“Gentlemen, we want you to build a good portable airport. It
must be strong, light, simple, fool proof, safe and inexpensive. It must be so
simple that it can be laid on any fairly level piece of land with a few days’
work. It must be so fool-proof that if some parts are lost, it will still be
useful. It must be safe for any type of airplane, under any weather conditions.
It must be so light that it can be transported swiftly and easily to any spot.”
This was the edict given to the American steel manufacturers by the US Army Air
Corps before the Second World War - well Eduard have risen to the
challenge and made just what the army was after - in coloured plastic in 1/48th scale - let’s have a
look…
Kit No: 8820
Kit Type: Plastic pre-painted
Scale: 1/48
Available from:
Eduard Store direct & all
good hobby shops
Eduard has just released
their new 1/48th Plastic version of PSP (Pierced Steel Planking) or
“Marsden Matting” in a pre coloured model stand. This modular plastic mat comes
ready to go – we thought it would be a quick and easy fix for a lot of
modellers and worth a quick look.
The kit is a white plastic solid rectangle base which
is 1cm deep by twenty-three and a half centimetres long by sixteen and half centimetres
wide. The hard plastic is painted on the “show” side with the PSP planks
coloured in a scattered and random rust, steel and grey mottle of colours, kind
of the irregular pattern you may see on a real part of random runway or park
way.
The PSP surface is rendered here very well and is shown as a
flat piece of runway – there are no terminations in the edges or grassy bits on
the side like a few I have – this is good because you can always add that
yourself if you want – I always need to join these together myself any way – I suspect
I am not alone – that is another good point of this mat.
The thing that a lot of modellers want is size – bigger planes
and more in depth dioramas – well, the good thing about these is that looking
at them I can see they can be placed together and joined up to make a continuous
stretch – you could have them end to end making a feature “strip” if you want
to. The solid plastic base is certainly as had as anyone will need.
A cheap – no mess no fuss way of displaying your 1/48th
aircraft (from WWII to Vietnam and onwards) that looks very nice and
professional – if you wanted to use just this with no frame you can easily paint
the square plastic edges. The subtle holes in the PSP are just right – what's not
to like?
I think this is a great idea – easy to use and inexpensive –
about time someone did it - well done Eduard
Adam Norenberg
Thanks to Eduard for this base set – as soon as I get an allied 1/48th kit
back from my work bench this is where it will sit.
