I need a good way to make the typical concrete airfield plates on 1/48 scale.

The same for tarmac which is used often for runways.

At the end I would need to cover 10 square meter with "concrete" plates in 1/48 scale.

The method must be both good (i would not like to do it all again if the result would be bad) and reasonably fast.

Does anybody have an idea how to do this?

One of the guys in my club posted a neat how-to on our website a while back.

Check it out HERE , it looks quite easy and really good effect.

Hope this helps, D

Wow! 10 square meters is around 107 sq.ft., according to my calculator. You must be building the whole airport.

Well, that is the intention

I am playing for years now with the idea to gradually build a complete airfield in 1/48 with standard "tiles" that I can lay out or put away as space permits.

I have already found all info needed on airfield markings, the standard size of concrete slabs, and so on, and so on...

Now it is a question on starting to build and my current show stopper is how to make 10 square meter of "concrete" tiles.

The idea that AussieReg gave is a good start but i would love to hear about alternatives so that i can try a variety of things before ambarking on "the big one".

The more becasue I fear that 10 square meter of cement sheeting would be quite heavy and therefore difficutl to transport.

By the way: 10 square meter in 1/48 is, considering the size of even a small military airfield, very little. It will only be a first step

I desperately need a much bigger house

Damian, many thanks to your friend. That is a great idea. I'd also like to add that many places that sell this material will also be willing to lend you the cutting tool. At least in the states that is.

I am missing something here............why in the world would you want to use heavy ass concrete when all you have to do is scribe some sheet plastic and spray paint it deck tan. It looks just like real concrete with half the work and with almost hardly any weight at all. Keep it simple man...........................

I tried plastic sheet and painted it... and it looks like a painted plastic sheet, not like concrete.

I also tried taking pictures of real concrete, print it and glue it to a plastic sheet, again, this looks like a print on a plastic sheet and not like concrete.

I got a better result with a wooden base, covering it completely with glue and then throw fine sand on it. The sand gives a very realistic texture but it is impossible to paint the yellow markings on the concrete because masking pulls the sand of the base and the paint is sucked up by the sand giving very ugly borders

Maybe I just want it to be too good

Hi all

I used to be an aircraft modeller but now I've passed to tanks

Anyway when I did aircrafts I had several way to depict the concrete

I used to depict concrete simply with a gray thick cardboard sheets (painted), but maybe that method was more effective in 1/72 scale




Have you tried to sand the plastic sheets surfaces before painting?
You should sand them using a large size grain. This will depict in a good way the concrete roughness. You can also represent the roughness texturizing plastic with liquid glue or lacquer thinner and an old stiff brush. The problem is that it'ill be a quite expensive method

Regarding the sand paper....You could also cover your diorama base with sand paper sheets (small or medium grain) and then you could paint them with a light coat of gray applied with the airbrush . It's a very convincing method in my humble opinion, especially if the original sand paper sheet is black or dark gray.

cheers and good luck

I sand the plastic as previously stated and then spray paint from slightly more distance than usual so the paint comes out more textured than smooth. Almost any light grey color can pass for concrete . Concrete, like many other building materials is never always the same exact color from one place or another. I can't imagine for a minute why anyone would use real concrete for such a miniature project. Keep it simple....................again just my two pennies worth.

Something may be said in favour of using the cement slabs: It makes for a very stable base. This is important if you're displaying your models in a high hazard environment such as one containing cats or small children. Drabslab may find that the weight of his airport may become a problem though.

Another possibility is foamcore board topped with Durham's Water Putty. It's lightweight, dries rock hard, may be carved, gouged, chipped or distressed and accepts all types of hobby paints and tints readily.

J

I too am a fan of Durham's Water Putty. Works great in molds as long a s you vibrate the bubbles out of it. Good stuff.......................Personally ,I try to make all my dioramas as light as possible with the use of a lot of styrofoam as fillers. To each his - her own I suppose.

Very interesting topic with some great ideas put forward. The Fibre Cement sheet used in the how-to I linked earlier is only about 4mm thick and quite light, and I have seen it used in quite large dioramas by attaching it to a hollow-core door. I am planning to use this method when I get around to starting my 1/24 VFS P-47 Dio with a few vehicles thrown in as well !!

Maybe you could use some kind of non-slip floor tile, either ceramic or linoleum? They'd certainly be easy to pick up and move around.

Ceramic tiles would certainly take paint quite well too.

Have a look at this.

http://www.priceinspector.co.uk/d/26672716/DIY/Kinetic-Matte-Non-Slip-R9-Cream-450x450mm-Porcelain-Floor-Tile-Product-compare-prices


For that matter, a roll of grey linoleum might work. No seams then, too.

http://www.architonic.com/pmpro/plastic-floors-concrete-look-plastic-flooring-flooring-carpets/3231173/2/2/1


Grubby