New Runway Display Board - First Shots: Tarheel Industries Project SWORD Probe Force 2

I'm gonna have to go through all my airplane, spaceship, and airport toys and start dragging things out to photograph. The collection doesn't have a lot of airfield accessories, things like AGE (Aerospace Ground Equipment), portable ladders or staircases, or other ephemera one would see on a flightline , but I still have enough to do something!

Today's series of photos highlights Tarheel Industries Project SWORD Probe Force 2 (P2). In the Project SWORD storyline, there were three SWORD bases: Moon Base; London, UK; and Woomera, Australia. Wellll I have nothing that resembles any of those locals so let's pretend the photos reflect an as yet unnamed auxiliary base! In the first couple of photos we see SWORD P2 getting prepped for take off (I'm thinking 1/72 / OO scale airfield accessories might be appropriate here). The last photo shows P2 rolling down the runway. Be Blessed and Relish Life! Ed

New Runway Display Board - First Shots

The paint hadn't even dried fully on my new runway diorama board when I grabbed a hangar and airplane off the shelf and started taking photos! 😄 The hangar is a 30s era tin-litho piece from Marx, while the Comet passenger jet dates to the '50s. Both have been featured here on the blog. Be Blessed and Relish Life! Ed

New Runway Display Board

Back in 2018 I built and blogged a runway project out in The Cave, a 20"D x 96" (8ft) L runway to display various space and aircraft toys for photography. It was a good concept but ended up falling flat. Why? Wellll, first and foremost it was a shelf - a long shelf - and I really needed that space to store toys on. Secondly, in order for me to take in the entire 8ft width in one photo, I'd have to knock a hole in the opposite wall and take the photo from outside! 

20" deep x 8ft long runway shelf

It's full of toys now - if I ever clear it off again it can still be used for photography

A few years back I built up two boards for the purpose of using them for some kind of display or photo taking. They're nothing special: 2'x4' particle board top, framed by 1"x2" wood strips - simple. But they've been hanging around in The Cave all this time. So the other day I decided it was time to utilize one of those boards that had already been built up. A few minutes of painting spread out over a couple of days and I have a smaller, portable, easier to use runway display. It's still not 100% finished, but it's good enough to start taking pictures on. Be Blessed and Relish Life!  Ed 

Culled from the Internet, this diagram shows various airfield components.

I already had the board and I still had enough paint in The Cave: time for another project!

The whole board was given two coats of light gray paint. I would have preferred to use Woodland Scenics 'Top Coat - Concrete' which is more tan in color, but I was all out of it.

The 1"x2" (2.54 x 5.08cm) framing is clearly visible.

My workspace: clothes dryer and washer! Yes, I'm that cramped for space. When not in use, the board will stand upright against my shelving units.

While I refer to this project as a 'Runway Display Board', in truth it's more like a taxiway/ramp display board. There's not enough room to represent an apron, and certainly not enough to include the actual runway, but as they say, it's good 'nuff for guvmint work!

The front of the board represents the taxiway and was painted a darker gray.

The taxiway is 8"(20.32cm) deep, while the lighter gray 'ramp' (the area with all the lines drawn in) is 16" (40.64cm) deep.

There's a thick black line separating the two gray tones. Eventually it'll be painted over with a yellow line -  or maybe I'll use striping tape!?

The concrete expansion joints were drawn in using a fine point Sharpie in a 4" (10.16cm) sq grid

I'm debating whether or not I should add grounding points to the ramp.

Aircraft Runway Shelf Display

I like being able to display or photograph toys in a cool way but it's been quite a while since I've done any kind of display or diorama. An airfield type setting has always been high on my 'really wanna do' list but...

Okay, so this year I said to myself, "Self!" I said, "Get off your behind and get sumthin' done!" Well, that was a lot easier said than done, with what little time I have being devoted to either getting stuff ready to list on eBay (seller: marxtoynut) or just takin' pics for the blog, but with a little creative schedule re-arranging I managed to get a heckuva good start on a display shelf.

Most shelving systems which use standards (the vertical pieces which mount to the wall) and brackets (the arms upon which the shelves rest) only accommodate 12" (30.48cm) deep shelves - not good enough. The solution lie with closet shelving utilizing brackets which accommodate at least 20" (50.8cm) deep shelves. Starting in January the old shelves were pulled down, the holes filled with spackling, and white touch-up paint applied to the wall and new standards and brackets installed. Next, a 20" (30.48cm) x  96" (2.44m) wooden shelf was painted with custom mixed paints from Lowe's. I opted for a dark gray runway with a concrete colored tarmac. The 'concrete' closely resembles Woodland Scenics concrete scenery paint which is more of a tan than it is a gray. To be sure these are not realistic scale colors for a runway diorama. A scale runway diorama would feature a series of light--to-medium gray tones with weathering done in a variety of white/gray/black tones. The reasoning behind this color choice is simple: I'll be displaying and photographing toy planes in a variety of bright, cheerful colors, and the dark gray/tan scheme serves as a nice contrast to the toys.

I knew there wouldn't be much room for a full-blown runway so it is only minimally represented with the tarmac taking up most of the shelf depth. That also allows for hangars to be positioned with airplanes posed in front of them. The runway is 6" (15.24cm) deep with a black border drawn in using a Sharpie felt-tipped marker. The expansion lines are in a 4" (10.16cm) square pattern drawn in using a very fine tipped Sharpie marker.

The new standards and brackets in place and the 20" x 96" shelf painted and installed

The 4" square grid is evident in this photo

The backdrop consists of four pieces of sky blue foamcore cut to fit under the shelf above. The board rests behind the shelf and sits atop the brackets. It is also notched to allow it to clear the brackets above. The segments are joined using foamcore splice plates glued behind

The backdrop in place behind the shelf

Some initial photos of hangars and planes already featured here on Toys and Stuff

Detailing the backdrop is going to take a lot of work. Simply gluing on hangars and other buildings and/or details won't allow for flexibility. What if I want to do a civilian airport theme and I have military hangars permanently glued to the back? or vice versa

Right now I'm leaning towards using a modular concept for the details. The next few photos show a 'proof' of concept' attempt. The photo of the hangar was taken during one of the Aviation Nation Air Show events at Nellis AFB. 

I did some Photoshopping to remove most unwanted details but I need to do more. The pic was printed out on  Legal size cardstock (8.5" x 14"), glued to a piece of matching blue foamcore, and a scrap piece of cardstock glued to the backside to serve as means to hold the picture up while it rests behind the shelf. 

A quick treatment in Photoshop will take away the lines visible on the foamcore

The following photos have all been Photoshopped to remove the lines in the foamcore

Well, that's it for now. I hope you liked this little project and I'm anxious to get more done. Airfields can be busy places and there's a lot more details that can potentially be added all of which I am 

s-l-o-w-l-y  working on. Again - Enjoy!