Having knocked up a maison bourgeoise and a radar station over the past couple of days, I set myself the task of getting these painted over the weekend. As I’d mentioned, I wasn’t sure how to decorate the radar station base and was considering using a set of nylons to create the mesh of the dish. Well, I tried the latter and it was an unmitigated disaster. The net result was a couple of hours spent cleaning nylon and glue off the model. What fun on a Saturday morning…
In the end I nipped to my local car parts shop and grabbed some wire mesh which you use for doing bodywork repairs to cars. Those readers with long memories will recall that Ace model builder Ian Weekely used this stuff for leaded light windows. To fit this I needed to cut it into three pieces and superglue it in place thus:
There is a small amount of buggering about involved with a job like this, but you can bend the mesh into shape and then cut where the bend is, so in that respect it is easier than it looks. However, there is an aspect of “it fits where it touches” to this, but ultimately it’s a bit of wargaming terrain and not an entry into Scale Models of Radar Stations magazine. I find myself more than capable of living with a degree of imperfection.
What sharp-eyed bunnies will notice is that I used the car mesh to add to the areas which the MDP model has etched on as metal walkways. I had the mesh so I thought I may as well use it and a couple of off-cuts did the job. I think it adds a bit to the model but it isn’t entirely necessary.
After that I was looking for some additional bric-a-brac for the base. I did think about using one of the jump-off markers, they do make very nice terrain pieces in their own right, but I found some of the Tamiya 1:48th oil drums and a jerry can in the spares box so they server the purpose. Additionally I found some coffee stirrers which I snipped to the same length and arranges as a pile of timber. A couple of slightly thicker bits of balsa wood served as the bits this pile of sawn timer was resting on. All very simple stuff. I should add here that a liberal application of PVA on things like the complete wood pile glue it all together very solidly and provide a good base for painting.
Here are some snaps of the completed radar station:
I’m pretty pleased with the end result. I has a suitable lived-in look. I normally spend a lot of time on signage and that sort of stuff to bring the model to life, but I honestly couldn’t be bothered yesterday, so I may revisit that soon. Or maybe not.
More later on the maison bourgeoise. Off to walk the dog now.