Friday, August 9

MiniArt add 48th scale oil drums & Marston matting to create an airfield diorama in a box...

MiniArt has combined their 48th scale Marston matting & twelve oil drums to create a mini airfield diorama, perfect for your WWII or Korean scene. We look at the real thing & the kit contents in our preview...

MiniArt add 48th scale oil drums & Marston matting to create an airfield diorama in a box...

Marston Mat &
From MiniArt Models
Kit No #49019
1/48th scale
Injection moulded kit
This kit contains two flat base parts in hard, moulded plastic & 12 oil drums & augurs plus decals.
The Subject: Marston Mat
Pierced (or perforated) steel planking (PSP), is standardized, perforated steel matting material developed by the United States at the Waterways Experiment Station shortly before World War II, primarily for the rapid construction of temporary runways and landing strips (also misspelled as Marsden matting which is what I always thought it was called). The nickname came from Marston, North Carolina, adjacent to Camp Mackall airfield where the material was first used.

RAF aircrew with one of their Bristol Beaufighters on a PSP airstrip at Biferno, Italy, August 1944
The matting consisted of steel strips with punched lightening holes in it. These holes were in rows, and a formation of U-shaped channels between the holes. Hooks were formed along one long edge and slots along the other long edge so that adjacent mats could be connected. The short edges were cut straight with no holes or hooks. To achieve lengthwise interlocking, the mats were laid in a staggered pattern.

An RAAF Kittyhawk taxing on Marston matting at Milne Bay Sep 1942
The hooks were usually held in the slots by a steel clip that filled the part of the slot that is empty when the adjacent sheets are properly engaged. The holes were bent up at their edges so that the beveled edge stiffened the area around the hole. In some mats a T-shaped stake could be driven at intervals through the holes to keep the assembly in place on the ground. Sometimes the sheets were welded together.

Assembling Marston matting in Alaska
Used for large add-hoc bases and taxiways / runways right up until after WWII, Marston matting can be found in many different paces all around the world. Popping up still useful and not yet rusted away in many places. This matting us a ubiquitous sight in any WWII Allied diorama.

The kit:
A combination of two of MiniArt's 48th scale of diorama accessories  - the Marston matting and the oil barrels - their range is growing ever larger, with a fair bit in here to create your own airfield diorama. 
The oil drums: Great to compliment a lot of other MiniArt scenery like cables, plastic & metal barrels, & oil drums.

There are three sprues of barrels which make twelve 200L oil drums plus the augers that go with them to extract the fuel.
Decals are provided for the drums to replicate different "ingredients" if you like, 100 octane, waste oil and petrol are three choices on the decal sheet.

This is how the drums could look under paint with decals provided.
The Marston matting:
MiniArt's new method of making solid (not vac-formed) bases for their dioramas continues with these two parts in the one kit. 315mm x 227 mm in dimension each You can use them separately or together of course.
You can see from the photos of the real thing the difference underneath the bases with those structural ribbing and the top with the circular pressed holes we are all familiar with on this matting. Deep enough to make them look realistic.
The two parts together showing the joining surfaces.
The texture of the circular pressed matting shown to good effect in these photos.
There is a slight undulation in an irregular pattern to give that realistic feeling also.
This Marston Mat sections are both 454mm x 315mm long and both can be joined on their flat centres to make a longer strip of runway.
This kit should be available next month from MiniArt's distributors worldwide. You can see more about this kit on the MiniArt Website...