1/72 RAF Tomahawk IIA Diorama - Part 1

As my Airfix Tomahawk and 'Tilly' utility vehicle models near completion my attention turns to the diorama I plan to make for them. My idea was to create a pretty simple - and small - airfield scene with the 26 (recce) Squadron Tomahawk being serviced by ground crew...Which begged the question, where do I get the 1/72 RAF ground crew figures from?

Annoyingly the Airfix 'Tilly' vehicle doesn't come with any crew - not even a driver. So I had to start from scratch - luckily Airfix makes it's own 1/72 'WWII RAF Personnel' figure set (which explains why their vehicles don't come with a crew - they want you to buy this set).

I did look around for alternatives and there are some individual white metal figures and some very plastic expensive Czech 3-figure sets, but neither were right for me. Revell, on the other hand, do a very nice hard plastic set, similar to the Airfix one in theme, but it focuses more on the pilots than it does the ground crew.

Left: One of the optional figure sets I looked at was some lovely figure models by the Czech Master company. But at £8.50 for just 3 figures this was a bit too expensive for me. The photo shown is, however, two of their excellent WAAFs, which would make terrific subjects for a diorama.

To be honest I would have preferred to have used the Revell set, aside from being he right price and the right number and variety of figures it was also made in hard plastic. The Airfix set is the same soft plastic they use for their other 1/72 military figure sets. Catch 22 - but in the end it was ground crew I was after and the Airfix set had a greater variety (if you need pilots, however, do try the Revell set).

The Airfix 'WWII RAF Personnel' set has great variety of ground crew in a number of poses.

Another reason I went for the Airfix set is that it had two particularly nice and unique figures; a WAAF (female RAF personnel) and - importantly for my diorama theme - a ground crewman who was posed with the sort of reconnaissance camera that my army co-operation Tomahawk would have been equipped with.

Despite it's issues the Airfix set does contain some very nicely posed figures. The detail and
sculpting is very lifelike - if somewhat stiff - and so it's worth persevering with.

Plastic not-so-fantastic!
Now, the reason I prefer to avoid soft plastic figures is because they can be a nightmare to 'clean up'. Even the better quality ones - and the Airfix figures counts among these - suffer from a varying degree of flash and moulding seams. Trimming off this extraneous plastic is a bit of a pain as you cannot simply sand soft plastic parts smooth.

Soft plastic tends to 'fray' if sanded or filed, so any superflous plastic left over from the moulding process has to be very carefully shaved off with your sharpest craft-knife blade. But even then seam-lines can be left behind so the problem becomes one of how to get rid of these pesky blemishes.

I have decided to experiment with heat. Either by using a heated needle or by using liquid poly cement I hope to carefully melt the soft plastic and so smooth out and seams and plastic remnants.

Next: I pick my crew and experiment with different ways to get rid of soft plastic flash.

Useful links:

- Plastic Soldier Review: Airfix, Set 0174 - R.A.F. Personnel

- Plastic Soldier Review: Revell, Set 02401 - Pilots and Ground Crew: Royal Air Force

Airfix 1/72 'Tilly' utility vehicle

The Standard Utility Vehicle, or 'Tilly'. Photo source: Wikipedia

I have been wondering what to do with my Airfix Tomahawk IIA now that it's nearing completion. I have constructed it with the landing gear down so mounting it on some sort of small diorama seemed on the cards. But I didn't just want to mount the aircraft with - say - a single pilot figure, I fancied having a go at something a little more involved and interesting.

As it happened, while looking around my local model shop I came across Airfix's WWII RAF Vehicle Set. This seemed to be the ideal basis for my diorama...

I decided to go for the utility car as the partner for my RAF Tomahawk. It was a vehicle made by the Standard company based on a civilian car design, the common nickname for which was the 'Tilly'.

In my head I had an idea for a little story - unfortunately I now realise that I should have planned the idea for a diorama BEFORE making the Tomahawk as I missed an obvious opportunity for a lovely little scene using Airfix's 1/72 RAF Ground Crew figure set...

Some examples from Airfix's R.A.F. Personnel (set 01747). Source: Plastic Soldier Review

My Tomahawk is a 'Army Cooperation' machine from RAF 26 Squadron the primary duty of which was tactical photo reconnaissance. As you can see the Airfix figures has an RAF crewman working with one of the photo-recon cameras (far right in picture) and this would have been ideal for my diorama IF I had discovered this first and then opened up the little side hatch in the fuselage (which I didn't). Du-Oh!

It's just one of those things. I didn't know what I was going to do with my Tomahawk when I started it, I was just doing it for a change of scene (as a break from all the trucks I had been doing). Ah well!

...And on that note, back to my truck! (Well, car really!)

I got a really good idea how this model was going to go together from this YouTube build video...

It does look a very nice little kit (Airfix are really on a roll these days it seems) and this impression was reinforced when I cracked open the box. Once again - just like the Tomahawk kit - the Airfix RAF vehicles are lovely and crisp mouldings with plenty of nice detail. The Tilly itself is a lovely little van and the instructions for it's construction are easy to understand and idiot proof (bearing in mind the last truck I was working on was the horrible Zebrano YaG-6 the AIrfix Tilly is s breath of fresh air)!

So, onwards and upwards, as I begin construction. It will be interesting to see how long this kit takes to put together.