Small Scale Military Headquarters

These planes are hanging over the entrance to the No.1 hanger at the Tri-State Warbird Museum, Batavia, Ohio.

Some Axis planes down the line. Anyone know of any other major museums with 1/18 planes on display?

Bf-109G with fire and smoke and pilot bailing out.

Another view of the shot-up 109. It was missing the rudder so I scratch built one and had it look chewed up.

I've donated quite a few 1/18 scale aircraft to the Planes of Fame Air museum out at Chino Airport. They have quite a few of them on display all throughout the museum.

We get asked questions about the 1/18 planes all the time. Usually "Where can you buy those?" or "Do you build those from kits?". We have to tell them how hard they can be to find now. They are often astounded to here that they come that way, painted, marked and just a few parts to put together for a finished product. We haven't had any donated since they became collector's items. They do look good with the gear up in flight attitude.

Thanks for the info! Now all I need is a ladder and a pair of scissors to complete my collection!

I can honestly say I've never seen a such a good display with the pilot bailing out. It looks really looks good.

i did that very same thing with one of my 109's....upside down, pilot bailing out. I chose to do black smoke, as the only difference. I'm amazed at how similar it looks, i had to run and go check mine was still here....lol.

Beautiful display and a great way to spread the word about our hobby. May help its rebirth...

What is that smoke, cotton or bedding fiber fill? It looks remarkably real.

1/18, and aviation museums seem to be a natural match.

Pretty much nobody knows about these large scale models, and are quite impressive when first seen.

Cheap, easy way for any aviation museum to add to the ambience, and experience.

Would work well for aviation themed bars as well.

When they were building the second hanger there were some scrap pieces of insulation lying around. Soon as I saw it I thought Smoke! Originally had cotton and replaced it with the thicker insulation. Thanks to all for the nice comments!

very cool!

That is really a cool display, how high up are they hanging?, is there anyway we could see a little wider area where they are displayed, the 109 on fire is really great.

I'll echo everyone else, that burning 109 with the pilot bailing out is freakin' amazing!! I can't believe I never thought of that!!

insulation, eh. It does look very good. I used cotton on my which is ok but that insulation looks bang on. I've never seen insulation that colour before. I wonder where i could pick some up.

The insulation is kind of a dirty white unlike the snow white of cotton. I highlighted it with various colors of permanant markers.

In reply to ram04, the planes are about 8 - 10' up. The heights are staggered. I went through every picture I have on file and in my camera and don't have another of the models. I'll get some more next time out there.

I've used that technique before but on a 4' model of Titanic. Used buffalo snow with some small thin wire and very lightly airbrushed in the the colors to match the reference pictures I had.

Axis Nightmare wrote:We get asked ALL THE TIME "Where can you buy those?" We have to tell them how hard they can be to find now.

Great display. And, great opportunity to plug-in the news of the new Dauntless to those many asking where to buy 1:18! We need all the fellow customers we can get into this hobby! Your fine display will hopefully bring more customers aboard. Till then, given so many are asking "ALL THE TIME," the museum should definitively make some quick xeroxed half-sheets on the etailers who sell the Dauntless (maybe include the address of Small Scale HQ as well)! Its not much. Yet if people are asking "all the time," by all means, may your fine display bring-in as many into our hobby we can get!

http://www.badcattoys.com/sbdacosea1me.html
http://www.militarytoyshop.com/product.asp?P_ID=1646
http://www.aikensairplanes.com/merit%20 ... -88001.htm

The 109 display is pretty sweet looking. Haven't seen much 1/18 in museums but in my units flight ops room there are about 20-25 planes and helicopters.

This thread reminds me of the scene in "Night at the Museum 2 - Battle of the Smithsonian" where a few small scale model planes are having a dog fight while everyone else is fighting each other below. In one shot there was a P-40 Warhawk chasing after a JU-87 Stuka.

When I saw how good the on fire 109 looked I went and did it to one of my 109s. I didn't have any insulation so I used some white aquarium water filter material which looks exactly the same as the building insulation and comes in small cheap bags. The problem with the insulation is that it is available here in Aus only in big bags.

p51 wrote:I've donated quite a few 1/18 scale aircraft to the Planes of Fame Air museum out at Chino Airport. They have quite a few of them on display all throughout the museum.

So those were yours?

I had to chuckle when I was at the museum last year and saw several 1:18 aircraft sitting in the display cases at that museum among all the hundreds of models. I specifically recall the 21c Galland ME-109 and Kepford Corsair. BTW, I really enjoyed the museum

Here are some additional requested photos of the 1/18 display at the Tri-State Warbird Museum, Batavia, Ohio. A couple of longer shots showing how high off the floor the planes hang as you come into the hanger through the door.





My Stuka with some mods to improve the overall look. Scratch made a new taller more realistic antennae mast. Added the foot steps behind the wing, added the missing center post on the dive breaks and carefully cut some airspace out between the flaps and the wings like was done so well on the 1/32 versions. Gave it some weathering, exhaust stains and the historically accurate tail markings.





Check out your stock Stuka to see the differences