Airfix Control Tower - Info?

[yellowjack]

kurt535 said:

Im a bit of a control tower sad sack! restoring one and living in it remains my dream! trouble is the two around my way are owned by no. 1. a belligerent farmer happy to see it rot and no.2. a stay away owner who lives in france!

other than that, the airfix one looks a bit of a cock up in design style! ive never seen one resembling it in my many years of walking around the old airfields.

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/property-history/the-cont...

Somewher in the wilds of Essex I recall cycling past a field that appeared to have two watch offices/control towers in it. sadly it was a long time ago and I can't remember where exactly. Quite a few of them dotted about the place, but sadly the one at RAF Debden had long been demolished to make way for sports facilities and a large "crater" which was a drainage soakaway for the sports fields as far as I could tell.

[anonymous-user]

My dad's got 15 volumes of the 'County Airfields in the Second World War' series - if I can skim through one book per visit I should be able to give you a definitive answer on whether or not this is based on a real tower in about a year or so.

[dr_gn]

Spumfry said:

My dad's got 15 volumes of the 'County Airfields in the Second World War' series - if I can skim through one book per visit I should be able to give you a definitive answer on whether or not this is based on a real tower in about a year or so.

Thank you - that timescale seems fine, given current modelling progress.

[Radish]

As someone who has spent a fair chunk of his working life in these things I can recommend the ultimate nerds book: Control Towers - The Development of the Control Tower on RAF Stations in the UK by Paul Francis and published by Airfield Research Publishing. It is almost certainly to be long out of print but there must be the odd second hand copy available (not mine!).

[dr_gn]

Radish said:

As someone who has spent a fair chunk of his working life in these things I can recommend the ultimate nerds book: Control Towers - The Development of the Control Tower on RAF Stations in the UK by Paul Francis and published by Airfield Research Publishing. It is almost certainly to be long out of print but there must be the odd second hand copy available (not mine!).

Thanks - a bit steep at £27 used on Amazon, but I'll keep looking.

[GliderRider]

kurt535 said:

...other than that, the airfix one looks a bit of a cock up in design style! ive never seen one resembling it in my many years of walking around the old airfields.

Given that the original was intended as an accessory for model railway layouts, perhaps the large open balcony was a bit of artistic licence, intended to give more opportunities to have figures in 'action' poses?

The other possibilty is that the original design of these towers had an open balcony, and then, with the rapidly increasing use of ground to air radio communication, it was more important to have controllers inside talking to the pilots, than outside watching and firing flares at them, so the towers were either modified after building, or built from scratch to the modified design. If the model designer was aware of this, he may have chosen the original version for the reason above.

[dr_gn]

GliderRider said:

kurt535 said:

...other than that, the airfix one looks a bit of a cock up in design style! ive never seen one resembling it in my many years of walking around the old airfields.

Given that the original was intended as an accessory for model railway layouts, perhaps the large open balcony was a bit of artistic licence, intended to give more opportunities to have figures in 'action' poses?

The other possibilty is that the original design of these towers had an open balcony, and then, with the rapidly increasing use of ground to air radio communication, it was more important to have controllers inside talking to the pilots, than outside watching and firing flares at them, so the towers were either modified after building, or built from scratch to the modified design. If the model designer was aware of this, he may have chosen the original version for the reason above.

How would a cantilever balcony be more suitable for action poses than the kit version?

[Evangelion]

If you want a control tower, you could do worse than grab one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WW2-RAF-Airfield-Contro...

(They do it in other scales, plus hangars etc.)

While on eBay, I also discovered this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-PRO-MODS-1-72-PMPC...

[dr_gn]

Evangelion said:

If you want a control tower, you could do worse than grab one of these:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WW2-RAF-Airfield-Contro...

(They do it in other scales, plus hangars etc.)

While on eBay, I also discovered this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-PRO-MODS-1-72-PMPC...

The first one looks like a direct copy of the Airfix version (but worse).

The second one looks nice, but the idea was to stick with Airfix and update it a bit, as I’ve been doing with their RAF vehicle sets.

[GliderRider]

A Facebook video posted earlier today on the 'Great Dorset Steam Fair' page, shows the rediscovery of the 'greenhouse' from the top of the Tarrant Rushton control tower. This was the airfield from which the gliders were towed containing the soldiers who captured Pegasus bridge in the first action of D-Day.


Tarrant Rushton Control Tower rediscovery

[Yertis]

GliderRider said:

A Facebook video posted earlier today on the 'Great Dorset Steam Fair' page, shows the rediscovery of the 'greenhouse' from the top of the Tarrant Rushton control tower. This was the airfield from which the gliders were towed containing the soldiers who captured Pegasus bridge in the first action of D-Day.


Tarrant Rushton Control Tower rediscovery

Gosh. Been up into that, just before FR left the airfield. Can vouch for everything being light blue, which is exactly how I’d have recalled it too.

[Echo66]

GliderRider said:

A Facebook video posted earlier today on the 'Great Dorset Steam Fair' page, shows the rediscovery of the 'greenhouse' from the top of the Tarrant Rushton control tower. This was the airfield from which the gliders were towed containing the soldiers who captured Pegasus bridge in the first action of D-Day.


Tarrant Rushton Control Tower rediscovery

And just down the road (sort of!!) is the two bridges over the RIver Exe, just south of Exeter that the Ox & Bucks used during the rehearsal exercises. I think its on the A379 iirc

[tvrtuscans]

Echo66 said:

GliderRider said:

A Facebook video posted earlier today on the 'Great Dorset Steam Fair' page, shows the rediscovery of the 'greenhouse' from the top of the Tarrant Rushton control tower. This was the airfield from which the gliders were towed containing the soldiers who captured Pegasus bridge in the first action of D-Day.


Tarrant Rushton Control Tower rediscovery

And just down the road (sort of!!) is the two bridges over the RIver Exe, just south of Exeter that the Ox & Bucks used during the rehearsal exercises. I think its on the A379 iirc

Greatest act of airmanship in the entire war according to a chap called Churchill I seem to recall.

[100SRV]

Thread resurrection because I bumped into this :

https://www.wowhaus.co.uk/2012/09/26/in-need-of-re...

[dr_gn]

100SRV said:

Thread resurrection because I bumped into this :

https://www.wowhaus.co.uk/2012/09/26/in-need-of-re...

Very similar, but again it has a cantilever balcony. Would be easy to convert the Airfix one to look similar, but then it’s not the Airfix one

Does anyone happen to know what the T shaped and pole masts are for on the roof of the Airfix one? Also, any period images of other external furniture such as meteorology masts would be really useful. Cheers.

[Regbuser]

No idea, but this link gives a great photo, plus plans > https://390th.org/anatomy-of-station-153-the-contr...

Revised thoughts: the T may be a T swivel piece for a windsock, and the post at the front, a sometime lit beacon?

Seems partly anomalous as cup anemometers and wind vanes were in use, as per photo in link.

Edited by Regbuser on Sunday 6th February 10:08

[dr_gn]

Regbuser said:

No idea, but this link gives a great photo, plus plans > https://390th.org/anatomy-of-station-153-the-contr...

Revised thoughts: the T may be a T swivel piece for a windsock, and the post at the front, a sometime lit beacon?

Seems partly anomalous as cup anemometers and wind vanes were in use, as per photo in link.

Edited by Regbuser on Sunday 6th February 10:08

Thanks Reg, I saw that picture yesterday. So there's definitey an anemometer and wind vane, on guyed poles, so that's some nice detail. Looks like a gutter around the roof too - I thought it might have been just a trough inset from the edge.

I think a wind sock would be mounted in a more open area so it's clearly visible from all around? I've seen a few WW2 type aerial lines on ships that have twin lines, but in this case there's no opposite mounting. Could it be a mount for the anemometer and wind vane I wonder?

The beacon on the other pole is a good call I think. Maybe it was a lamp with various filters? Could it have been a lamp for morse code or other signals to aircraft about to take off or land?

Cheers.