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    Library How to

Next Scenery Project

falcon409

falcon409

SOH-CM-2022
This is one I have wanted to do for many years but always looked at it as too involved, needing too many hours to complete. I like the quick sceneries with a few hangars and a single runway. . .do it in a week and it's done and out.

But I have a personal interest in this one and so it won't be a quick turnaround. A large volume of custom buildings, static airplanes of a very specific type and a few areas that need fixing from previous attempts that I dislike having to tackle, lol. This model below is the start and should be familiar to many.

New_WIP by Ed Wells, on Flickr
 
Wow. . .I'm underwhelmed by the response, lol
Given the presence of so many current and retired Military I figured this would at least ring a bell (it's a Barracks for the uninitiated). I was stationed here in the mid 60's and the base had a very identifiable Control tower that sported a red and white checkerboard and brick exterior and was part of European Command.
 
A Barraks

I can definitely see it's a barracks but where this "swabbie" doesn't have a clue. Just to see where I was in the late 60's/early 70's everything has been torn down and replaced by new buildings. They were brand new when I was in them in 1968. Interestingly, waiting for school we were used to demolish wooden WWII barracks at NTC Greatlakes. 30 years wooden barracks lasted and 10 years for the brick ones we used. Logic??? My friend who was a USAF retired Brig Gen former CO of Wright-Pat used to say when you choose the lowest bidder you get what you pay for. No work ethic and quality of materials.
 
Looks like one of the buildings I saw at Moron AB in Spain when we were deploying to Iraq. Unfortunately we didn't stay there. Since we were Army they put us in "temporary, transient housing" instead. Nothing like a GP Medium tent set up on a spit of grass next to a perfectly good barracks building. :dizzy:

Something looks different about the model, though. I'm guessing it's one of those "cookie-cutter" designs that was then modified as needed? I just don't remember the plate glass windows in the center, but the doorway overhang does look familiar.

Regards,

Jorge
Miami, FL
 
Ha ha how the heck do you expect people to recognise something from a generic Blender building!!...:dizzy:

I think you've been staring at too much virtual concrete.

Op El Dorado, Okba Ben Nafi Airfield or Wheelus Air Base as you would have known it.....

Cheers

Shessi
 
it didn't look like any of the barracks where I have ever stayed. I thought it was either a Headquarters building or a CBPO building
 
Shessi said:
Ha ha how the heck do you expect people to recognize something from a generic Blender building!!...:dizzy:
I think you've been staring at too much virtual concrete.
Op El Dorado, Okba Ben Nafi Airfield or Wheelus Air Base as you would have known it.....
Cheers
Shessi
Click to expand...
Well, assuming that the first part of your post was in jest, it isn't a generic blender building, it's done in Sketchup based on the barracks I stayed in for two years while overseas. Also I didn't expect anyone to know what base it was from, only that they would recognize it as a Military Barracks and maybe reminisce about having stayed in something similar during a tour of duty.

Yes, by process of elimination it was Wheelus AB, Tripoli, Libya. . .Sept. 1966 to March 1968. Two years later it was taken over by Gaddafi following a "peaceful? transition.
 
Looking forward to the end result of this project Ed! Please keep us posted on your progress.
:ernaehrung004:
The Old MSgt
 

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Here's a bit of History behind the various names of the airport;

The Base transitioned from Wheelus AFB (it's name until turning the base over to the Libyan Government in 1970) to Uqba Bin Nafi (an Arab Leader of the times) and finally Mitiga in the 80's.

Here is the background of the name "Mitiga" as related by a resident of Tripoi. . .

Yes, the story of the child Mittiga Al-Zalitni is true. The girl was living with her family on the farm of the Dali family and they are our neighbors. The American plane crashed on a number of people, including the child Mitiga, and another old woman named Habesha and others. The pilot jumped with a parachute and fell in the Sharif’s farm, our farm (Sania) As for the other pilot, he was killed in the plane, and this accident I think was at the end of the fifties... After the Americans left the base on June 11, 1970, the base was named after the Arab leader (Uqba bin Nafi). Then in the eighties it was named after Mitiga, Mitiga International Airport. Uqba Bin Nafie was then given to another base near the Tunisian border that was a firing range for the US Air Force in the past, and it was called (Al-Wataya)..Thank you!

Al Wataya (pronounced Wa-T-a) was in fact the gunnery range for our fighters and those US squadrons who came TDY from bases in the UK, Germany and Spain. We had an F-4 crash on the range just after I arrived in September of 66'. I volunteered to assist in picking up the pieces and we stayed two days in the desert sifting through what was left of the airplane returning with barely enough to fill one flat bed trailer.
 
I attempted to edit the previous post but to no avail. For some unknown reason the "reply with quotes" and "edit" functions refuse to work intermittently.

Anyway, the edit was to correct the name of the Gunnery Range mentioned above the pronunciation shown is correct, however the actual name used by the Military was "El Uotia"
 
Don't Forget

Don't Forget to model the O'Club and the EM Club. No base is complete without them. AND the chapel if there was one there. Remembering what I did at NAS Alameda way back when. Was there a Commissary? I'm going to stop before I make you wish that you stuck to single runway grass strips like Grimes. LOL!
 
tgycgijoes said:
Don't Forget to model the O'Club and the EM Club. No base is complete without them. AND the chapel if there was one there. Remembering what I did at NAS Alameda way back when. Was there a Commissary? I'm going to stop before I make you wish that you stuck to single runway grass strips like Grimes. LOL!
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Yes, those plus the Base Theater, The local "Greasy Spoon", The Terminal, The very unique Control Tower, the "Trailer Park", Base Housing area, the Salt Flats, Base Commanders house and not to mention all the hangars and the Main Gate and "Back Gate".
 
Now You Know

falcon409 said:
Yes, those plus the Base Theater, The local "Greasy Spoon", The Terminal, The very unique Control Tower, the "Trailer Park", Base Housing area, the Salt Flats, Base Commanders house and not to mention all the hangars and the Main Gate and "Back Gate".
Click to expand...

I created all of those. With NAS Alameda I was so lucky to have the 90 page report with color photos of all the buildings that were being saved or repurposed. I even knew what trees were where which is why I went crazy right down to the Exchange Gas Station.

Three months and two helpers to complete it and though a frame hog was told it was probably the most complete military base they ever saw AND it was freeware.That included the base housing areas. It has sounds too, the first I had ever done learned from the ESP SDK and aircraft carriers getting underway and returning after the day of exercises at sea. My wife said I was crazy but I loved every minute of it. :dizzy: I have never done anything as complex or complete since then. Before I knew of or how to use autogen annotator I hand placed every acacia tree. I am truly not bragging at all. It was a real learning experience for the later sceneries. I am really waiting to see what you do with this. I used a couple of the hangers on another air station that was similar enough.
 
There were two Base Chapels. . .this is Chapel #1 down the street from my Barracks: Just an FYI. . .the stained glass window was paid for from donations made by the Military Personnel stationed at Wheelus and commemorates the "Lady Be Good" and her Crew and was saved from demolition prior to departing the base when Ghadiffi took control. It now resides at the National Museum of the AF, Dayton, Ohio along with artifacts found at the crash site that had been on display in the Base Hospital.
 

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Absolutely

falcon409 said:
There were two Base Chapels. . .this is Chapel #1 down the street from my Barracks: Just an FYI. . .the stained glass window was paid for from donations made by the Military Personnel stationed at Wheelus and commemorates the "Lady Be Good" and her Crew and was saved from demolition prior to departing the base when Ghadiffi took control. It now resides at the National Museum of the AF, Dayton, Ohio along with artifacts found at the crash site that had been on display in the Base Hospital.
Click to expand...
This is absolutely a work of art, Ed. Great job and thank you for the history too!
This
 
Wow Ed, very outstanding work here! This is going to be your best scenery ever, no doubt about it! Keep it up!
:ernaehrung004:
The Old MSgt
 
I'm ready to be done with the Hospital, lol

I've already placed 100 windows and I'm only halfway around the building, lol
 
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