse]

Hello everybody. I've nearly completed a 1/48 fw190 and would like to make a simple base to place the model on. I hesitate to even call it a real diorama.

I've never done anything like this before, so what I'm wondering is if anyone has any reference pictures for landing strips. I know they were normally simple fields with marks showing where the aircraft landed, but I have no idea how the aircraft were stored. I've seen some dioramas of aircraft sitting on wooden boards. Were there hangars? What kind of facilities were there?

So basically if anyone has found some good information on WW2 era german airfields I'd really appreciate it.

Ideas for maybe something more advanced than a simple base would be appreciated as well.

 

[monica]

well most of the airstrips were just grass and the planes line up along the sides ,

and what ever was need to refuel,rearm was taken to them,

i found this link and some pics hope it helps you

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=ww2+german+airfields+in+france&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=jCH3U8jBFoWF8gW5gYG4BQ&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1906&bih=946#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=sO3Uvuf9hugERM%253A%3B6kXELCXEzvnEVM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fww2db.com%252Fimages%252Fair_do17_14.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fww2db.com%252Fimage.php%253Fimage_id%253D12424%3B800%3B535

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[stona]

You can't really go wrong.

Aircraft were invariably dispersed around the airfield. Most were as you suggest airfields with grassy landing strips. Larger airfields would have hangars and other maintenance facilities along with other permanent buildings and sometimes concrete hard standings. Most airfields had few or no permanent facilities, one of the reasons that they have ceased to exist today, there is no trace left of most of them, I know because I've looked

The Luftwaffe doesn't seem to have been a big builder of revetments (like the RAF) and protective hangars, particularly on European airfields though there are pictures of them there and elsewhere.

The wooden boards or corduroy (logs laid as a base) were simply a means of providing a hard standing for dispersed aircraft in bad weather. Having your fighters stuck in mud is not an ideal situation. The better equipped allies used PSP (pierced steel planking) for the same purpose.

A simple grassy base or wooden hard standing (check out coffee stirrers from your nearest coffee shop for planks) can really set a model off nicely, showing it to its best advantage.

Cheers

Steve (who should be figuring out how to represent a US carrier deck !)

 

[tommy1drop]

Hi Apokalipse

Hope this helps http://www.ronaldv.nl/abandoned/airfields/ge/index.html

http://www.forgottenairfields.com/

you can also Google German airfields ww2 this should give you some information as to what you are after

 

[Apokalipse]

Thanks guys! Exactly the kind of info I was looking for! :D

 

[Laurie]

This may help. Not finished as I have since taking the photo used large stones form the seashore mixed with bushes against the sky and the grass.

It is only as background means of showing the aircraft not intend as a diorama. I suppose you would describe a diorama as portraying a story/scene where mine he are just background.

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[Apokalipse]

What I'm doing is only supposed to be a means of showing the aircraft as well, which is why I said I'd hesitate to even call it a diorama.

While making something bigger, I'll probably go for something like the lower picture here.

I think a part grass, part (concrete?) slab base should do wonders to make everything a bit more vivid. Maybe I'll even scratchbuild a simple ammo case and place it on the ground somewhere, as the model will be depicted with open hatches for the 20mm cannons.

 

[stona]

Large first line airfields (Fliegerhorste) would be the ones with fairly extensive facilities. They were expected to undertake fairly significant repairs which would require technical staff, specialised tools and a stock of spares. Here you would find permanent facilities, administrative buildings, hangars, shelters etc. Combat units did of course operate from such facilities.

Many airfields were far less well equipped and could only really carry out daily maintenance and minor repairs, performed by the unit personnel with a standard tool box.

Late in the war some jet and other units didn't operate from air fields at all but used sections of autobahn or open fields as runways. The aircraft were either flown off to air fields in the evening to return in the morning, or dispersed in the nearby woods. Both were a way of avoiding allied fighter bombers and bombers marauding in day light hours or hammering known air fields.

I reckon a dual concrete and grass base will look pretty good.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Laurie]

Down at Yeleverton just on the west edge of Dartmoor there is the remains of the airfield from WW11. RAF Harrowbeer.

Mostly grass with signs where the hard runway area. Interesting point is though that the pens where tha aircraft were parked are still there as a reminder.

Put Yeleverton airfield in the browser and lots of pictures come up.

This one with a replica Spitfire shows the pens as they were.

Down that way worth a visit nice for picnics and a nice village.

Laurie

 

[Ian M]

Germans were also great believers in camouflage nets. Aircraft dispersed around fields as far as possible into the trees. A few long poles with guy ropes to hold them up with a net drapped over. So you do not hide the plane to much, you could do it in the process of being parked, with all the camo gear laid out ready...

Ian M

 

[stona]

Germans were also great believers in camouflage nets.Ian M

They are an essential tool for camouflage, particularly nets rigged at appropriate angles to hide, or more accurately disrupt, shadows. Shadows are a dead give away to aerial reconnaissance.

They were, and still are, often misused. Sometimes they just draped the nets over the national markings or theatre bands as if that would hide the aircraft from aerial reconnaissance.

The Germans were also keen to use cut natural vegetation to camouflage their aircraft. The problem with this is it has to be renewed at frequent intervals.

Cheers

Steve

 

[flyjoe180]

Yes, all in the name of disrupting the patterns and shadows. You could even have some 'fake' wooden aircaft laying about.