RNZAF in The Pacific Diorama

Not sure this should be in Diorama or Railway sections as its a cross over between the two. Anyway introducing my new work in progress. It will feature aircraft dispersals on the edge of a South West Pacific coral airstrip no specific time in WW2. The idea will be to display (not all at the same time) the range of 1/48th scale RNZAF aircraft that operated in the area obviously less flying boats. So Kittyhawk, Corsair, Avenger, Dauntless, Ventura, Lodestar, Dakota and possibly a Hudson if I can find that kit as it is long out of production and ridiculous prices asked on Ebay.

Also a range of vehicles operated by RNZAF including Jeep, CMP 15 cwt and 30 cwt, Ford bomb service truck, IH crane tractor and Minneapolis Moline tractor/truck. While Tamiya make a couple of very nice GMC 6x6 it appears most RNZAF trucks of that size were actually Internationals so will need slight conversion. Kit bashing to produce some of these vehicles has begun.

Around the outside will be a ex Japanese Imperial Navy 2ft gauge construction railway with a couple of Kato Works locomotives.
Below the bare bones baseboards. Sorry camera is on loan to inlaws so just cell phone photos.



All the railway track and under board electrical stuff.



Revell Ventura under construction along airfield control tower and first of about 70 coconut trees I estimate will be required.

This looks great so far. Where did you get the coconut trees?

Watching ….. looks quite big ?

Two baseboards each 1.2m x 0.62m designed so they can be bolted face to face for transportation.

Planecrazy wrote: This looks great so far. Where did you get the coconut trees?

Building them myself based on Youtube how to video. Three Spotlight thick florists wires with rough string rapped around and painted with rough texture gel for the trunk and masking tape stuck face to face on itself with thin florists wire trapped between as the stalk then individual 'leaves' cut out with small scissors. I timed it last night, each frond takes about 7 minutes start to finish with about twelve fronds on each tree and I think I need 60-70 coconut trees. The commercial coconut trees on Trademe are all much too short for 1/48th scale.

Stages of making a coconut frond.



When attached to tree the frond is shaped with appropriate droop. The tree on the left needs a couple of more fronds to add more vertical height to the fronds while I have only just started on the tree on the right.

Thanks for that, I'm going to play around with these...

Palm trees look good. Thanks for the how to.

Four new fronds each evening sooooooly getting there. Also progress on control tower.

I have camera back so a few photos on sequence of making the trunk. Three lengths of florists stem wire (from Spotlight) one longer as spike to mount tree. Rapped in florists tape. A circular piece of cardboard hot glued to base.



Place hotglue about 4-5 cm up trunk. Rap string around building up the base with several layers against the piece of card. This replicates the wider base on prototype trees.


At the top again build up with several layers of string. Again to replicate the prototype and it also gives a soft ball of string into which the wire of the fronds can be pushed (once a hole drilled or poked)



The base was built up a little more with hot glue.



Construction finished, the whole trunk is now covered with Reeves coarse texture gel (from Warehorse stationary). Initially I painted it on, now I just rub it on with my fingers ensuring the roughness of the rapped string is not filled in too much. The gel takes a few days to dry.

I ordered some 1/48th scale Marsden matting from Shapeways. They definitely look the part and are nicely detailed.

The construction of the ground has begun so I grabbed a few bits to show what I aiming at. This will eventually be the fighter end as I want to replicate this scene with a Corsair with wings folded pushed back between large trees.

4937337990_01f6cfe914_b by tankienz , on Flickr

The loco shed will be placed on the siding.

IMG_1686 by tankienz , on Flickr

I did learn the expanded foam is not strong enough to hold the coconut trees upright with the short wire spigot I'm using so this was a worthwhile learning activity. I have a couple of fixes in mind.

IMG_1687 by tankienz , on Flickr

Time to season the trees;) Well sort of, I'm trying pepper corns painted brown to represent coconuts. To speed the process up I'm trying to make clumps of coconuts to glue to the trees in bulk.

Sorry for the flash photo but I'm pleased with the way the peppercorn coconuts turned out.

I have sorted out the mounting of the trees in the expanded foam.



The ground work to cover the railway curving around the end of the baseboard and the line running back along the back of the board have been started. More height still to be added at the end.

That's very good, wanting to do something like this myself. Thanks for the how-to,,,,,

Really great to watch this come together, Thanks for the tips.
Good to see you using your imagination.
Read not long ago that the mark of true intelligence is not by your knowledge but by your imagination.

Bishop wrote: Love the coconuts!! Watching watching...

New saying in the household. No longer 'pass the pepper', now its 'pass the coconuts'

The chippies were back on the job last night and a rather colourless boss arrived to check on progress still wearing his Afrika Korps hat he acquired during service in the Middle East. Must change that to one of those floppy USMC hats:dry:

Amazing what you can find with Google. The US Navy also had a 2ft gauge railway on Guadalcanal built by the Seabees construction units. The loco is US made Plymouth, the same loco the Japanese copied and built by Kato Works for IJN. I wonder what the censor whited out on both pictures showing the loco - I'm assuming the unit title. Should model it in censored form





I hope that officer swinging the sledge hammer knows what he's doing.



Anyway more options of rolling stock to run on my wee railway

I've started on the ground work on the second baseboard. First a depression was cut out that will become a trashed aircraft dump.

Second a rather messy job gouging out the cork baseboard top so I can fit two sections of marston matting reasonably flush with the airstrip surface.



Then I need to finish laying the track and wiring it up.

Ground around the matting has been surfaced and painted. The tree line is slowly growing and a start has been made on painting the Jeep.

Minneapolis Moline NTX aircraft tractor kit taking shape with addition of brass rod seat rails. Steering wheel and tow hook from Tamiya 1/48th GMC truck. It will be finished in light grey to represent vehicle taken over from US Navy. Roundels will confirm new RNZAF ownership.