Serene Aerodrome

The Serene Aerodrome (rather than Airport) provides a way of displaying a small collection of historic civilian and military aircraft with a rail link to the rest of the country.

The Aircraft

Civilian Aircraft: These are a DC3 (obtained from Lidl's supermarket! - made by Hobby Dax/New Ray), a Ford Trimotor (obtained at Detroit Airport because I had time to shop because I was delayed overnight thanks to Northworst Airline - made by In Air), a Wright 1903 Flyer (a HotWings model). Both the Ford Trimotor and the Wright Flyer are diecast models. The DC3 and most of the military aircraft are plastic kits.

Military Aircraft: These include several fighter aircraft from Doyusha (P-47D Thunderbolt, P-51D Mustang, Focke-Wulf 190A-5 and Zero Type 52) a bomber (Flying Fortress, made by New Ray) and a die-cast Nieuport 17 model (Mini-Planes).

Scale: First, my aircraft are a slightly smaller scale - 1/100th rather than HO (1/87th scale). There were two reasons for this. First there are a very small number of HO model aircraft but more at 1/100th (although not a huge number as there is at 1/72nd (too large) and 1/144th (too small). Second, as aircraft are large a smaller scale means less space is used. One important point - do not rely on the scale shown on the box - check this as I have found some labeled as 1/100th that are much smaller! For example, although the packaging of the Model Power P-38 Lightning states that it is a "DIecast Historically Accurate Plane -1/100 Series". Be warned, the actual scale is much smaller - approximately 1/115. However, the Model Power) website does show this clearly and has several HO scale aircraft.

The Ford Trimotor and the fighter aircraft were all clearly markedas having a scale of 1/100. But neither the DC3 nor the Flying Fortress had the scale marked and so it was a matter of surreptitiously measuring the plane through the packaging, rushing home (or to the hotel) and checking the scale on the web before deciding to purchase the plane!! (The DC3 is 1/95th and the Flying Fortress is 1/99th.)

The limited size of the aerodrome means that only a few of the aircraft are displayed at the same time..

The Buildings
These comprised an Airfix RAF Control Tower, a freelance scratch built Hanger, a wind sock

The Field
Because of the period, the field was grass rather than concrete and I used grass mat.

Detail
Besides the Aircraft there were vehicles - travelers' cars, a scratch built Hucks Starter, a Petrol Tanker, Fuel Tanks etc..

The Module
The module is a standard module (22.4 inches long by 15.25 inches wide by 3 inches deep).