Airfield in your layout?

A pretty ambitious addition.  Even shorter runways run around 1400 feet, almost 30 feet in length in O scale.  The best you can hope for is a representation of an airfield, a hanger, maybe a tie down with one or two 1/48 scale aircraft.  Smaller fields have no towers but may have runway lights that can be activated from the air.  I never flew at night but I am told there is a technique to do this.

Real Estate?  Maybe a helicopter landing pad, if you have a building big enough?

I needed to add something to my layout so I did this it's small but it turned out nice just need to add the lights and the radar tower 

This thread shows an airport that Forum member Fredstrains posted back in 2012. Maybe he'll update us on this project. (Scroll down)

https://ogrforum.com/t...rport-to-your-layout

There was a vendor many years ago that did the runway lights. You could always do the beginning or end with the remainder hidden behind a hill. Looking forward to your construction.

fl9turbo2 posted:

I needed to add something to my layout so I did this it's small but it turned out nice just need to add the lights and the radar tower 

that's pretty cool.  Airfield on a mountain.  Got me thinking about that "Hydra" airstrip inside a mountain from the first Captain America movie.  It would be cool to add the mouth to that on an opposing mountain with a Lionel pylon in the middle to simulate a dogfight

BobbyD posted:

There was a vendor many years ago that did the runway lights. You could always do the beginning or end with the remainder hidden behind a hill. Looking forward to your construction.

sweet.  I would be interested in purchasing runway lights.  i just don't have the time or know-how for scratch built electronics

An airfield is wholly impractical unless you have a layout the size of a large house and can dedicate half of it to just the runway itself. Even the smallest general aviation strip is about 800 feet long, which would be about 16 feet in O scale. That’s a lot of room for just pavement! Your average small-to-medium sized layout wouldn’t possibly be able to provide room for a runway, let alone a ramp and hangar areas.

Probably the best thing would be to model a 1940’s military airfield and model a few ‘hardstands’ along a taxi way, which was a common method to disperse airplanes. Civilian operators took over several former military fields, so you could still have civilian planes sitting out on them. Plenty exist today both in the US and wherever our boys flew out of, like this one in Norfolk, UK (recently photo, with re-enactors):

I agree that heliport for a modern airport would be a great compromise. They can be very small. I once landed on one in an Army UH-1 ‘Huey’ and the entire complex took up maybe a half-acre, if that.

That airfield is a really nice piece of work.  Awesome Job!

p51 posted:

An airfield is wholly impractical unless you have a layout the size of a large house and can dedicate half of it to just the runway itself. Even the smallest general aviation strip is about 800 feet long, which would be about 16 feet in O scale. That’s a lot of room for just pavement! Your average small-to-medium sized layout wouldn’t possibly be able to provide room for a runway, let alone a ramp and hangar areas.

Probably the best thing would be to model a 1940’s military airfield and model a few ‘hardstands’ along a taxi way, which was a common method to disperse airplanes. Civilian operators took over several former military fields, so you could still have civilian planes sitting out on them. Plenty exist today both in the US and wherever our boys flew out of, like this one in Norfolk, UK (recently photo, with re-enactors):

I agree that heliport for a modern airport would be a great compromise. They can be very small. I once landed on one in an Army UH-1 ‘Huey’ and the entire complex took up maybe a half-acre, if that.

My friend, there are no limits to one's imagination.  For the "scale" crowd that likes proper dimensions, there is always an opportunity to combine in-layout features with on-wall "vanishing point" images and engineer a solution that overcomes the notion of impracticality

Garrett76 posted:

My friend, there are no limits to one's imagination. 

Which explains how there can be layouts with a runway just longer than the fuselage of the plane trying to take off from it. If the idea is to throw out ANY concept of reality accordingly, then why ask the question at all about how to model an airfield?

Probably the best way to model an airfield without using the entire layout’s space is to model the end of the runway, then have the remainder painted into the backdrop. You could also do some forced-perspective if the runway is at or above a tall viewer’s eye level.

You could also model just portions of the runway, then have trees obscure what appears to be the line of sight for the rest of it (at an oblique angle to the backdrop). A friend of mine did that on a N scale layout and it actually worked very well to fool the eye. Wish I had photos of it, now.

BobbyD posted:

There was a vendor many years ago that did the runway lights. You could always do the beginning or end with the remainder hidden behind a hill. Looking forward to your construction.

JAY JAY & BobbyD

You are both right! The fellow that made that Airport Strip is out of business. He built in 10 different Light Patterns into the lights  down the sides of the Strip.  I have dismantled that layout  and unfortunately  sold that Strip to a friend! I still have the Helicopter Pad!! It is on my new Layout .  It is very COOL as well !!!

There was just enough room next to the Motorsports track to put a hanger to house a P-51. 

Yeah it's Plasticville toy stuff, but at night with the led strips lit up it makes a neat scene. Azgary

Nice 'stang!

I love the Korean war-era markings, something you rarely see.

Thanks, Lee!    It is a $9.95 snap together kit from the LHS.

Hi Garret

Here is a picture  of mine.

Larry

Very cool, Larry!

https://youtu.be/hB6mTt14NGY

Then there's the mother of all model railroad airports:

https://youtu.be/JqwMyEUB24g

What about an aviation museum. You could display the planes outside  or in

if you wanted to put up a structure but you would not need the runway?

Well, sort of, partially :

p51 posted:

An airfield is wholly impractical unless you have a layout the size of a large house and can dedicate half of it to just the runway itself. Even the smallest general aviation strip is about 800 feet long, which would be about 16 feet in O scale. That’s a lot of room for just pavement! Your average small-to-medium sized layout wouldn’t possibly be able to provide room for a runway, let alone a ramp and hangar areas.

None for me thanks. I have 1900 square feet of train room, and still can't spare any space for such a project. It's all about the trains!!!

First off, be advised that I'm into TOY trains; fully appreciate the scale works of art, but t'aint me.

Enclosed is a pic of my old layout with airport.  #2 son painted the rwy on a section of roofing shingle many years ago for an even older layout. It's crude by artistic standards, but HE made it, so I include it.  (he flies for United Express today; and #1 son is an air traffic controller, and I built my own full sized airplane, so we're kind of into it...). 

Note the rotating beacon top center of the pic. Out of sight is the rotating radar antenna, and a new addition to my new layout is the control tower. The rwy is about 4' long, and I think it gives a "decent" perspective for the scale involved.

Good thread!

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

p51 posted:

An airfield is wholly impractical unless you have a layout the size of a large house and can dedicate half of it to just the runway itself. Even the smallest general aviation strip is about 800 feet long, which would be about 16 feet in O scale. That’s a lot of room for just pavement! Your average small-to-medium sized layout wouldn’t possibly be able to provide room for a runway, let alone a ramp and hangar areas.

None for me thanks. I have 1900 square feet of train room, and still can't spare any space for such a project. It's all about the trains!!!

1900 Sq FT just for trains?!!! That's 50FT smaller than my first townhome and only 500 ft smaller then my entire current house!!! LOL Wow!! Thats sooo cool!

ConrailFan posted:

1900 Sq FT just for trains?!!! That's 50FT smaller than my first townhome and only 500 ft smaller then my entire current house!!! LOL Wow!! Thats sooo cool!

Yup and thanks. If you'd like to read all about it, check out my topic that has been running for nearly 4 1/2 years. Just click on "follow the progress" in my signature.

colorado hirailer posted:

Real Estate?  Maybe a helicopter landing pad, if you have a building big enough?

 

 

Like this?

I suppose this is pushing the "envelope" a bit

Braniff going to Chicago, Ozark to St. Louis.

Excellent pics!  Thanks to all

I like the DC-3s!Very cool indeed!

I remember Ozark Airlines, in the early mid 70's. Some nice pictures of small airports and airfields on a few layouts here in the forum.

got a lake?  not all planes need a runway.

necrails posted:

....  Smaller fields have no towers but may have runway lights that can be activated from the air.  I never flew at night but I am told there is a technique to do this.

for night flights, runway lights can be activated by a pilot by tuning to the field UNICOM frequency within 5 miles of the airport and keying the mic... 3 times for low intensity, 5 times for medium and 7 times for high intensity.  high intensity is best when you're trying to find the field, but low or med are less distracting when you land.

cheers...gary

warming up for take-off!

warming up for take-off!

beautiful models, but the bridge makes for a tough ILS landing and minimums are a bear!!

Yes, DC-3s are cool !  We were in a commercial DC-3 in the winter when the heater quit. They gave us blankets to wrap up in but still cold. I recently picked up a nice model of a Wright Bros. flyer and that will be my air fleet.