This article talks about building miniature airports and shows several videos and links for the plans. When I was kid, the rage was building a miniature train station in the basement. It was pretty fun for a while but I soon lost interest in it. Some people went off the extreme end and created entire towns with amazing details that covered whole rooms. Not once, never did I see anyone create an airport. If I even thought it was remotely possible.
I think I would have become the guy that went nuts and built something like these examples. I think there is real power to influence next generation pilots with this kind of imagination. I am not sure how they do all the mechanical workings of moving all the planes and having them takeoff and land, but it absolutely amazing.
This first one is in Hamburg Germany, it kind of takes the proverbial cake as far as complexity and attention to detail. The model clearly shows that the designers and artists actually went to the airport and captured the true details of the day to day movements.
I am impressed with the people that they show in the terminals, it almost looks like the busiest day at the airport. Its not verified but I read somewhere there is three million dollars invested in this project with over 150 artists involved. I don’t think my own project would be anywhere near that at all. There is a kid in all of us when we see something of this magnitude.
How to Build a Model Airport, Miniature Airports
This next video shows you how to get started in this interesting new hobby. I think its interesting to note that the builder uses different scale models to showcase the size of the aircraft (large aircraft get smaller size scale such as 1:200, and small aircraft get smaller scale such as 1:500)
As highlighted in the video, what you need:
- large piece of wood, it would appear they are using mdf
- modge podge, gloss
- roller pin
- pencil, scissors, rulers etc
- paint brush
- scatter materials
- foils
It;s worth noting that the “foils” he is talking about an be found here http://www.diecastmodelaircraft.com/airports/
This author also makes his own buildings and hangars out of wood. To me this seems to be a bit time sensitive, but if you are a hobbyist with some time to spare it may work for you. He is also covers the buildings with the foils from the above link. I do know for a fact that you can buy pre-made airport buildings made out of plastic or fiber board, but they are a bit more pricey. I would have to imagine it would vary and you would need to determine if you wanted to spend that much money or not. If you had an engraver, which is not cheap at all, you could probably take it a step further and laser cut your own buildings and engrave the artwork onto them in one shot. (this interests me for some reason)
The last detail that is missing from this video is the jet bridges. You could buy them online but the prices are kind of high and they may not match what you have created so far. So of course I found the video that puts it all together with this last detail.
Jet way Construction, Miniature Airport
There is a free download for the plans here.
