Hi all,

I have received a number of excellent suggestions in the "Airplane" section, so I thought I would continue my quest here now. I want to recreate a diorama of my Grandfathers plane and his crew photo on Tinian in either 1/72nd or 1/48th scale. I am leaning more for 1/72, due to the size of the plane even at that scale. I have uploaded photos in "my photos" on here for all to see. Now for the Q's.

It seems that crushed coral was used for the "parking" area's for the B-29's on Tinian. I want to recreate this area (see photos). I have received many good suggestions on how to do this, including powdered corral from a hobby store, sand paper, etc. If I choose the powdered corral, how do I "glue" it to the base of the dio? What would be a good way to show oil stains?



I also want to achieve the "weathered" look on the airplane. How do I paint weathered aluminum? Also, how do I show the weathered leading edge of the wings (see photo of wing with weathered edges)?



My grandfathers plane is B2 / MIS-CHEIF-MAK-ER, as seen in the photos. I want to recreate the crew photo, where they are next to the nose art of the woman. Where is a good place to get custom decals made? I would like to get the nose art of her made and the Hellbird logo on the other side.



Sorry for all the questions, but this is my first dio, and I want to present it to my family as a tribute to my grandfather on the 10th anniversary of his death (I have 2 years to get this right). This is also the first model in 20 years, so there will be many more Q's to make it right!

For the Powder: you could put some white glue on the base of the dio, spread it evenly and then put the powder on it.
Another way could be using spraying glue.

For the oil stains I´d chose thinned oil paint - just let that stuff seep on the ground and try different thinner/paint ratios for some variety.


Hope that helps,

ekke

Its quite a project you have there Sean and a really meaningful one too. Crushed coral bought from the aquarium shop tend to be a bit too coarse for 1/72. You could try grinding them to a more fine powder as an alternative as they really do give a fair color contrast unlike pure white sand. I've come across some small paths layed with broken coral sand and they are usually off-white with several different beige shades rather than pure white.

On the other hand super fine white beach sand intermixed with small amounts of brown beach sand is another option. Again the problem here is scale coz at 1/72 even well sifted beach sand may still appear coarse. Generally 1/48 maybe be a better scale although you need to have figures for the crew with either scale.

Talcum powder and super fine salt are 2 other options but you will have to intermix it with small amounts of ground down brown sugar to give it some contrast. Good luck.

You may be able to use powdered marble for coral. Usually it's used for snow but n 1/72 it may look just right. Whatever medium you choose, add a touch of dishsoap to the diluted white glue mix. This relieves the surface tension in the water and helps the glue settle down. Model railroaders are the best at this sort of thing. You could post a query at rec.models.railroad for some good ideas as well.
For the crew, that's a little tougher. I haven't done an aircraft in years, not counting moderns helos, but I think several companies (perhaps Hasegawa?) make 1/72 kneeling mechanics and air crew. You could slightly change the poses for some variety.

All, thanks for the responses. I am still undecided on scale at this time. I have looked at some 1/48th scale 29's and well.....they really are smaller than I thought they would be. I might lean that way, just not sure yet.

i figure the crew to be the easy, as I only need two pose's, so my scale will really be determined by the figures I find in that pose. The part I fugure to be the hardest, will be to find a decal maker to make me the custom decals for the plane. Any Ideas?

for some grass on the base use the stuff they use in train building to create a coulor full corner or border
like I saw on one picture.



good luck on your amazing project.


feelpanzer