Fliegerhorst 1/48th Luftwaffe S

Do you ever get bored modeling just airplanes? Are you a ham handed figure painter, such as myself? Armor got you down in the treads? Cars make you feel like your flat? Have faith there is something else out there, buildings. I never thought of myself as an architect, but when I opened this resin kit I was really thinking of the possibilities that were before me.

Fliegerhorst provides you with a resin single floor standard Luftwaffe barracks. You are provided with 30 pieces of yellow resin that have minimal air bubbles but lots of possibilities. There are two roofs, two long sides, two short sides and the rest is made up of the window shutters. The fun of this kit was the simplicity of it all. You are provided with two instruction pages, one written in German and one of the picture of how it is all suppose to fit.

There was no distortion and the few air bubbles were not anywhere where they would be objectionable. Actually I didn’t fill them and depicted them as wood knots. The biggest part of the job was cleanup and painting. Cleanup was easy. There are casting blocks on the bottom of all the pieces that came off with a cutting wheel and/or saw. There was some cleanup that I had to use a riffler file around the window framing, not the windows themselves but the framing. This was very easy. Then it was just a matter of sanding the parts. Lots of dust, so wear a mask. The windows have a slight covering of resin that has to be removed from the back. I used a Dremel tool and a sanding wheel to thin out the backside of the windows until they popped out easily. I opted to paint the model before putting it together. This ensured that the sides would be weathered differently as they would on the real thing. Remember the north side gets more sun than the south or something like that.

A quick wash with warm soapy water and it was time to start painting. I decided to use Gunze Wood as a pre-shade color and painted the deeper spots with it. I intentionally left lots of areas unpainted and over sprayed at the same time. This provided a random pattern to the wood pattern, which is wonderfully represented on the outside. Why didn’t I prime the kit with a gray primer? Well I wanted to use the yellow color to my advantage so that is why it didn’t get primed. You could do it but it would have just created an extra step as you would have had to paint the yellow again anyhow. After the Gunze Wood was down I took some thinned Model Master Wood and sprayed the wood panels in the direction they were laying. Vertical panels (door) were painted vertically and horizontal (walls) were painted horizontal. This ensures the grain is maintained. Sounds funny but it makes a big difference in the look. Once this was dried, a very thin wash of Burnt Umber Artist Oils was slathered over the entire project. I did this twice to get the look I was after.

Once that had dried I went back and dry brushed with various shades of browns to grays. Some colors I used were Tamiya Deck Tan, Buff, Model Master Wood. These colors were first dry brushed as before but as I went to the grayer colors, I switched to vertical strokes as the weathering would have done from rain. I have to say that I had never painted wood to such an extent but I really liked the results. The same process was used on the shutters, but to a lesser extent as they would not be exposed 24/7 to the elements, because they open and close. I left the door lighter to add interest in the solid color.

Putting the whole thing together after that was easy. Line them up and run a bead of super glue along the seam some accelerator and viola’, structure.

The roof required a different style of painting. I started out painting the roof in a traditional pre-shade of Flat Black. The roof was going to be mostly the dark tarpaper for waterproofing. The Gunze Wood was added to the boards on the roof and they were finished similar to the sides. The tarpaper was something I thought would be a problem but a little Floquil RLM 81 and I was ready to weather it. I stood back used my greatest artist impressionism and largest brushes and started dry brushing from the top of the roof to the bottom. This made the very top of the roof more weathered than the bottom. I figured that all the crap from the top would go to the bottom and stay there until washed off with rain. It worked for me. I used multiple tan, wood, and buff colors all very thin to get the look I was after. When it was done I took a wash of burnt umber artist oils and streaked them from top to bottom. This worked out quite well. I did not give the whole roof a wash, just streaks of the wash. A very thin Tamiya Red Brown was airbrushed over the entire roof to blend things together. I was very happy with the results.

I couldn’t decide whether to use clear styrene windows, not provided, and paint the back of them or to use a white glue compound and form the windows. I elected to use clear styrene as the openings were too big for the white glue compound. I did paint the inside walls Tamiya Red Brown. This allowed me to go back at any time and add additional details inside such as posters and maps. As there was no floor, furniture or anything else I just wanted something to cover the yellow resin. I like the way it turned out. The shutters were actually added at this time before I did the windows. I staggered the way they were hung and opened to provide a candid look. A few of the hinges were missing but I just added these from styrene rod. The hinges were painted with Model Master Magnesium as were the vents on the rooftops. A small thread for the door handle and the place was almost ready to move in.

A flat coat before the windows were attached and that is it. The roof is not attached because I may want to add detail later and to ease carrying the barracks to a show. I did decide while adding the flat coat to the roof that I should add some dead leaves on there for visual interest. I sprayed the individual panels and let some foliage fall where it wanted to and in the corners where I wanted it to go. The flat allowed the foliage to stick and added a nice dimension and character.

There were so many more possibilities that I thought about while building this kit. How about I add some stove pipes, maybe a light over the door, what about a unit sign by the entrance. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a floor and furniture inside? What about a slit trench outside the door? Maybe I could prop up a bike at the doorway? Maybe a bird’s nest in the rafters or at least some bird caca on the top of the roof. What about a Tamiya Kubelwagen outside? It was nice to think outside the box, very refreshing.

In the end, I settled for a curbside model, where the outside is what mattered. I am very happy with the build, which was quick and easy. You will see this background element in my future builds. It is an added dimension to airplane modeling that is often neglected. I, for one, am very happy to see that Fliegerhorst has announced a tactical control tower and a maintenance hangar. Remember the Shep Paine hangar? Oh, the possibilities, I can’t wait.

I highly recommend this kit to anyone looking to expand his boundaries or for just something that is different. It is an easy build and a lot of fun. And as I always say: “Modeling is fun!”

Thanks go to Dmcmodels for the review copy. The model can be found by calling 413-527-7491 or emailing airplane104@aol.com or at their website http://www.resin-plane-kits.com . Please let them know you heard about it here.