Sea Dub

Hi everyone. It's been a while since I posted so I wanted to give an update on things. The first of October I moved into a new house and was busy getting that area set up. Shortly afterwards I came down with Influenza A which developed into pnuemonia in both my lungs. I ended up in the hospital for a week and it took about 3 weeks afterwards to fully recover. As soon as I was better my flight instruction started to pick up and I was commanded to remove the airport from my flight school as new prospects were touring the facility. The boss wanted it gone for now since it's not finished yet and my garage at the new house is too small to accommodate it. SOOO long story shortened, I have not abandoned my hard work and I'm finally in a spot where I can continue and finish this huge beast I've created. Testing on the base grass area has begun and I think I've finally gotten a hold of this. It's kinda harder than I thought it would be. Either that or I'm just not that bright with it!

I'm ready to paint all the roadways and parking lots finally and am just finishing the newest west side addition's sketch work. I'm convinced thanks to all you talented people on this forum that negative masking is the way to go in this scenario. I've purchased 1/32" thick masking tape from Line O Tape Pinstriping Tapes and they are a very good and efficient company. Very pleased with them. As always pictures are coming. I hate posting without update shots, but I don't have anything yet to show and I didn't want too much more time to pass before I gave an update.

Lastly I want to thank all those people who have been so generous in their support for me and this project. I'm doing this for my students, but let's face it. We all want our work to be appreciated by those who understand how tough it is to do these dioramas and we all feed off the praise we receive for it. It motivates us, makes us scrap stupid and lazy plans and causes us to work harder, think more, and strive for better than average results. I also welcome criticism. It's helpful to see different points of view. I just ask that the criticism is intelligent and not freakin stupid like, "Hey go back to 3rd grade and cut and paste!". Leave those comments for grade schoolers.

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Cory

http://orlandoexecutiveairport.webs.com/

Mudanglee

Excellent work!

uncle beat

Congratulations on the new house--family things like moving, keeping the boss happy at work, and recovering your health, take precedence over the hobby. Having pneumonia must have been really bad. Great to have you back on the forum and best wishes--you have already done a fantastic job on your diorama, so the finished product is bound to be a masterpiece! Take your time with it and most of all, enjoy the journey. All the best, pete

Sea Dub

I underestimated how difficult and time consuming doing the off airport locations would be. It has kicked my butt. Even though it doesn't really look like I've done much, I've spent the past month working about an hour to two almost every day trying to get the roads and parking lots drawn, painted, and all the appropriate roadway lines and markings finished. In all reality, I'm not even done yet, but I am close. I tried to included an animated GIF photo showing the diorama before I started any off airport locales and the progress so far as of last night. But I can't get the file format correct so that it can be included in this post. Oh well, just visit my website and you'll see the animated GIF pic. It's kinda cool and worth the visit. The other shots just show detail work.

I should be routing out the water areas before the week is out. After that base grass will go in and I'll probably take a mini break for about 3 weeks. I'll be headed to Florida to see family at the end of the month and I plan on visiting Orlando Exec and taking all the photos and video I need to begin constructing the buildings, structures, and all landscaping when I return at the beginning of March. This should be a worthwhile trip to the real airport since I wasn't sure how I would accurately get the dimensions and colors for the airport correct. The internet only goes so far with photos that I can find. By the time I do the next update I should have all the base grass down and the project will take on a completely different look.

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Cory

http://orlandoexecutiveairport.webs.com/

Sea Dub

Ok guys. I need some feedback. I just started adding the main grass and while I'm happy with the results, I'm on the fence on one thing and before I do anymore I want opinions....is the grass too dark? I personally think it is. If it was a shade or two lighter I might be better with it. But I'm not sure so what do you think? The last two pictures are of the final result. I used a garbage bag stretched across and taped down to protect the non grass areas. And then after cutting out the appropriate areas, I sprinkled on the grass and secured it with Woodland Scenics Cement.

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Cory

http://orlandoexecutiveairport.webs.com/

PT-TAA

Your work is simply wonderful, can't wait to see your airport finished.

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Cygnum

First of all I have to say that I'm totally in love with your airport. It looks amazing! I'll be monitoring this thread closely.

Regarding the grass, in my opinion (based on the last photo) the lower part is too dark, but only slight. When I see the color, it appears to me that it has rained there for a days in a row, and that the soil is soaked. However, since it's a photo, it's difficult to say whether this is also the case in real life. The upper part (which hasn't been completed) looks better from my point of view.

In conclusion: keep up the good work!

Sea Dub

Cygnum,

First I appreciate your kind words and definitely for your opinions. I've been kinda grappling with this for a day or so and I decided that it is like you say and it's just too dark. I had wanted to avoid the fake look and so I fixed it up a bit. I'm much much happier with these results. Tell me what you think of the new look. For comparison's sake, I only fixed the grass areas on the right of the runway. The left side is still the original.

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Cory

http://orlandoexecutiveairport.webs.com/

Will_Power

This project is amazing! The grass does look dark, as you and Cygnum have said. Maybe a little more dark than normal but keep in mind, it does rain a lot in Orlando. Your modifications seem to be perfect.

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Will



see my jetphotos at http://www.jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?userid=15483

Cygnum

Looks much better, much more lifelike.

Sea Dub

Life threw some delays and a hiatus, but I'm back on the project and will do my best to keep working at it. The pics here show some modifications I've made to the grass by adding some darker/muddier looking turf colors. I think it makes it look more realistic. Also I'm pretty satisfied with the color for the lakes. Not too bright and not too dark. All the lakes around the airport have vegetation growing around the edges and I will be adding it as well to cover up the sharp edges. I didn't smooth them out on purpose since I'm still toying with the idea of adding Realistic Water to all the lakes. In either case the edges will be covered and it'll look great. Also I've started the process of grassing the northern areas of the airport. This will be tougher and a bit more time consuming. I've also added some of my visual aides just so you can get an idea of what I'm doing with this model in the first place. I've used it now on many students and they not only love it, but it does help them in their flying so it gives me some encouragement. I also took a stab at making my first styrene building. Disaster! I need so much more practice and possibly a visit from Dylan to guide me through. I thought it would be easier, but it's actually pretty tough for a newbie.

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Cory

http://orlandoexecutiveairport.webs.com/

LOT 737-300

To be honest, I like where you're going with this thus far. Model airports can take a while to do, but then again, we have railroad modelers who have been working on their stuff for years! So in my opinion, you're not doing a bad job on progress.

As for buildings, they can be hard to do, but it's certainly something I wouldn't give up too easily on. I suppose looking at a mixture of materials could help out too. I too have been contemplating using a mix of Balsa/Styrene for my first T-Gauge layout (which planning has been kicking my butt, mostly because I'm on an architectural writer's block (got at least 25% of the buildings designed for it), and also because of me being more busy with school these days.)

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TRACKER

Looks fantastic. where did you get the grass? and what brand,colors are the grass? Thanks

Sea Dub

Tracker,

I appreciate the comments. The grass is messy and a bit more difficult to work with, but I think the results are better. The products are from Woodland Scenics. The process is fairly simple; you just have to always fine tune your work. I started by covering the entire area with Ground Cover Blended Turf Green. Once that dried, I sprinkled Fine Turf Yellow Grass to highlight the entire area and lighten it up a bit. Be careful to just lightly sprinkle the area. I discovered the hard way that you can clump the grass if you're not careful and then it doesn't look good. Finally I added Fine Turf Burnt Grass over the whole area to give it a more realistically worn down look. This is my first attempt at doing any of this stuff. So I'm far from an expert on this unlike many of the other great sources of advice found here. I hope this helps.

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Cory

http://orlandoexecutiveairport.webs.com/

TRACKER

Thanks, I have been buying Woodland Scenes but in roll form and cant find the right color and it looks too perfect. Im going to go your way and try the mix and match, it looks so realistic. I also like your little dirt tracks. Great work, and will be keeping an eye on your progress.