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Mike

 

It's just cut 1/8 inch Masonite , spray painted gray then misted spray with black and lightly sanded.

 

Regular yellow and white road striping and led's for lights. I just copied the same methods a lot of guys use for their roads.

 

The building is just a plasticville airport terminal that I bashed,put white and red led's and some military figures in it.

 

I just wing it as I go.

 

Larry

Just my opinion, but as an former aviation professional, it bugs to see airports way out of scale. On thing that you could do though, is represent the airport terminal and ramp area with or without the control tower. Between Lionel, MTH and American Flyer all the components to make such a representation are off the shelf ready or could kit bashed for even more realism. The runway, which even a small airports is 3000 feet or more long, could be painted as a back drop. This would be especially good if the taxiways from the ramp to the runway went in between to hangers. Those could just be building fronts a couple of inches deep. That would give a good transition from 3D into 2D.

What kind of airport to you want? Small general aviation type? Military? What era do you want? World War 2 or prior? 1950's? Modern?

A note about modeling aviation in the 1950's. Since a large number of train geeks model the 1950's, it should be noted that large amounts or World War 2 aircraft could be found sitting all over regional airports around the country. Usually in rather neglected condition. So if you want a Mustang or B-25 or something sitting there go for it. Just remember that combat aircraft rarely came back to the states from overseas.

Tim

You could always model the airport on Catalina Island. From the air the runway looks like a normal 3000-foot general-aviation runway (with drop-offs on either end), but it has a rise in it so when you land it looks like you've lost 1/3 of the runway. Needless to say some pilots have panicked. Several years ago, a pilot landing a Cessna Citation jet panicked and burned out his brakes landing at Catalina. He had to land at LAX on the return trip instead of the home general aviation airport.

 

For the model, do an exaggerated short runway going into a sky backdrop and you have a pilot's eye view.

I've only ever seen ONE layout anywhere that had the room to accurately model even a realistic short runway and that was in HO scale: http://singularityhub.com/2011...costing-4-8-million/

A really easy way for the average modeler to model airplanes on a layout is to represent a military airfield with a WW2-style 'hardstand' which looks sort of like a cul-de-sac from above. Plenty of training airfields in WW2 had them. You could model a portion of the taxi way to it, than just paint the airfield structures on the backdrop.

Here is one left over from WW2 at a California airfield I found online. The pavement ends where the grass starts and was circle to start with. Radiating out from a taxi way, these were called, "frying pan" types due to their shape:

Another way is to model any type of airplane that has belly-landed anywhere you'd want. A flat field would make the most sense, of course. That's happened countless times over the years and was relatively common in the 40s and 50s.

I was going to have a CG-4 Waco combat glider crash landed on my layout but now realize I simply don't have the room to do that, darn it... Probably for the best as the only 1/48 scale model of one of those gliders is a very difficult and expeensive model to build.

Last edited by p51

Well, since I'm a GA pilot, #1 son is in ATC, and #2 son flies RJs, we just *had* to have an airport.  I don't care about scale, so our runway is about 4' long, with correct markings (albeit spacing is off - #2  son painted it when he was much younger), Plasticville terminal and hangar, the Lionel approach radar accessory, and the rotating beacon (OK, so it flashes red and green instead of white and green, but hey....).  Haven't done rwy lights (yet).  This is on a 4x10' layout.

It's just difficult to find the room, but it is appealing because it gives you an excuse to put planes on the layout.  When I had an N-gauge layout, I had an airport near my port area, for seaplanes: a couple of 1:144 Boeing 314s and a model of Jimmy Buffet's seaplane, etc.  I was trying to find out a way to put even a 1/4 mile (8 foot) runway, but never completed it.   I've seen a couple in HO, and even then, they used the runway going into the backdrop for the "pilot's perspective" as discussed above.  

 

The closest I have plan to come on my O-gauge layout is an "air port" as depicted in the 1930s, below.  I have a 42 inch dirigible model, and built my six-story office tower downtown so I can add a spire, etc.  

Last edited by Lee Willis

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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