I’m looking to make a dio of an A-10 killing an iraqi tank. My question is how do you all suspend the plane in mid air when it is not close to the ground. It’s easy to hide it in a tree or something if the plane looks like its crashing but i want it to be higher like its attacking the tank. So far all i’ve come up with is put it in an aquarium or a model case and use fishing line, but i dont like the idea of having the dio closed up on all sides.
Steve
i like to use a 1/4" clear plexigass rod it doesnt look the best but it gets the point across
I thought abount doing a dio with an A-10 passing a destroyed tank, but gave up, the main reason was I couldn’t get the perspective right, the A-10 always seemed too big.
Scott.
That’s one of the very hardest scenes to depict with any hint of realism. Tha distances are simply too great for a convincing diorama.
Regards, Rick
One idea is to have the A-10 cresting a hill. Mount the A-10 to the hill, and hide most of the plexiglas post with a small bush that the plane just misses as it is ambushing the enemy tank. Of course to make it look convincing, you’ll have to put the tank a minimum of about 4 feet away, making for a very long dio!
Good luck on this project. It will be incredibly awesome once it’s done!
I am also working on this idea. Plan on mounting it in a case and attaching the A-10 to the side (or a wingtip to the top) of the case.
As for distance, A-10 drivers are known to get down and dirty around 100 feet. This equates to less than 17 inches in 1/72nd and if you position the Warthog doing a wing over as he (or maybe she) is pulling off target, there isn’t that much empty space.
I was planning on having the Guided bomb in flight going towards the target and having the A-10 doing a wing over off of the target toward the front side of the diorama, I just dont like the idea of putting the whole diorama in a case.
Steve
One idea for the tank is getting or scratchbuilding one in a small scale. It would give the aspect from a wingman’s point of view. It would solve a little on the total dio size.There was an article in FSM about 2 A-6’s going feet dry into Iraq during Desert Storm.In fact I think it was called “Feet Dry”.Sorry I forget the issue but it might be in the Magazine Index. Good luck on it.[2c]
What about using the clear plastic rod and paint it to lok like smoke/tracers from the Avenger gun. Mount the other end to a bracket in the tank.
If you do do this,be sure to post pics!
The mini-gun on the nose of an A-10 fires so fast it produces a solid line of fire as to the air to ground missiles they use. If you dye or paint clear plastic rod yellow you can simulate the fire and provide a mount for your aircraft.
How about attaching a backboard to the base. Cover the backboard with a print of the Iraqi desert. The print can be scaled and cropped to give you the desired effect. Then you can use a wingtip mount for the jet.
PR
Steve,
I know you mentioned that you don’t want the sides to be blacked out but consider this…
Inspiration from Finescale back in the late 80’s, I build a box diorama. I had a 1/48 scale P-40 making a fly-by of it’s latest victim, a 1/72 Bf-109 sitting on the ground with smoke coming from the engine.
Here’s a quick proposal of the idea…the picture here will be from the front view only. Sides cannot be seen, of course. The ground will gradually rise up to the back of the box and painted an ever-lighter color, simulating the hazy atmosphere.
Like I said, I know you want it to be seen from all sides, but perspective will not allow it to be pulled off effectively.
EDIT: Oh yeah, make the smoke by bent wire and gluing cotton (or lint from your dryer) to it and spray-painting it black and dark gray…it looks convincingly real.
Well thanks for all the input i really appreciate it. I do like the last idea, i wish i could think of a way to make it look right from all sides. I might go with a 1/72 A-10 and a 1/144 tank. I just dont like working with anything bigger than 1/72 scale.
Steve