Does anyone have any pictures or tips on how to build a cheap and easy airport control tower? Nothing fancy, just something ment to be in the background. Something like a simple two story building with an observation deck.......like you would have seen behind the front lines in Europe durring WWII. I'm trying to liven up my aircraft pictures a little bit and make them more interresting.

Thanks,
Hermon

Herman,

Try Hansa systems. I think it is www.hansasystemsusa.com. These kits assemble like Legos (brick by brick). This may sound intimidating, but they are actually fairly straight forward to construct, and look great when complete. Hansa makes a 1:35th scale WWII flight control tower. I built the Railroad Signal Tower, and love it. In fact, I liked it so much I bought a Normandy Barn. Let me know what you think.

irish

What scale are you going to build in?
What era are you looking for?
What country would it represent?

Check this post. It says Railroad Tower, but would also work for a Airfield Tower. In 1/35 anyways.

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/pubs/mmm/mmmpart1b.pdf


in the above document you will find a nice photo of a brittish control tower.

Hey guys, sorry it took so long for a reply but I had to join the world of the working man today.

Great links everyone! Can't thank you enough....

Irish, the Hansa Systems site has exactly what I was looking for but they're a little out of my price range. How hard do you think it would be for a newbie scratch builder to do something similar on my own?

Gino, any idea where the kit on your link could be obtained or what the price is? The link on that post didn't work for me for some reason.

Drabslab, another good picture. I'd like to be able to do something like that from scratch....a little at a time.

Grumpy, sorry I didn' t make myself clear in the first post. I'm working in 1/48 scale aircraft. WWII only, and as far as the country, I'd like to do something that could easily disguised as either German or Allied. A makeshift 2 story house (modified) that would have been comon in the late stages of the war in France or Germany......possibly could be used for a Brittish airfield as well.

Basically my idea is this. Build a really nice 1/48 WWII fighter as the main theme. Then in the background have a couple of similar planes of 1/72 scale parked to give the scene some depth. The aircontrol - house structure would be in the background as well. If any of you are familiar with Matrixones work in displaying his aircraft this is the general idea I'm working towards.

Thanks for your help guys. This gives me a place to start.

Hermon

If you are putting it in the background with the 1/72 scalers, then go with either a 1/72 scale building, or for a better perception of a building further away, an HO scale building. Look at the Faller stuff in the railroad sections on the web, Faller makes some really nice HO scale buildings, and would give a good forced perception.
If you are going to scratchbuild it, use the Faller items for ideas.
In that small scale sheet plastic should work out fine. Bristol board, or poster board would work also.

Hermon
Going with what Grumpy Old Man said about having it in 1/72, Airfix make (or made) quite a nice 1/72 control tower. If they do not make it any more there may be one or two on ebay. Nick

Hey guys, thanks.
Dave, I think at this point if I scratch build anything I'll start off with something simple like a hanger or pilots hut. This will be the first attempt at scratchbuilding for me so I'm sure I'll be flooding you more experienced guys with questions.
Nick, Squadron shows an Airfix 1/72 airtower kit in there magazine for around $10.00. At that price I think I'd be foolish not to give it a try. Thanks for the heads-up.....I never would have thought to check Airfix for something like that.
In the meantime, while I'm getting my thoughts together on what to do, I'm gonna go do some work on my little multinational airforce I'm starting to collect.

Thanks again for the advice and links,
Hermon

The old Airfix control tower is on release again, at least it is in Britain. Very basic model (no interior) originally dating IIRC to the 1960s and made as railway accessory.

Faller or Vollmer or some other European model railroad company makes an airport scene with buildings.

See here:

Control Tower 1/48

1/87 buy modern tower

Thanks for those links Fred.
Nice control tower in the first one. Might look good with an F-86 sitting to one side taking on some fuel.

Hermon