1/72 RAF Airfield Diorama - Work in Progress

I've been working on a simple diorama of a WW2 RAF airfield for the past week or so and the main reason being to liven up the photos of my models when posting them. Although it's not completed yet, I thought I might share some photos of the building process.

The kits I purchased for the diorama are :

Airfix 1/76 Control Tower
Airfix 1/76 R.A.F. Refuelling Set
Academy 1/72 Germal Fuel Truck & Schwimmwagen (for German planes)
Hasegawa 1/72 Check Point
Zvezda 1/72 British Bofors 40-mm MkI/II AA-Gun


Airfix Control Tower

Initial walls and windows build completed. Pretty straightforward build with a little bit of flash on the parts which needed tidying up.

I wanted to paint the doors and window frames white just like the control tower at RAF Duxford, hence the masking.

Base coat painted and camoflage pattern painted. The curve mask were made using UHU's Patalfix. It's similar to Blu-Tack but cheaper and less stickier which leaves no residue.

Completed control tower with weathered observation decks.

The diorama base was made on a small 50cm x 35cm framed chalkboard which I picked up at a local stationery store for about 5 dollars. The grass is made of grass mats cut to size, the concrete foundation is concrete patterns edited in Photoshop, printed then glued onto a cardboard cut to the appropriate size.

Zvezda Bofors 40mm AA Gun

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much regarding the quality of this kit but I was pleasantly surprised at the detail and precision despite being such a small kit. The parts fit perfectly and there is almost no flash but the parts are so small and fragile, I actually ended up breaking a couple of parts while pressing them together after appying cement. The broken parts were easily fixed.

The completed and weathered AA gun. I also built an enclosed dirt & sandbag emplacement out of putty but they are yet to be painted.

Additional photos of the Bofors AA gun.

Airfix RAF Refuelling Set

The set consists of two trucks; the Bedford QL and AEC Matador. Although the trucks are in 1/76 scale, I couldn't really tell the difference when put next to a 1/72 scale aircraft. However, the ground crew figures (about 6 in total I think) are noticeably small and I will likely not be using them.

The trucks weren't easy to build as there were lots of parts with lots of flash. The instructions aren't very clear so for a detailed build walkthrough, this site should be of help.

I didn't get to take any pictures of the building process but below are photos of the completed models.