Help. I am building a diorama base and need a couple sheets of that 1/48 scale concrete aircraft tarmac that verlinden or custom dioramics use to carry. Can any one help? Are there any alternatives? Thanks ahead of time.
I made my own tarmac for an F/A-18 I built.
- Had a wood base and prepped it with adhesive to take styrene sheets
- Once styrene was in place, cut to form of wood base and then sand
- Spray painted light gray with varying shades of gray
- Once paint dried, I drew lines with a pencil to simulate seam lines
- Weathered the seam lines and mounted the model
Turned out pretty good. It was quick and fairly cheap. The wood base was scrap from another project, the styrene was extra stock on hand, and so was the spray paint. [:)]
I replied to your post on the armor page:
As a former aircraft guy, I’ll take this- Squadron has the tarmac http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=VE1634
As for the road signs, I am not sure. I know Archer has Arabic Wall Slogans. Maybe you can convert them. http://www.archertransfers.com/MIDEASTAFV.html
You might get away with it unless a judge speaks arabic!
Like Dragon, I make my own concrete.
I use artists card, available from art shops in large sheets, cut into individual ‘slabs’, and then airbrushed a concete colour, my usual being Tamiya Deck Tan. I then AB the edges with a darker shade, either a grey or a brown, depending on the sort of concrete you’re aiming for, followed up by gentle passes in the direction of traffic over the concrete to suggest tyre scrub, scorching etc. Final touch is to paint in the tar seals between slabs, best done with a marker.
The image below shows a photo base with concrete produced in this manner, the only thing missing is the tar lines, which I had not got around to when I took the photos.
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v351/KT200/000_0088.jpg
Hope this helps.
Karl
I have found that sandpaper (paper, not Mylar-backed) adhered to a wooden base, and painted a base coat of whatever shade of gray you want (choose it based on how it will contrast with your subject parked on the tarmac), then stained and washed makes great tarmac. Obviously, you’ll use pretty fine paper (400 grit works well) and oddly enough, once it has been painted, it can be masked for the stripes, if you want them. If you’re doing a beat-up Corsair sitting on a crushed coral landing strips, use really coarse paper and obviously, gray won’t do. A little grass along the edges to show it’s an airstrip is in order here. Remember not to put the edge of your airstrip section parallel to the edges of the board because it looks symetrical and that, my friends, is the enemy of realism in landsapes. But, for, say, a jet ramp and/or maintenance scene, you can have wall to wall tarmac, and sandpaper is both cheaper and more realistic than those absurdly priced bases from a certain Belgian maker of model stuff.
Tom
That’s a pretty good idea to use the sandpaper, sharkskin. I hadn’t thought of that. All of these methods sound good to me, actually. I’ll have to give them each a try and see which one works the best for me.
I took a 3 X 2 ft piece of plywood, painted it grey with porch paint. Painted expansion joints and marked off parking areas and taxi strip. Used another piece of wood and made a hanger facade with L-brackets so that I could move it around and use some of the small box art to pose a/c as if inside the hanger. I used Verlinden’s sign set and made signs out of plactic card. Was fun to make and doesn’t look bad. It’ll hold 4 1/32 and 6 1/48 a/c.[2c]
gjek,
I have a tarmac on my computer. If you have a color printer and the ability to resize the copy I would be more than happy to send it to you as I have used it many times. e-maile me at RSaddlemire@sc.rr.com and I will send it to you.
Regards,
Richard
Just as the examples above show, with a little imagination and a few good suggestions you can make anything work and come out nice.
KJ200: Love your work.
I built a section of tarmac out of thin masonite sprayed with the paint for inside car trunks. The paint I used consisted of varying specs of grey, white and black. I used thin drafting tape to replicate the tar strips and then used heavily thinned paint to make oil stains. Finally, I maked off and sprayed some yellow lines. The whole project shouldn’t take too long and will give good results.
Gary
Dragonfire, glad you like it.
Karl