Picture
this: 1944. Early morning. A distant, lonely Pacific isle, home
to a few squadrons of fighters and reconnaissance aircraft of the
Imperial Japanese Navy. Suddenly, shells begin to explode along
the coral sand airfield, launched by dozens of U.S. ships
hovering off the coast a few miles. With little warning, much of
the squadrons of planes parked along the makeshift runway lay
broken and burning, while Japanese soldiers and airmen race into
the jungles and hills to fight another day. The invasion has
begun. Soon, countless numbers of U.S. Marines will land and
sweep through the island, followed by the ubiquitous SeaBees
(Construction Battalion) and their thousands of tons of
equipment. The smoldering hulks are pushed aside, as scores of
men begin the laborious work of assembling the Marsden Matting
runway. Soon, the Allied bombers will arrive to call the base
their own. Such was the island-hopping strategy that largely
brought the Pacific War to a close the following year.
The
scene has been set, and was accomplished with the newly-retooled
1/72nd scale Hasegawa A6M2 Zero, their Willys Jeep, Preisser
Luftwaffe figures, the spares box, and a little ingenuity.
The most
challenging aspect of putting this diorama together was
portraying the thin sheet metal of the aircraft in a fairly
convincing manner. A Dremel Moto Tool with a grinding tip and
tiny drill bits, a jeweler's saw with extra fine,
eensy-weensy-toothed blades, Exacto knives and files, not to
mention about a half-gallon of Maalox were all it took.
First,
itty-bitty holes were drilled in the four corners of the panels
and skeletal sections intended to be opened. Threading the saw
blade through one of the holes, then cutting through to all four
corners was the next step. After doing some clean-up and squaring
of the panels with files, the Moto Tool was carefully used to
grind the plastic to paper thinness. The canopy was handled in
the same way.
Painting
was the next challenge, and the results were quite unexpected.
Spraying it the base color of Humbrol's N1 Green mixed with
British Dark Green gave a generally pleasing result, but didn't
possess the realism of scale I wanted to achieve. I decided to
try to portray separate panels that were pronounced in photos of
weatherbeaten aircraft. Initially, various large panels were
masked off and a lighter mix of the base coat was sprayed on. The
tape was removed, and very thin strips of tape were applied
across and along the wings, as though a fine net was being
applied. Various other panels were then masked off and a very
light coat of heavily-thinned light gray was wisped over the
unmasked areas. The subtle differences in the various panels
added a significant amount of authenticity to the finished
display. The National Insignia (Hinomaru) were also masked and
sprayed on.
Small,
simple vignettes within a diorama add character and holds a
viewer's interest. Two were added to this diorama because of the
stark nature of the white sand and fire-damaged palm trees. The
first, containing the Willys Jeep was pretty straightforward in
construction and painting. The roof was fashioned from Kleenex
tissue that was cut to shape, moistened with a mixture of water
and white glue, then placed over a makeshift frame constructed
from stretched sprue that had been glued in place. A side view
mirror was also made from stretched sprue and added to the
driver's side. The smoking figure, which stands a little under an
inch tall, is made up of eight different parts that were cut from
various Preisser Luftwaffe figures, glued in place, filled and
sanded smooth, and then carefully hand-painted. The perforated
landing strip, or "Marsden Matting" is from Verlinden.
The
second vignette shows a soldier leaning on the remains of an
engine from another unfortunate A6M2 Zero. The figure required
little modification, but the engine was a different matter. It
was taken from the earlier Hasegawa A6M2 Zero release (a bit
cruder but still quite attractive.) The engine was detailed with
bits of plastic, wire, and model railroading parts to mimic the
complexities of these machines. It was then placed in the cowling
that was cut along the hinge lines and slightly opened for added
realism. The lower propeller blades were bent using a
carefully-applied match flame, then sanding them down to their
original thinness, but are now hidden under the
"ever-shifting sands."
What
continues to attract me to this hobby is the great sense of
accomplishment one gets after a diorama is completed. Putting one
together takes a lot of planning, skill, patience and
determination to achieve the expected result. We all can develop
these necessary traits if we only choose to.
Choose
to.
