OO/HO African profile model railway in Kenya: 13 - dioramas

[John Ashworth]

Tracklaying and figuring out the wiring can be a little tedious, so I've been interspersing it with work on buildings and little dioramas, which I'm constructing on small pieces of thin plywood which can be slotted in to the layout at a later date.

The first diorama - the tourists have arrived! The crew of the British Eagle de Havilland Dove stand around and watch their passengers head for the safari bus. Luggage is piled on the ground. A donkey stands and watches calmly, while a troop of monkeys on the roof of the bus have snatched a small bag. A couple of women wave their arms to try to get them to drop the bag. A pair of wildlife rangers (or, given that this is 50 years ago, more likely big game hunters) have turned up in their short wheelbase Series I Land Rover, while a second Landie has come to pick up the aircrew.

While it's unlikely that British Eagle would have flown the de Havilland Dove in Africa, nevertheless Doves were operated by a couple of African airlines, including Sudan Airways. However I didn't fancy my chances of repainting it into authentic livery, so British Eagle it remains. It's an Oxford model, as are the Bedford safari bus (actually a British Rail crew bus) and the two Landies. Most of the figures are Preiser, I think, including the pilots who were originally policemen. The big game hunters are Airfix Gurkhas. Everything is fixed to the plywood base with silicon sealant, so they can be removed relatively easily.

[John Ashworth]

And the humanitarian aid workers have also arrived...

The centrepiece of this diorama is an Airfix C47. There are still plenty of DC3/C47 aircraft flying in Africa. I myself have flown in several, and I have also run humanitarian airlifts using them.