Also known as M8 Landing Mat but most often referred to as PSP (Pierced Steel Plank (or Planking) or Marsden Matting. The airfield landing mat consists of steel strips with holes punched through it in rows and U-shaped channels formed between the holes to provide strength. The hooks are formed along one long edge and slots along the other long edge so that they can be connected to each other. The short edges are straight cut with no holes or hooks. To achieve lengthwise interlocking, the PSP mats are laid in a staggered pattern. The hooks are usually held in the slots by a steel clip that fills the part of the slot that is empty when adjacent sheets are properly engaged together. The holes are bent up at their edges so that the beveled edge stiffened the area around the hole. Pierced Steel Plank can be used for a variety of applications, including boat ramps, alternatives to asphalt and concrete, and as temporary road track. Additional work will need to be done to give the hooks and edges the necessary curves associated with the real material but for the purpose of this exercise I wanted to explore construction of a model with multiple shapes and the challenge of joining them together.
The 3D SketchUp Model was based on an image from one of the model companies that offers this subject in small scale (1/32-35, 1/48, 1/72) and several images found on-line that showed better detail in and end view of a typical PSP section. With some careful calculations and a splash of abandon I created a 1/1 scale section of PSP as a 3D model and from there it only required cloning the model to assemble several sections of PSP to demonstrate how it was assembled. Apparently this model has some appeal since it has been downloaded by a number of individuals for their own use via
my SketchUp models page.
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