Gotta agree with the Bear, very nice modeling. It also should give pause to all the nay-sayers who think you somehow can't do model aircraft with our layouts because there's just not enough room.
I suspect some of them are the same folks who tell you you don't have room for a layout because there's no place for a 120' turntable and half-moon roundhouse on your trackplan. It's as if they think that selective compression only applies to modeling railroads.
Lots of ways to have just enough airport to be believable. You could do an aviation gas tank farm with a spur and even provide a switching opportunity. An entrance sign and road leading off the layout edge can suggest a largish airport. A ramp and a hangar or two can provide enough space to display several aircraft.
Or you don't even need an airport at all. Remember, aircraft can fly-in from considerable distances. Go ahead and hang something at an "altitude" that looks right "flying" over your terrain. Then there are helicopters, which can take off or land practically anywhere. And amphibians need only a stretch of calm water, although missing any bridges is important...
A proper bush plane like this Beaver needs only a suitable field to land on.
Just as with railroads, a little imagination applied to the problem of aviation can still result in compelling modeling.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
So I'm twelve years late, that's yesterday in digital web-years. Besides, I did not begin completing these projects until 2017/2018.
Anyway, if anyone out there is still interested, (after all that's how I got here) you might look at my 1/48 scale Caribbean airport diorama. I used a number of O scale items in this diorama. It is 4 x 3 feet and fully lit with working MTH beacon and water tower. Taxiway lights are blue LED.
https://imodeler.com/2018/11/a-day-at-the-airport-caribbean-cargo-operations/
Here is a "crop dusting" diorama in HO. The Stearman is 1/72 to give it a bit more center presence in the diorama. This is approximately 2 x 2.5 feet. It is interesting that I built and weathered the woodland scenic’s dilapidated barn in HO scale. The HO kit has no lighting and was around $40. I now have the same barn in O scale, lit, and ready built, for $119. While both are equally presentably for display, I have far more invested in the HO version than the pre-built, lit, O scale version.
https://imodeler.com/2017/10/the-yellow-nose-of-texas/
If you read my other articles on this site, you will find information on the construction details for various aspects of these dioramas.
The diorama is beneath the table where the other two dioramas are located. As such, it will not have the integral detail of my other dioramas, but be more like the model train layout you always wanted as a kid and admired when you looked at the neighbor kid's Gilbert American Flyer setup with tunnels and trestles.
I have seen small airports modeled on modular layouts and they look too small.
Even the smallest grass strip is about 2000' long and that works out to 23' in HO. An International airport would be about 10,000' or 115' in HO.
Even with selective compression, they just don't look believable
Another approach would be to model at least a part of an abandoned airfield. This unusual website has photos and maps, and some of the photos include rail lines and rail service.
Collection of listings for abandoned airfields in the U.S., including details of their history, reasons for their decline and demise, along with maps and photographs. Browse by state and then by region or location within the state. From a career pilot.URL: http://www.airfields-freeman.com
Dave Nelson
Being in the airline business I naturally want to include some sort of aviation related scene in my layout. Living in Tulsa I have the perfect prototype to model. At the Tulsa International Airport, the BNSF mainline runs next to the departure end of runway 36R. Even better Boeing (now different name escapes me currently) has a mfg facility there that is served by BNSF. They build various parts for the Boeing commercial jet division and get aircraft parts cars as well as coil cars.
I plan on modeling the taxiway leading up to the threshold and the touchdown zone of the runway as well as the Boeing industry (I already have the LBF aircraft parts cars). Both will take up approx. 2ft of layout space about 12"-14" deep. I am getting some images for a backdrop and will figure out how to scale down a plane, a little forced perspective will work out fine if the scale stuff isn't exactly right.
It can be done, if you use google earth, you can see what I am talking about, just search for Tulsa International Airport and go to the SE quadrent of the airport you will see what I am talking about.
Mike in Tulsa
BNSF Cherokee Sub
I'm taking a different approach; I'm building a heliport. The guidelines for marking and lighting a heliport are available at the FAA's website, and there's just enough HO-scale helos available to make an interesting variety. My plan is for several Hueys and a pair of "civil-ized" CH-53s, all of which are made by Roco/Minitanks. I might toss in a pair of visiting Apaches (Roco).
Another approach I've considered is to build, effectively, one end of an airport. Miami International, for instance, has CSX rouding the perimeter near one of the main runways and a smidgeon of the hangar areas. I'm thinking of scaling that down to a hangar area servicing 1 or 2 of the Wathers' DC-3s. Using the right backdrop, I think the illusion would not be hard to pull off.
Juan
I was doing my own research on Google Earth by following train tracks from Bakersfield and backtrack al the way back to Chicago. Was taking notes with some particular htspots because of this DVD that I have been watching and one of those places are Tehachapi. And guess what I found for you! Tehachapi is not only one of the busiest spots and the most mountainous railway on the entire BNSF line but it has an airpot right next to the tracks!
So I think if you gonna model airport near your trains, do Tehachapi! 35'07"N and 118'26"W
a corner of a taxiway, and a windsock seperated from the railline by some chainlink fence would not take up too much space, and still provide a place for that Santa Fe Skyways DC-3, DC-4 or a TWA connie waiting for takeoff orders.
I had an airport on my old layout in Las Vegas, and it was set near an apple orchard. The planes were suspended in air with a white wire rod that was hidden inside the pesticide spray stream made from cotton.
I'm thinking of recreating the scene on my existing layout for a camera shot, but I want the scene removable afterwards...
http://home.mchsi.com/~ironmaster1960/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html
tomikawaTT wrote: As a long-time inhabitant of Air Force flight lines, I consider airports to be in the same family as maritime container facilities - huge, complex and seldom served directly by rail. That translates as, "Okay as a backdrop photo mural, but a total waste of valuable bench-top real estate."
As a long-time inhabitant of Air Force flight lines, I consider airports to be in the same family as maritime container facilities - huge, complex and seldom served directly by rail. That translates as, "Okay as a backdrop photo mural, but a total waste of valuable bench-top real estate."
The newest container terminals at Los Angeles, and I think Long Beach, have rails on the dock. They can transfer containers directly between ship and train.
tomikawaTT wrote:Even the minimalist facilities of a small general aviation airport would take up more space than most of us allow for the buildings of a small town. A 1200 foot runway with minimal overruns would be longer than a prototypically correct Amtrak passenger train!
Even the minimalist facilities of a small general aviation airport would take up more space than most of us allow for the buildings of a small town. A 1200 foot runway with minimal overruns would be longer than a prototypically correct Amtrak passenger train!
If you can't land a B-52 on the runway, why bother modeling it?
It would be nice to have enough space to model a port, complete with a container terminal with on-dock rails, Castle AFB, several industries, mountains, and various farms, perhaps even some commercial and residential areas.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
One other problem with suspending an aircraft in the air over the layout is its lack of motion.
Granted, we have vehicles on our layouts that, for the most part, also don't move. Like my people, I put my vehicles in positions where they don't look strange standing still. That means my vehicles are either parked in parking lots or along the side of the road, or stopped at stop signs and grade crossings. I have an empty coal truck that's pulling into the coal mine, but has stopped part way to allow for the switcher to pass with a cut of hoppers.
Likewise my people are generally standing and talking to each other, waiting for a train, or reading the paper. Some are sitting. One guy is running toward the restroom at the gas station; he's my one "suspended animation" allowance because it's a neat little gag.
The point is, there's very little disconnect between the vehicles and people that don't move and the trains that do, because the vehicles and people don't look like they have to be moving.
An airplane sitting in mid-air, defying the laws of physics, allows for that disconnect as the trains roll below it. A helicopter might work since it can hover (a traffic helicopter over a jammed-up Interstate might make a neat scene!), but the airplane creates confusion between its static position and the overwise "live" layout beneath it.
Just my two cents... Your opinion may differ!
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
Several years ago my father-in-law (retired TWA) gave me a Walthers' HO-scaled DC-3 airplane, suitable for either civilian or military use. He insisted that airline service be appropriately represented on my "transportation" layout.
I have never assembled the kit.
The problem is that an HO scaled airplane looks ridiculously too large if it is suspended in the air -- a plane flying over town at any reasonable height would appear so small it could only barely be seen -- so unless the plane were either already on the ground or actually in the process of just landing or just taking off, an HO scaled model is way out of whack. And in order to model a plane either on the ground or in the process of landing or taking off, a significant portion of extremely valuable layout real estate would need to be dedicated for the scene.
I've NEVER known ANYONE who thinks they have too large a layout or would want to sacrifice that much space on a layout oestensibly dedicated to "model railroading."
I've "toyed" with the idea of half-building the kit and using Lionel Strang's method of melting the plastic to simulate a recent crash into the side of a mountain, but I don't think my father-in-law would appreciate the humor......
There is an intermodal center at the airport in Hunstville, AL. http://www.hsvairport.org/iic/index.html
I knew I'd seen this:
http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=2569&page=15&highlight=airport
Jeff But it's a dry heat!
As stated airports take up lots of real estate...
Blue lights for the taxiways. White for the runways. Don't forget the green (when landing) and red (when taking off) lights marking the threshold.
Also there's the tower lights (IIRC).
- Flashing Green or alternating green and white - fixed wing only.
- Alternating green and yellow - fixed and rotary wing.
- Flashing yellow or alternating yellow and white - rotary wing only.
Nick
Take a Ride on the Reading with the: Reading Company Technical & Historical Society http://www.readingrailroad.org/
Iceman_c27 wrote: In real life, trains and planes are in direct competition so I don't think you will find them in close vicinity to each other anyway except those ICE (Inter City Express Trains)and unless that's what you had in mind or some rural or regional airports.
I can think of *many* examples where railroad tracks are in close vicinity to an airport...Off the top of my head, Los Angeles Inernational, Burbank Airport, Lindbergh Field in San Diego, Chicago O'Hare (there's a large yard just south of the runways), Newark International...just to name a few, all have tracks running alongside or very near the limits of airport property.
Gisborn - a small provincial city in New Zealand - has the main Railway line actually cross the end of the runway. Has a nice set of lights to keep aircraft and trains separate. Small airport - single line. Always something in real life to keep you happy.
If you absolutely, positively must have an air facility on your layout, an emergency helipad is about the size of an Atlas turntable - with 1/2 circle roundhouse!
Of course, if you have a full-size hangar to house your model empire...
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with too little flat land for an airport)
I am in the process of building an AIRPORT and have two Mooneys HO scale, DC-3 1/90 scale and an A-320 but that is 1/125 scale & have the idea of using Christmas Lights wired in for the (White-Runway) (Blue-Taxiway)..........(also would like intermittent Approach lights)..............I have a 20 x 12 foot space I'm using in the Garage (Wifes car gets the other half) and in the process I am working on two levels. (41" & 60") The airport will come out about 4 feet (half an airport) from the wall and be about 2 feet wide-(2nd level is 16-18" wide so it does not overlap to much). I am making just one runway and that of course will be cut down in size with a taxiway (mirrors should work to make runway extended) and yes I do have a small passenger station for the train as it comes by. I am still in the process and have not done anything in a month since it takes to long to warm up the Garage and I am Cold out there..........I do like the idea of suspending the airplanes as they are taking off or landing..............would be quite the effect........
I did find some 1/100 scale & 1/125 scale A/C models on Ebay which is where I got the A-320 from.
Hope some of this helps.........Cary
Yeah, airports take up a lot of real estate. It might be good to model a general aviation airstrip as mentioned before or model the edge of an airport where there's planes along the tracks.
Also, 1:87 or 1:160 airplanes are very rare. Airplane models are generally manufactured in 1:72, 1:200, 1:400 or 1:500 scales. I personally plan to buy a 1:500 scale Boeing 737 suspended by transparent thread hanging from the ceiling above my N scale layout.
Though if you have an outdoor G scale layout, and have an airstrip with actual model R/C airplanes that take off and land, you rule.
A small airport or private crop duster strip could be worked in without much real estate taken up.
I am a private pilot myself and have a small airport in mind for my layout, and there are several HO scale model planes available. I have a couple of DC-3's now in HO scale.
Runways have white lights, taxiways have blue lights
Ed
I have an airport on both of my current layouts, one of which is a small rural airport that I am getting ready to redo, and the other is an army airstrip. I wish I could post pics, but one of my layouts with the army base is 200 miles away from home, and the other is a mess. I might try to post a pic or two of my rural tomorrow, but its nearly bedtime here and I can't do so right now. Sorry about the inconvience.
-beegle55
soumodeler wrote: On the San Diego Model Railroad Club's layout, I remember a scene, maybe not with an airport, but it had a plane flying out of the back drop, cut in two. I thought that would be a great idea for an airport if you had it against the backdrop.Or a plane hanging from a very small thread(s).
On the San Diego Model Railroad Club's layout, I remember a scene, maybe not with an airport, but it had a plane flying out of the back drop, cut in two. I thought that would be a great idea for an airport if you had it against the backdrop.
Or a plane hanging from a very small thread(s).
I always have a plane from the era I'm modelling hanging over my layout - on very fine clear fishing line...
As for an airport. Like others have said, that would take up a lot of space. However, you might consider a small rural type airport that only caters to small single engine or twin engine planes that has a landing strip, a refueling station, a becon on a tower, couple of hangers and a cafe'.
Tracklayer
As already stated an airport would take up a lot of real estate. Consider this:
How about the approach lights and just the tip of the runway. Make the rest, if of course you're an artist, on the painted backdrop. If you've ever been to Disneyland in LA you can see that illustrated in real life and it's almost spooky.
You're on the street and this goes for about a block and a half but then the painted backdrop starts and it looks spooky. When you get close enough you realize there is no depth preception and the trompe l'oiel street extension is really convincing.
An airport could take up a lot of real estate.
As for the lights, sounds like a job for small LED's.