Tuesday 7 October 2014

Building an Airfield

My 6mm North Africa project has taken a new direction with my recent completion of an LRDG raiding patrol of Chevy trucks. I'm currently looking at ways to build on this force but in the meantime I need something for these guys to attack and the obvious choice is an Italian Airfield. I have some specific raids in mind but for now I am concentrating on building and painting the basic buildings and terrain I need for a generic Axis airfield, somewhere in Libya. I have bought some very nice 6mm airfield buildings from Leven Miniatures and these will form the basis of a series of buildings and terrain features (such as fences and perimeter posts) that I will be working on over the coming weeks.

The problem is I can only find a handful of grainy black and white pictures axis airfield buildings to guide me in my task. From these I can see that buildings were camouflaged but they give no indication of colour schemes. I've hunted through my many books on the desert war and found a few photo's on the aftermath of such raids but few pictures show what the airfields looked like before the LRDG and SAS had finished with them.

This is an Italian Airfield but it is unclear where this is. Note the Camo pattern in the hanger walls. (Source: IWM)

This is an abandoned airfield at Wunstorf in Germany presumably taken towards or shortly after the end of WWII. Again a (different) camouflage patterns can be seen on the Hunger walls. (Source: IWM)

Both of these pictures show European airfields and aside from a handful of partial pictures I cannot find anything relating to a Desert Airstrip, so I'm going to improvise (ie guess) what one would look like. The following buildings are generic enough that I think they could be used pretty much anywhere in Africa or even mainland Europe but I have given them a 'desert Camo' pattern for their roofs based loosely on Italian Aircraft colour schemes for this period. I think the results look authentic enough, but I can always repaint them of I find some documentary evidence that suggests anything radically different. 

Barracks Huts

Airfield Workshop

Luftwaffe Hangers

Dispersal Hut

Supply Dumps - These can be places around the airfield

The next terrain project is to make a perimeter fence and some MG outposts to offer protection to these buildings. I have already started on this but I'm making a lot of it (current estimate somewhere around 22ft of fencing!) and its taking a long time to work through each stage of construction and painting. Needless to say I'll post some pictures when I have it finished.

16 comments:

  1. Excellent work, and great post!

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  2. Very nice. Are they Leven buildings?

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    1. Yes they are all from Leven Miniatures. I have to say I love Mikes resin buildings. They are nicely detailed, the range is huge, they rarely have any defects in the resin (no bubbles or voids) and are exceptionally good value for money.

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  3. I had already thought that LRDG would be of limited use on the table top at this scale nice though they are. BUT NOW you are making an airfield I am all excited again. An excellent choice of subject and I for One would be happy to play the Italians.

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    1. I bought a load of infantry and heavy weapon models last year but I'm still pondering what Italian forces to make. Some of the units I would like to build don't appear to exist on the 'official' army lists (eg Polizia dell'Africa Italiana). Whatever I decide I need to do it before SELWG next weekend, so I know what to buy if I see something for sale!

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  4. 22' of fencing, that's going to be an impressive build.

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    1. I need enough to encircle my Airfield with spare to surround a detached supply dump and possibly also a Barracks. I probably won't use it all but I'd rather have too much than not enough, especially as I'm planning on playing on the Rejects 6x10 table.

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  5. Great idea - it should look striking when done!

    Don't forget on AA gun pits for protection of the airfield.

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    1. Yep, I already have some resin gun pits ready to start on when I have finished the fencing.

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  6. Very cool

    Clint - I have an unexplainable desire to play the "Eyeties" too!

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  7. Excellent terrain pieces. Will make for a real pleasure to play with.
    cheers

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  8. They look excellent Lee, looking forward to more on the airfield!!

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  9. Looks terrific, Lee, well done on a very ambitious project. It will look amazing on the table when you're finished. I am no expert on Italian desert camo but your paint scheme has me sold. Very convincing.
    Cheers,
    Michael

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