On building aircraft runway sections

Over the years I tried many different methods to replicate WW2 style concrete runways, including:

- Fine grit (400 or 600) black sandpaper glued on a flat board, with pastel chalk powder applied with a brush. That worked fine, but over the years, I noticed that the sandpaper had a tendency to lift and/or produce some wrinkles.
- Fine sand/chalk/plaster/pepper (yes, ground pepper) sprinkled over a light coat of white glue
- Plaster tiles

All these methods worked more or less well, until I found a miracle product called Superwand DS. It's basically an insulation material that bears a strong ressemblance to foamboard (those white sheets of plastic foam sandwiched between to sheets of thick white paper you can find in almost every art and craftstore on the planet). But unlike foamboard, Superwand DS has the following properties:

- It's MUCH easier to peel of the paper sheet
- It takes paint (especially water based) much better than foamboard, and its core material really look like miniature concrete. Plus it's a nice shade of medium/dark gray.

Here is what it looks like:

 So 1st thing to do is to peel off the sheet of paper. It's WAY easier to do than on foamboard (at least the various brands I've been using... no need to use a hot iron here, protective gloves and profanity)

Next, scribe some lines to represent the expansion gaps

 Once done, the gaps are a bit rough though, perhaps I was a bit heavy handed there...

 Anyway nothing that some putty will not cure. I use a water-soluble brand designed for "exterior repairs" (Never quite understood why it its for "exterior repairs only", especially since the one for "interior repairs" is solvent based... I can only assume the fellows who developed this brand experienced some heavy interior rain and a prolonged period of drought outside)

Now gently apply some on your board and spread it to fill the gaps.

Next use a (preferably) old, slightly wet, t-shirt to remove any excess putty, especially on the panels. You don't want to have "smooth" panels there.

And here's the final product

Some light tan grayish colour, some dark gray/black for the tar seams, and you're done!

Here are some examples of completed runways using Superwand DS.

(Yes, I find the tar lines a bit oversized, but I didn't feel like redoing them)

One final word: Superwand DS is a bit more expensive than foamboard, granted, but I find the foam much more pleasant to work with than the latter. Plus it's also great for walls and buildings, IMHO better than foamboard. The drawback is that is only comes in 1cm and 2 cm thicknesses, which might prove impractical for small scale buildings.

Where can you find the stuff? Well, in my case, I'm lucky enough to live 30 m away from a industrial paint supplier/art store outlet (Jallut SA, a rather well known company in Switzerland). Otherwise I believe that it would be possible to directly order from the manufacturer, although that would probably mean having to order enough panels for a full scale B17:
https://www.korff.ch/en/enhome/

Alternatively, you might want to check construction sites/ flats being refitted... There's often interesting stuff that can be found in the trash and leftover materials.... I believe there must be some similar stuff available for free.


Happy Modelling!

Treflon