Tutorial thread for handmade airport builders.

[Charter]

Ciao to all. Every day i receive many requests about handmade airports (1:200, 1:400, 1:500) from all over the world by many friends and fellow collectors of the forum. They want existing airports but also fantasy dioramas. I'm very happy to build airports for other people, it is a pleasure for me and i put all my passion and my skills, much improved from the first airports made​​, so that now i'm able to make excellent dioramas, almost perfect and very true to the original. Very often the problem is the shipping cost, so they ask me some suggestions and informations about how to realize a good handmade diorama.
Here some threads where you can find my realizations:

I sell handmade airports

Rhodes Airport: runway 25

Funchal Airport updated (1:500).

Charter Regional Airport (1:500).

"Alessandro Magno" (Alexander the Great) International Airport (1:500).

New International Airport (1:500)

London City Airport...revised (1:500

Salzburg "W.A. Mozart" Airport

AntaSharm Airport

Corfù Airport.

Rome International Airport

Sharm El Sheikh International Airport

"Princess Juliana" Airport (St. Maarten - SXM).

Miami International Airport: intersection rwys 27/30

Charter airports encyclopedia

I know that many members want to realize their own handmade airport while many other print the foils; this thread is for all the members who want to know more about how to realize a nice handmade diorama and that very often ask me suggestions, informations, materials, etc. etc. I will post my suggestions and some "secrets" of my skills, adding the photos of everything i do, step by step, the materials i use and why i use some materials rather than others.
I have undoubtedly created many beautiful airports (Funchal or Corfù, for example, but also Malta, Dubai and many other fantastic airports for friends all over the world), so i hope that my suggestions will be useful for all the members that want to realize their own masterpiece!

[Charter]

Let me start telling you that all the measures will be in millimeters (mm), centimeters (cm) and meters (m). For the friends of USA and all the countries using different unity of measures, these the conversions:
1 meter = 3 feet and 3/8 inches
1 centimeter = 0,032808399 feet

Let me start with a small piece of multilayer: it is not important the size because what i will write will be useful for any wood panel and any dimension.
The important thing is the thickness: the larger the wood panel , more thick it must be.
The minimum thickness for a 1 meter x 1 meter wood panel is 8 mm! Why the thickness is so important? Because pf the bend of the wood! When you will add the paint and the colors the wood will "physiologically" bend and with an insufficient thickness you will obtain a...convex piece of wood. The sunlight is also due to bending.
The wood panel i'm using for this tutorial is 18 x 18 cm and with a thickness of 8 mm.





The first thing to do is prepare the wood: you must use the white waterproof paint,



, it is fundamental for some reasons:
1) the wood is porous and it absorbs water; when you will use the tempera colors (all the colors and the paints contain water) they will be absorbed by the porosity of the wood so the colors will not remain on the surface of the panel.
2) the surface of the wood is not regular and the white paint (called cementite) will allow you to spread the color more easily and with a better effect. For this reason very often you need to spread many coats of white paint.

The paintbrushes: for large surfaces use a big brush, for small surfaces...a small paintbrush.
Importat is to use good paintbrushes!




This is the wood panel after some coats of white paint. Let it dry.

[Charter]

Now you must start to paint the panel with tempera colors. Why i say "tempera colors" and not "acrylic"? Because i checked both paints and i must say that tempera colors are better. They are made by water and this means that, if you make a mistake, you can correct it with water. If you make a mistake with acrylic colors you can't delete the wrong part of the layout but you have to start everything again! With tempera colors, if you make a mistake, use a paper with water and you can delete the color in th ewrong part of the diorama and paint it again.
In the example i'm using for you, i must paint the apron. Usually it is in light grey, so you need:
- white tempera color;
- black tempera color;
- a glass of water;
- a deep dish;
- paintbrush.


To realize the light grey use a lot of white and very few black:


add water and mix


obtaining the apron light grey


Paint the wood panel with two/three coats of grey


obtaining the apron


When dry fix the color with the fixative spray: remember, once you're satisfied of your job it is fundamental to fix the tempera color with the fixative spray!




Now your diorama is ready for the next phase, draw the runway/taxiway/apron/parking lines.

[Charter]

More infos in the next hours and you will see how it is easy and beautiful to realize your own handmade apron!

[Charter]

Now your wood panel is ready to be completed with all the apron lines.
Before you need to realize the tarmac. It is formed by squares, rectangles, etc., i prefer to realize squares. You need of a ruler and a pencil.


Before i used a particular grey pen, with an ultrafine tip but, to realize a grid for a 1 x 1 meter wood panel, i need of 4 of this pens, and the cost of one of them is 1 euro! 4 euro of pens just to complete a tarmac, and this because the tip is very fragile and passing it on the wood means destroy it after few lines. So i decided to use the pencil, a better effect!




How to realize the grid? Before take the measures, 2 x 2 centimeters squares.




This is the result:


If you want you can add some cracks and some details so your tarmac seems even more real!




To add the dirty take a piece of charcoal


and paint the apron


then with a finger spread it


Also here you have to finish with the fixative spray, so everything will be fixed.
What do you think? Wonderful!!!


Just an example: look at the drops of water on the panel,


i removed them and, once fixed everything with the fixative spray, the lines (made with a pencil!) remains intact! The same for the tempera colors.

[Charter]

Just a digression, but here i'm preparing the 1 x 1 meter wood panel for Bora Bora airport:





It is very difficult to project a fantasy airport, where the customer wants specific things:




This is the area for the backtrack:

[Charter]

Coming back to the small piece of wood, now it is time to draw all the apron lines.
This is what you need: Uniposca pens, yellow and white, medium-fine and fine tips.










You also need these two pens, black and red, fine tips:




Start to draw the parking line: a ruler and a yellow Uniposca with fine tip




Then the 1 cm stopping point


This is the result:


Now with the black pen with the fine tip you have to draw the borders of the parking line:






Nice indeed

[Charter]

Now you have to realize the borders of the parking position. Use the white Uniposca pen with fine tip: this particular apron is for airplanes as the B767 but it is also suitable for smaller airplanes as the A320 or the B737-800.








Et voilà!






Also the white lines have a border, usually it is red: use the red pen with the fine tip.




Very nice!


Sometimes the parking lines have the fuel mark: use the red pen with fine tip


with a white point inside, you can realize it with the white Uniposca pen with fine tip

[Charter]

Your parking position is ready!!! Nothing to envy to those made by computer and this is done completely and exclusively by you.
The result is wonderful! In the second parking position, suitable for widebodies like the A380, i have also realized the service road; it is easy to realize, white Uniposca pen with fine tip. The third parking position is common for charter airport, and i have also added the type of airplanes next to each stopping line. The numbers and letters are stickers in a yellow base with black borders.

[Kah Jun]

Thanks for doing this awesome tutorial, Master of model airport creation! This is very useful for anyone that is keen of making their own airport, including me! Using many pictures rather than a wall-of-text is really very helpful for me and I believe everyone else too Really appreciate your effort in helping the community! So thanks once again.

[iTechno8]

WOW, absolutely amazing. A wonderful tutorial, well done I do envy all your airports, they are absolutely beautiful

Keep it up! Indeed, you are the master of hand made airports

Cheers,

iTechno8

[United737]

Amazing! Does this work for 1:400 as well as 1:500?

[LeoMuse747]

Originally Posted by United737

Amazing! Does this work for 1:400 as well as 1:500?

Of course! What would be the difference?

[Charter]

Thanks to all my friends, it is a real pleasure for me as i tell you in the various PM's.
For the 1:400 scale (as the 1:200) you can use the same techniques, just remember that the airplanes size is different so you have to calculate different sizes for everything.
When we will arrive to build the runway, the taxiway and, for example, the landscape (sea, sand, etc.), you will see what i mean. If in 1:500 scale for a 45 meters wide runway you must calculate 9 centimeters (9 x 5 = 45), in 1:400 it must be about 11 centimeters, and so on. All your diorama changes and you must well consider what you want to realize.
But you will understand more when i will post more photos: as example i take my new Bora Bora airport, a fantasy airport where there is everything.

[United737]

Originally Posted by Leonardo Mello

Of course! What would be the difference?

Originally Posted by Charter

Thanks to all my friends, it is a real pleasure for me as i tell you in the various PM's.
For the 1:400 scale (as the 1:200) you can use the same techniques, just remember that the airplanes size is different so you have to calculate different sizes for everything.
When we will arrive to build the runway, the taxiway and, for example, the landscape (sea, sand, etc.), you will see what i mean. If in 1:500 scale for a 45 meters wide runway you must calculate 9 centimeters (9 x 5 = 45), in 1:400 it must be about 11 centimeters, and so on. All your diorama changes and you must well consider what you want to realize.
But you will understand more when i will post more photos: as example i take my new Bora Bora airport, a fantasy airport where there is everything.

The measurements would be different so I was wondering.