Venice (Italy): the terminal building rooftop is still to finish.


Riga (Latvia): terminal building still to finish.

Starting the TUTORIAL i want to start with general infos.
I usually use multilayer/plywood wood panels, 1 cm thick and with different sizes; the largest one is 120 x 120 cm (max size to ship by FedEx/UPS/DHL/TNT) but usually, for a nice section in 1:500 scale, 80 x 30 cm is a good solution.
Just to remember, 1 x 1 meter in 1:500 is 500 x 500 meters while in 1:400 is 400 x 400 meters.
Of course the wood panel must be prepared before to create the airport: white paint to avoid bending then water paint to create the tarmac/asphalt effect of the apron. Water paint is better than acrylic because any errors can be modified removing the paint (before fixiing it).
The tarmac of the apron and the asphalt of the runway, taxiway and service roads are grey: various shades of greys made mixing white and black with the right quantity of water and obtaining the right shade of grey according to the airport i want to create.
To create the various airports i use Google Maps, Bing Maps (for the airports obscured from the space because military...like those in Greece...) and pics taken directly from the airports websites.
So, paint with a good brush


the wood panel


fixiing spray: once painted the paint must be fixed with a fixiing spray. Only after it has been fixed we can move on to the next step.
To save costs i use hair spray, cheaper than the usual fixiing spray and with the same, almost perfect, effect.


Now the wood panel is ready for the next step: the tarmac grid and/or runway-taxiway asphalt lines. Here i need of pencil and ruler and, of course, to know how the tarmac grid is realized on the various aprons. Usually they are squares but sometimes they are rectangles, squares + rectangles, long horizontal rectangles and so on. About the color there are various shades of greys, from light grey to dark grey arriving to black for the service roads. Many "holiday" airports without jetways can have green and/or light blue walkways for the passengers disembarking from the airplanes stairs.
Coming back to the tarmac grid usually the squares are 5 x 5 meters (1 x 1 cm in 1:500) and the rectangles 10 x 5 meters (2 x 1 cm in 1:500).






this is the final effect. Also here, when the grid is finished, a fixiing spray is needed.


Many aprons have patches, cracks, additions and everything can be created with a good pencil, a black Lumocolor pen and Uniposca.
But this is matter for the second episode of this tutorial.
Thanks for reading.

A consideration about the tarmac grid: unless the airport has been recently resurfaced, the imperfections, cracks, different shades MUST be realized! Not only, it would be important to realize the marks of aircraft tires and the oil on the tarmac. All this to realize a realistic airport.
While the cracks, imperfections and black spots can be realized with pencils and Lumocolor black pen, the marks of the aircraft tires and the oil can be realized with charcoal, directly on the apron or using the finger.
If you especially look at Greek airports before Fraport Greece resurface and some Caribbean airports, you can see what am i talking about.
I realize all the imperfections when i sell the airports around the world and to people asking me to realize them: a friend from Malta wanted the reproductions of ALL THE CRACKS AND IMPERFECTIONS of the main apron! An immense work.

Osaka Kansai (Japan)


Barcelona (Spain)


London "Gatwick" (UK).

Good evening.
Let me continue with the tutorial. Now it is time for pens and colors.
Once the tarmac, runways, taxiways are ready, it is time to realize all the parking stands, service roads, runway, taxiways marks and lines.
To make this i use two different types of pens and colors: Lumocor and Uniposca. The most used colors are white and yellow for Uniposca and black and red for Lumocolor


with different tips (small, medium and large)


Here an example of a 1:400 airport Heraklion style: the parking stands are typical of the old Greek airports. Using a goniometer (better if different size of goniometers) and yellow Uniposca medium and small tip, you can create the parking lines. These kind of airports are very difficult to realize and taking almost perfect measures with Google Maps is essential.










Here the final effect


Then the stands numbers and the marks: Uniposca yellow small tip and a ruler


Lumocolor medium and big tips for the STOP marks


with Lumocolor small tip you can realiza the borders of the yellow PARKING NUMBERS area


then the PARKING NUMBER with Lumocolor black small tip (for the white or yellow numbgers in black area you can use Uniposca yellow and white small tips).


STOP written made with Uniposca white small tip


The service roads can be realized with black color or different shades of grey








the border made by Uniposca white big tip


the red border before the apron made by Lumocolor red big tip


service road marks made with Uniposca white small tip


In these airports with the airplanes engines towards the service road and the passengers walkways, jetblast are essential: i realized them.


This the final result

This is how i created my latest marvel, Hong Kong "Cargo Area".








Here the beautiful, final result.

I finished Newcastle and Bristol (UK) and i am really satisfied; i am finishing a section of Sea-Tac (Seattle-Tacoma) and it is really nice.
Pics in the next days.

Mexico City (Mexico), a wonderful realization in my opinion.


Boston Logan (USA)


Hurghada (Egypt), resurfaced and more similar to the original one.

This is such a cool project!

Newark727 wrote:

This is such a cool project!

Thanks so much.

Los Cabos (Mexico), resurfaced.


Corfù (Greece), new apron resurfaced by Fraport Greece


Bristol (UK)

Just arrived, the beautiful DAT MD-83 OY-RUE.

Thessaloniki (Greece)


Newcastle (UK)










Sochi (Russia)

Seattle - Tacoma (USA)




Piarco International (Trinidad e Tobago)

Aruba (Queen Beatrix)




hobby room...all the airports.




Dalaman (Turkey)

Different trio of models

Sun Express Germany B737-800WL's






Three very rare models in 1:500: Ryanair B737-800WL, Wizz Air A320, Air Arabia A320








Norwegian B737-800WL's








Arkia A321neos








Three Mad Dog's: Edelweiss, DAT, Bulgarian Air Charter

Larnaca (Cyprus)


Chania (Greece)


Mykonos (Greece)


Pula (Croatia)

While i am working at Malta-GA apron and Billund airports, some models have arrived:

Buzz B737 MAX8 (1:400)


Starlux A321neo (1:500)

Mytilene (Greece)


Billund (Denmark)

Roland Garros Airport (RUN)

Helsinki Airport (long haul)

Fukuoka Airport (Japan) 1:500 scale.

Tahiti "Faa'a" 1:400 scale.

Tahiti "Faa'a" 1:500 scale.













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Tahiti "Faa'a" 1:400 scale
This is a Tahiti-type 1-400 scale airport, realized for my many exotic airlines.

Malta "Luqa" Airport GSE apron(s), for a German friend.

It's incredible how there are no comments here...

This is SO cool!! Having to been a few of these airports, I think you nailed them! Quick suggestion though, I don’t think I saw any, but have you ever thought of making “Heavy Gates”? They’re the gates that have one or more jet bridges, they’re also two stories tall for 747’s and A380’s too. Also, who makes the Air Caraïbes A350? Gemini Jets? I really need one haha

These looks awesome. Very cool but the photobucket watermark is killing your mojo too.

KPTKRampy wrote:

This is SO cool!! Having to been a few of these airports, I think you nailed them! Quick suggestion though, I don’t think I saw any, but have you ever thought of making “Heavy Gates”? They’re the gates that have one or more jet bridges, they’re also two stories tall for 747’s and A380’s too. Also, who makes the Air Caraïbes A350? Gemini Jets? I really need one haha

Thanks too much for your appreciation. These are just a presentation of the various airports, then many of them have double jetbridges and Herpa new jetbridges are perfect for both 1:500 and 1:400 models.
Yes, Air Caraibes A350-900 is a Gemini model.

BlindMarshall wrote:

These looks awesome. Very cool but the photobucket watermark is killing your mojo too.

Many thanks. I am Photobucket client since (too) many years...

Punta Cana 1:400 (Dominican Republic)

Kefalonia (Greece)


Aktion "Preveza" (Greece)


Malta "Luqa"

1:500 Fantasy


[list=][/list]

Naha International (Japan)


1:500/1:400 Small Fantasy

crazy wrote:

Just arrived, the beautiful DAT MD-83 OY-RUE.

Oh my! That MD-83 is a sight of beauty!

2 quick questions?
Can you do SJU or PHX?

Also, which one of the airport models you made is your favorite one?

AntonioMartin wrote:

2 quick questions?
Can you do SJU or PHX?

Also, which one of the airport models you made is your favorite one?

I have no realized SJU because there are very few Central-South America airlines in 1:500: in particular LATAM, Avianca, Volaris and COPA are completely missing of narrowbodies (about Avianca there is just the dated A318). "Luis Munoz Marin" is served by Avianca and COPA, along with other airlines (and, among them, even Southwest is missing in 1:500, having Herpa produced old livery and old airplanes many years ago) so i will realize it when herpa will produce al least LATAM, Avianca and COPA narrowbodies.
About Phoenix "Sky Harbor"...yes, it is an idea.
My favourite airport: i prefer "holiday" ones like Funchal, Salzburg, Greek airports (Corfù, Skiathos, Rhodes), Sint Maarten, Punta Cana.

1:200 Military layout

1:500 Small Fantasy layout (II version)

Small Fantasy Airport 1:500 in action.

Azores Airlines A330-200 just landed at "The Rock" airport.

Traffic at "Fantasy Airport"

Copenhagen "Kastrup" (1:500)

Just a tribute to my home airline, ITA Airways, and the first two 1:400 scale models: the wonderful A350-900 and the A319.

Backtrack at Corfù Airport

Herpa 1:500 layout

Rovaniemi Airport (RVN), 1:500 scale.
First attempt with the snow even if i am already working to a second layout with a different type of snow.
Here you can also see the first flight of a Finnair A350-900 ar RVN airport.

OP, these are awesome! I used to do the same thing a couple decades ago as a kid: I had an airport (Airigami planes with cereal box terminals), a train loop and a cruise port (handcrafted with poster board) taking up my grandfather's living room.

jjlucash wrote:

OP, these are awesome! I used to do the same thing a couple decades ago as a kid: I had an airport (Airigami planes with cereal box terminals), a train loop and a cruise port (handcrafted with poster board) taking up my grandfather's living room.

Maybe it is time to start again...
It is too beautiful looking at the result of our efforts to create an handmade airport.