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EGNT Newcastle Airport Main Terminal Pier 1/144


phil1

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Hi Phil,

 

 

No unfortunately I cannot measure the height of the building on Google Maps, you can do a ‘3D’ view but there are no planes at the pier to judge the height. 

 

But I did find the photo amongst this document. In it you can see the 777 is about the same height as the pier, that should help a bit with guessing the height. 

 

50430515201_0734617f5a_o.jpgScreenshot 2020-10-07 at 08.21.54 by Neal, on Flickr

 

Neal

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On 10/7/2020 at 8:34 AM, NealParkes said:

Hi Phil,

 

 

No unfortunately I cannot measure the height of the building on Google Maps, you can do a ‘3D’ view but there are no planes at the pier to judge the height. 

 

But I did find the photo amongst this document. In it you can see the 777 is about the same height as the pier, that should help a bit with guessing the height. 

 

50430515201_0734617f5a_o.jpgScreenshot 2020-10-07 at 08.21.54 by Neal, on Flickr

 

Neal

Yes mate I noticed the same thing, its about the same height as the top of the 777's fuselage. Finding this height was more tricky than I thought but I think its approximately 8.4 metres or 27.5 feet. The airbridge is also decent indictor of the height. 

 

Tonight I've been trying to draw a floor plan minus the 2nd floor, there's much less of it than first looks. Seems like there is at least 2 places to drive straight under, 2 bus lanes together next to stand 3 and then another right in the middle of the pier on stand 4. The second floor seems to overhang most of the first floor and is supported by beams with all the ground equipment tucked underneath. Apart from flight sim shots it's very hard to find picture references but at least I now have a good idea

 

Phil

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Pier

I've been able to work out the ground level with reference shots and highlighted the ground floor areas by drawing a thick black outline. There are only 2 area's that have a clear gap on ground level, that is the bus lanes on the far left next to the terminal (upstairs links straight to main terminal above) and a smaller tunnel for easy access to the other side of the pier for ground operational vehicles.

 

 

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Ground Level

 

This is how I see the ground floor, This will roughly be the foundations of the pier and the upper floor will overhang supported by pillars. I assume this was what the original pier looked like in the 70s before the extra floor was added as the airport grew into an international capacity.

 

It's basically a thin corridor in the centre that's been expanded bit by bit. 

 

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I have a decision to make to include part of the main terminal plus 2 extra domestic stands that are just out of view. Without these stands (1 and 2) the board will have to be 1.90m wide and 1.40m high. Including these extra stands as well as a portion of the main terminal the board will have to be 2.10m wide and 1.60m high. Luckily my garage is fairly empty and is 2.70m wide with plenty of space the other way!

 

The Easyjet a319 conversion

 

I'm quite happy with the fuselage but the wings on this thing are an absolute mess. From what I remember I thought originally when I built it as a a320 I did a good job of removing the flap track fairings but now I'm not so sure. The paint stripper I used may have also roughed up the edges as its left the plastic very brittle (hence all the milliput support). 

The trailing edges are not straight and are almost curved instead of strict angles.

 

 

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The Zvezda's a321 kit and its ridiculous flap options (3 altogether) give me an opportunity to nick a bit and create i new edge

 

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Same for the inboard

 

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if the problems weren't easy to notice before then this clearly shows the ugly trailing edge

 

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a bit more extra support on the bottom . Hopefully will a bit careful filing the top and bottom will blend in nicely to create a new nice straight leading edge

 

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I'm currently on the look out for a a319 kit but I can't find any on the market! but I did find this for a tenner....

 

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Rather than do another a319 conversion this is going to be an Air France a318. 

 

More delightful pieces of Revell plastic...

 

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The Zvezda A321

 

Now we all know how beautiful Zvezda kits are, they almost go together effortlessly, however, this idea of removing the flaps is ridiculous. You can choose from retracted, to half retracted to full flap (you also get 3 engine options which is good) but because this is 1/144 and a narrow body airliner the parts are and absolute nightmare to attach, you literally have to apply glue by dabbing the end of a needle if you don't want it dripping all down the wing and ruining all that lovely detail. The contact points are very small and they feel very fragile once attached especially the leading edge.

 

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They also had the clever idea of attaching the parts to the sprew on the inner part of the flap where you want a nice clean edge to sit against the edge of the wing, instead you have a messy edge (I've had to milliput the edges here so there is no gaps. completely unnecessary. 

 

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the airbus family so far

 

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The 767

 

Haven't done much work on this so far, just been trying to clean it up a bit and regain some of the original detail on the kit. 

 

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Originally this model was on a stand so I've sealed the hole made with spare plastic. One wing completely broke off but I'm only going to reattach it when I'm happy with the area around the undercarriage which is a bit rough (the gear doors were closed so I had to prise them open causing a bit damage)

 

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very much a restoration job on this

 

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The 757s

 

Dave (skodadriver) was very kind to donate me the Braz parts for the 757. On close inspection you can understand why people label the minicraft kit as one of the worst out there. 

 

At first I didn't think the nose was that bad but after comparing the braz nose you realise its not quite right. I've heard people say the braz nose isn't much better but its a definite improvement. I think I'm going to have difficulty making the non-braz 757 have the same profile. 

 

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The minicraft tail is completely wrong, although its not obvious on this picture the braz tail is thinner and taller. If you look at the top of the tail the distance left to right and you'll note the minicraft one is far to wide.

 

 

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There is also the problem of the minicraft fuselage being 4-5mm too long. Obviously with the braz conversion I can correct this by maybe taking 2mm off either side of the inner fuselege before I attach the braz parts but if I do that I might have to chop the other 757 up, its a good job I enjoy chopping up models. 

 

Obviously because of the tail issues I will go on nose to tailcone only

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 10/25/2020 at 1:05 PM, NealParkes said:

Some nice progress on the project, that Minicraft 757 looks like a headache doesn’t it? I’m sure that it will come together nicely though. 

cheers mate. as you hint, the minicrap kit is notoriously bad. I think if you want to do it properly you've got to be willing to sacrifice most of the detail in particular the panel lines. I've just encountered the problem noted with the pylons and they I far worse than I thought! they are angled up almost at a 45 degree angle like this 757 was destined to be shot into space

 

I've just fixed some braz winglets on and the second 757 is now a 300 which has extra problems!

 

Phil

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Ok so progress on the pier is minimal but I did do a mock up with the exact 1/144 proportions. This was quite easy as the terminal is split into columns and each column roughly consists of 5 square areas that measure 4cm by 4cm on this scale (bottom left shows a 4x4cm removed)

 

 

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remember this outline is a 2-d view showing the 2nd level and this is not the outline of the base. I've currently got a gap for 1 more aircraft which will be a KLM 737-900 (ZVEZDA conversion). The vacant stand is stand 7 which has an extended reinforced area for a larger aircraft (I've seen 757's parked there before and even a BA 747 parked unconventionally across stand 7 and 8.

 

I will not be using the red box as part of the design...demonstration purposes only! 

 

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The closest aircraft the BA A321 (now NEO) will have an airbridge coming off that missing segment in the pier. Also as mentioned previously the top left hand part of the pier will have an airbridge for the 767 (which I am considering changing to a TUI or Thomson 787-800 because the BA A321NEO is 2019 or after. 

The 3rd airbridge is for one of the 757s which is now a 757-300, a very rare visitor but what the hell. 

 

 

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The 757-200 with braz parts

 

Impossible to tell from the photo but the reason that the minicraft kit is too long is all in the rear section. If I wasn't doing the braz conversion I'd lose the 4mm from the end of the tailcone and fix the diameter. 

 

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Some work has to be done hallowing out the inside of the minicraft fuselage (it's uneven, one side is thicker plastic than the other) otherwise the braz parts will join at the wrong angle giving yourself a lot more work to do when blending those parts together. Also remove any links that are in the way or the part will sit above where it's supposed to

 

 

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Before the tail assembly I left a small part of scrap excess resin on the base of the tail and filled the hole on the fuselage vacated by the minicraft tail with milliput. I waited for it to just slightly harden then pressed the tail in to leave a mark for the small resin link to fit into. It also acted as a guide for the tail to lie nice and straight prior to gluing it into position. 

 

 

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The tail is noticeably slender and not as square. The fuselage length is shorter and the nose profile is slightly better. The minicraft kit also seems to have a hump just above the L1 door almost like the 777s crew rest.

 

Mind my big hairy leg 

 

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The wings are great fun to put on. the Port side wing goes on no problem, even used the silly tabs to lock it in, but then the other wing (as stated a thousand times before) is a completely different angle and if you glue it in place using the tabs and where it's supposed to go expect the aircraft to sit like someone's blown of half the undercarriage.

 

For the starboard wing I cut off all the tabs and glued it so that the trailing edge and the undercarriage was level. This created a nasty gap but I filled it with liquid plastic 

 

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I saw someone use this technique on another minicraft assembly on BM. I am grateful to that person!

 

I got lots of spare sprew (from the minicraft kit) and cut it into small pieces

 

 

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I added polystyrene cement (which I hate by the way) and stirred and stirred. eventually you get a nice paste. It fills the gaps well and bonds to the existing plastic to give the wing some strength after removing the plastic tabs 

 

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I abandoned doing my own winglets as they looked pathetic and I really couldn't be bothered to clart on much more with this one. Instead I ordered some from the US at a exorbitant price but they really give it some wow factor. A lot of work was needed as the winglets are very thin and the minicraft wing is ridiculously chunky 

 

 

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The pylons are slightly wrong, I can't remember RR engines having a 45 degree tilt, they will need a little bit of work. 

 

 

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22 minutes ago, Team Aer Lingus said:

Really impressive work so far looking forward to seeing this progress well done Phil

 

thanks for sharing

 

regards

 

Eamonn

cheers Eamonn, would have hoped for some more significant progress by now, could have done with being furloughed instead of working all the time!

 

Phil

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The first 757 is to be Jet2 G-LSAB, not a frequent visitor anymore but has made the odd appearance the last few years at EGNT as swapped out flights flown in from Leeds Bradford/Manchester or the odd charter to New York. It still fits in the time frame of the last 10 years although now Newcastle is all Jet2 737NGs with even the classic 300s gone. 

 

There was a few options for the 2nd minicraft 757 I had purchased. I was convinced I was going to do the old TCX colours but obviously we are going back a while and then another option was a United 757 which operated 5 days a week to new york for a couple of years. However, I haven't seen many 757-300 1/144 built on britmodeller and I love a conversion so I thought I'd have a go. The 757-300 is very rare at Newcastle as the TCXs were always Gatwick based I think but they have made the odd appearance as a rescue flight. The last one was in 2019 and was actually a Condor 757-300 which I think I'm going to go for. As the aircraft is so large I think only stand 9 and 10 can accommodate it. Stand 9 is going to be for the 767 or the dreamliner so that leaves stand 10 that will also have a jet bridge

 

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After doing the first Braz 757 conversion I sailed through this one, the only difference being retaining more of the original fuselage at the front for extra length and this rear fuselage plug at the back. Used the same process with the finn to help fix it in place with some extra strength 

 

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again this is to have winglets. You have to lob off the edge of the wing past the trailing NAV light as the winglet comes with it. Don't glue the wings together before installing the winglet (yes I did!) as the winglet has a small thin tab that slides between the 2 halves. As stated earlier be prepared for some major sanding as the wing is 10 times thicker than the winglet!!! so the wing needs thinned and resign yourself to losing that lovely engraving on the wing (I'll give minicraft credit for that) 

 

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So you should end up with something like this. Please excuse the mess on the wing joins as I haven't had the chance to smooth them out yet after the latest dose of liquid plastic. This is a large aircraft and is almost the same length as a 767-300 widebody....must have been lovely to perform trolley service on this beast. 

 

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Problems

 

The other side is a mess. The fuselage plug from Braz was a bit deformed and there was a huge gap on this side. As you can see excessive sanding led to the rear plastic of the existing minicraft kit thinning so much you can see milliput underneath the plastic and although It seems sturdy enough I dare not take anymore plastic away. Instead I have used the liquid plastic technique to coat the area (mainly the fuselage plug) to try and build up the skin...genius right? except the liquid plastic is better for gaps and has a tendency to shred away on linear surfaces and leave little tears or indentations. I'm not overly concerned but it needs more work, 

Prior to paint I'm going to coat the whole area with mr surfacer as I really really don't want any surface break outs when in the painting stages.

 

 

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The BA A321 (stand 3)

 

From one minor disaster to a full blown one.  I'm going to be controversial and say I absolutely hate this kit.  Zvezda kits have superb detail and sometimes people put them together like they don't even need glue but this thing is were the complexity of zvezda kits fails for me. Far too many parts for the kit, especially for a narrowbody 1/144 scale which will end up with all your lovely parts drenched in glue (well, if your me anyway)

By far the worst parts are the wings, trying to glue 2mm strips onto a fitting that's only 1mm wide is asking for trouble unless you use a the end of needle. Again some people will manage but I like my models to be robust and not feel like you can just snap them by picking them up.

 

The fuselage halves didn't go together well either and I had even taped them together solid for weeks without glue just to trying and get them to bed together. 

 

Anyway the main disaster was the cockpit glass section. Most people use polystyrene cement, I don't I have always used superglue and apart from gluing my fingers together i've never had any problems. However I went back to using polystyrene cement and now I know why I stopped using it as I melted the cockpit glass (which also encompasses the roof above the cockpit). I tried to salvage it by rebuilding it with milliput but the shape was lost so my last drastic measure would be to replace the whole nose with a spare Revell one!.....which because of major fuselage differences sits at a ridiculous angle (the pic doesn't show but it does show excessive sanding on the top)I swear I was not on drugs when I did this. 

 

So for the first time EVER I'm binning a model or at least disposing of it for spares. 

 

 

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So I went out and bought the Revell A321NEO that since early 2019 has been a frequent visitor from LHR.

 

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No plastic card? gorilla tape works well to hold in any filled in windows. And no mess

 

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The Revell A321NEO is beautiful. No overcomplicated and doesn't contain 20 million parts like a small plastic bog roll for the toilet. I like the sturdiness of the aerials that are already joined onto the fuselage and would take some effort to chew off. Some would say the wings are a bit plain and void of detail but you certainly won't lose any as everything fits beautifully,

 

This also comes with a glass cockpit. This time I used superglue and I have also noted that the revell plastic blends better with the glass component when sanding than the Zvezda plastic. The thing I like about Revell kits is the strength of the plastic compared to zvezda, to me the zvezda plastics feel thinner and more rigid. 

 

Unlike the Revell A320NEO kit this comes with undercarriage. 

 

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The easyjet A319s

 

The bottom one is my a320 to a319 conversion and the top is the actual a319 kit. The horrendous milliputed wings got abandoned as it just turned into too much work and I got my hands on a new set of wings which influenced my decision. I would have rather bought the a319 kit but none are available at the moment, I was lucky to win the other one on ebay. Because of the conversion nearly all the detail has been lost on the fuselage, thank goodness for lovely decals.

 

As stated before these are both going to be Easyjets with the a320NEO. I'm thinking of doing one in the old livery as there's still plenty that haven't been painted. 

 

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I had another melting plastic disaster but liquid plastic to the rescue again. Superglue from now on

 

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old battered fuselage...nice new wings. A321s extra fairings removed (again)

 

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Air France A318

 

I got another cheap revell a320 and started working on the baby bus. There's plenty of frames that need to removed. 

 

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The front fits quite well and didn't need much sanding to blend. The frames that have been removed act as good tabs to link the new fuselage into place. 

I also extended the tail prior to fitting the rear fuselage. 

 

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Again be prepared to lose fuselage detail. I sacrificed the cargo doors but I know some people to complicated builds and cut around them, to get the fuselage to blend your going to have to sand so I can't see the point. The rear fuselage is tricky, its a smaller diameter than where it's joining to, To fix this I made the top level and just worried about the bottom.

 

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I wish I'd got some prior photos of this because it's not easy to understand what I have done. Too make up for the massive diameter difference I used a spare section of curved fuselage and wrapped it around the edge of the rear fuselage. Then I covered the whole area in liquid plastic (yes that trick again) left it for 3 days and then sanded until the diameter matched. It worked a treat. 

 

 

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Jet2 737-800

 

Despite my Zvezda bashing I was inclined to buy this kit mainly because the Revell is not easily available and the Revell one comes with strange chunky winglets as well as another few issues. This is a better kit than the a321. Less parts and it fit together without problems. It took a bit effort to blend the plastic cockpit and I was a bit concerned about how narrow the cockpit looks compared to Revell. 

Without doubt Zvezda get the scale right compared to Revell but when you think of all the sanding and blending that go into a model inevitably your going to lose some of the outer skin and that's maybe why revell's models are likely 2-3% larger than Zvezda scale models? 

 

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again this is what I mean by Zvezda, for some strange reason you get a small piece for trailing nav or blinking strobe light, most likely it's to give you an option to fit a scimitar winglet?? but the piece is so small it flipped out the tweezers and then travelled into some kind of black hole underneath my table. It's gone, wonderful! 

 

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Quick update on stand locations

 

Stand 3 - BA shuttle A321NEO

Stand 4 - EZY A319 bandana livery

Stand 5 - EZY A320NEO bandana livery

Stand 6 - EZY A319 old livery

Stand 7 - KLM 737-900 (haven't started this yet)

Stand 8 - Jet2 737-800 (regular Jet2 silver and red livery)

Stand 9 - WAS 767 First Choice but tempted to go with 787-800 TUI or Thomson dreamliner to bring up to date

Stand 10 - Condor 757-300 D-ABOI (sunny heart livery) visitor in 2019

Stand 11 - Jet2 757-200 (regular Jet2 silver and red livery)

Stand 12 - Air France A318

 

no room for Ryanair or TUI 737s

 

 

 

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20 hours ago, phil1 said:

cheers mate. as you hint, the minicrap kit is notoriously bad. I think if you want to do it properly you've got to be willing to sacrifice most of the detail in particular the panel lines. I've just encountered the problem noted with the pylons and they I far worse than I thought! they are angled up almost at a 45 degree angle like this 757 was destined to be shot into space

 

I've just fixed some braz winglets on and the second 757 is now a 300 which has extra problems!

 

Phil

I saw on scalemates that there is a new tool 757 coming out from zvezda. It might be worth waiting for that one?

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/zvezda-7032-boeing-757-200--1318416

 

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5 minutes ago, NealParkes said:

I saw on scalemates that there is a new tool 757 coming out from zvezda. It might be worth waiting for that one?

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/zvezda-7032-boeing-757-200--1318416

 

unbelievable mate! everytime I do a conversion this happens, I think the last one was a a350-900 to 1000 conversion and within a week of starting it - it was announced! 

 

seriously though it's good news as it seems ridiculous as one of the most popular airliners has never been released by the top brands, should see a lot of people happy this one! 

 

Phil

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/29/2020 at 2:32 PM, Team Aer Lingus said:

Outstanding work Phil & giving me plenty of food for thought regarding the wing tips kudos

 

but no room for a green tailed ATR or Fokker 50 !? 😉

 

 

Thanks for sharing 

 

regards

 

Eamonn

Thanks Eamonn! actually mate looking forward I'll being doing an Aer Lingus and Ryanair at some point, like you say the ATR and probably a couple of 738s. The base sheet I've just bought exceeds the length required so that frees up a bit more apron space 

 

Phil

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well finally I've got my garage emptied and ordered a base sheet. I'm on a modest budget so I've went for non structural Plywood of around 12mm thick to save weight and cost. The size is 1220mm by 2440mm. Originally I'd calculated that I'd need 1400mm by 1900mm but because of the limitations of size available board will have to be narrower than what I would have ideally liked and more excess length. This is not a huge problem, as I there is still a bit space beyond the north and south facing stands it just means these aircraft can't push back. I will also need some clever photography to show that the apron doesn't just abruptly cut off 

 

Below is exactly the dimensions of what we will see (including the grass, although I could have edged it the other way and included the main terminal but I don't fancy that)

 

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The excess length also gives me options if I want to show stands 7, 8 or 9/30 pushing back. It has also given me idea's like including the daily Emirates 777 waiting for stand 30 to fill that void or just general activity on the apron. Just looking at the dimensions of the board I now see it is possible to fit the 777 on its stand (30) like above but I do fancy the idea of it occupying the dead space.

 

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I have ZERO experience with model railways and no desire to build one but I think I'm going to have to look at some of their stuff. Most airport dioramas the surface looks to clean, I want something rough and weathered but FLAT. I'm thinking this for 90% of the apron

 

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The reinforced (light grey areas) I'm thinking of something like this. This is very much new territory for me so any input is greatly appreciated. Please note I can't have anything with markings on because they won't match the actual markings for this airport. 

 

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The KLM 737-900 AND 700!

 

one of the beauties about constructing the 737-900 from 2 zvezda kits (I wanted 2 revell kits but there is too much wrong with them) is that you can make a 700 series from the parts you don't need. I'd imagine it's the same if you wanted to do a 787-10 from two 787-9 kits. 

 

Unfortunately I'm still waiting for my second 737-800 kit so at the moment I've just got the main fuselage section for the 900 and the nose and the tail for the 700. 

 

Ideally I don't want 2 KLM aircraft because I feel it's a bit of a waste however the only other 737-700 I can think of in recent times is the Ryanair training aircraft that has been subbed a couple of times for the Dublin route (I'm not even sure they still have this). Jet2 737-300s were very popular at EGNT until very recently but I think the 300 is a little too long to make from the spare parts and then there's lot of work to do on the tail and wings and at this stage I need less work on the aircraft and more work on the pier. 

 

 

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Most of the aircraft are nearly ready for paint and just going through minor surface treatments and making sure to add/subtract any satcom antennas like on this a321neo. The ones circled need to go and the ones that actually exist have been sanded away and re-milliputed back in place. The reason I sometimes do this is to get a nice clean linear finish on the top of the fuselage without the satcom getting in the way (sometimes it's lost anyway during the construction process) 

 

 

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The babybus and a319s just need their wing tip fences prior to paint. The engines, stabs and undercarriage I will always add after painting but only if I'm satisfied with a seamless fit without any mess

 

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The minicraft 757s have been an education. I've made an exception and added the pylons prior to paint, the engines will be done separately. On the 757-300 I have bent the pylons into shape by pulling the ends away from each other. You have to be careful you don't snap them but once some pressure is applied they will straighten out allowing the engine to sit straight instead of pointing vertically 

 

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UNFORTUNATELY I didn't apply this method for the first pylon and tried to sand it into shape. Thus, I've now had to reconstruct the pylon with milliput (left) but it sits differently to the other one with a huge gap between it and the wing. It's going to need more work....if I could get a replacement one I would. I also could have bought some resin RRs but I don't fancy hacking off the pylons now. 

 

I've added the little pieces of the fairing next to the gear door opening - originally I stuck them all on the wrong way as it's seems obvious that the fattest end would face the back but not so! I will also add the actual gear doors when I add the undercarriage otherwise they'll just snap off. 

 

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The horrendous Braz extension part that was misshapen is now a combination of melted plastic fixed in with araldite. It looks horrendous but the area is actually smooth to the touch, once primer is down I should know if it's acceptable.

I have found that with major surface problems that araldite can fill them effectively. Milliput can chip away or crumble, the liquid plastic technique or superglue can flake away after sanding, however araldite when mixed well is great for filling gaps and is extremely stubborn. Of course we all hope that you never encounter major surface problems like that.

For me it's always a problem as I like to 'buff' my finishes and any unnatural surfaces will come out during that process even if they don't show underneath primer.

 

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Luckily the other side is far more desirable.

 

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Hi Phil,

Instead of using the printed card sheets, which might be a little too uniform and will need to be butt jointed everywhere, I would recommend you spray the baseboard with automotive grey primer and, to achieve the different tonal variations e.g. behind the 777, mist black, white, grey and brown over the baseboard. If you spray from further away and waft the can around you should be able to achieve quite a realistic tarmac finish. For the lighter coloured hardstandings use a lighter grey base. Obviously experiment on a spare sheet of wood to perfect the technique!

White and yellow ground markings are easily drawn on with either a Uni Posca paint marker from eBay or a Windsor and Newton water colour paint marker these are readily available at The Range. Using a ruler or flexible curve you can draw any lines you need.

For the grass area search for 'static grass' on eBay. It's easy to apply by sprinkling thickly, through a sieve, over wet green gloss paint then shaking the excess off once the paint has dried. If you mix in different shades it can look really realistic.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Ian

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On 12/8/2020 at 12:53 PM, Turbofan said:

Hi Phil,

Instead of using the printed card sheets, which might be a little too uniform and will need to be butt jointed everywhere, I would recommend you spray the baseboard with automotive grey primer and, to achieve the different tonal variations e.g. behind the 777, mist black, white, grey and brown over the baseboard. If you spray from further away and waft the can around you should be able to achieve quite a realistic tarmac finish. For the lighter coloured hardstandings use a lighter grey base. Obviously experiment on a spare sheet of wood to perfect the technique!

White and yellow ground markings are easily drawn on with either a Uni Posca paint marker from eBay or a Windsor and Newton water colour paint marker these are readily available at The Range. Using a ruler or flexible curve you can draw any lines you need.

For the grass area search for 'static grass' on eBay. It's easy to apply by sprinkling thickly, through a sieve, over wet green gloss paint then shaking the excess off once the paint has dried. If you mix in different shades it can look really realistic.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Ian

some great advice there Ian, you have mentioned a few things I was worried about with the sheets looking too clean and uniform. Is there any examples of anyone doing something similar? I'd love to see some just to give me an idea of what it may look like! 

 

cheers

 

Phil

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KLM 737-900

 

Finally got the zvezda 737-800 kit I needed to start this conversion. It needs a good clean up but I'm quite satisfied with the fueslage fit. I mentioned before how I'm not a fan of the new zvezda kits and in particular the new cockpit/roof glass section. When sanding, the 2 separate plastics don't blend together so in an effort to do so I've worn down the area behind this section with the cockpit/roof section proving far more stubborn, again Revell don't seem to have this problem.  

 

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The 2 fuselage sections went together seamlessly using a bit araldite in the smallest of gaps. The windows will need another fill of milliput

 

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I finally got the base board delivered, its about twice the width of the pier but I'm quite happy with the extra room

 

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Please note the IL96-400 is standing in for the Emirates 777-300 and is not part of the plan!

 

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In reality these blocks would be around 6m by 6m and I've settled on 4.3x4.3cm in 1/144 scale. The trick here is to work out what is on the ground level compared to this 2-d view of the upper level.

 

 

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For ground level I have to split the building into 2 as the maintenance road runs right through the middle like a mini tunnel. The ground level itself is a long narrow corridor represented in the shaded areas with most of the gate activity upstairs  

 

The first section is 16 blocks (that's 16 x 4.3 for a length of 68.8cm) and the second section is 12 blocks (12 x 4.3 for a length of 51.6cm). For the overall length I have to include the width of the tunnel for an overall length of 124.7cm (29 x 4.3). It's real length would be 179m (124.7 x 144) which is pretty much what is measured on google maps

 

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I've shaded in any areas that extend off the ground level corridor which I think are a couple of gates and waiting areas. I've made an error on this already as the first 3 squares should be blank as they are bus lanes (far left)

 

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There isn't much too the ground level, should be some progress this week

 

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1 hour ago, Ad-4N said:

I’ve often daydreamed about a project like this, but here is someone with the balls to do it.  Well done, I salute you.

thank you sir, some very kind comments

 

personally I don't think anyone has been this stupid, but I'm hoping to make some serious progress before I realise just how insane it actually is!

 

Phil

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

2 recent purchases, 1 essential and 1 non essential. The non essential purchase was this classic 747-100, obviously this has no place on my board for the current era but I do hope to go retro at some point and bring back an 80s airport diorama. Undoubtedly, for such a small airport, the main attraction at Newcastle in recent times is the Emirates 777-300 but back then it was the Wardair 747 operating the Toronto route which I remember fondly as a bairn watching from the roof top viewing area (sadly long gone as well). 

 

I believe Wardair operated a small number of 747-100s and 200s but the 100s with the classic PW engines were the most regular visitor.

 

Looking forward to building this one in the future

 

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This one I intend to crack on with straight away. Like I've said before I originally intended to use a First Choice or Thomson Boeing 767 as the only widebody on the pier but that puts it a little outside the current timeline set up as the 787 has been a regular since the last few years. 

 

I went for the Revell kit ahead of the Zvezda but it looks pretty much the same kit to me.

 

 

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I've started cracking on with the main pier. I've went for a reasonably thick plastic card but it will certainly need reinforced in places as these are a number of sheets glued together rather than being one whole sheet. 

 

I've started from the roof of the ground floor and the base of the upper floor. Turning this upside down has allowed me to build the walls of the ground floor. 

 

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I've guessed the height of the whole thing is 8.4m (based on the level of a 777 fuselage) I think that's probably a tad bit generous but I'd rather go a couple of mm to large than too small. I've seen a picture of a Saab 2000 parked and it's tail is just under the height of the pier. The Saab 2000's height is 7.73 m. 

 

By counting wall tiles on reference photos I've noted that the ground level is smaller in height than above, its between a third and half the height of the total building. In 1/144 scale I've worked it out that the ground level is only 2.5cm which isn't big at all on the model. I had imagined the model would be a lot taller. 

 

To put things into perspective, a standard airport bus height is 3.13m, that's 2.17cm in 1/144. The bus lane under the terminal is 3.60m (I have guessed) which is 2.5cm in 1/144. realistically that's enough clearance for the bus to drive through. 

 

Any area's not supported by the ground floor will need pillars so they don't droop. I'm thinking of drilling a few holes and using spare plastic sprew to prop up the whole thing.  

 

 

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That 144th scale GE ,steps etc . is just ace . FMC was very popular at most airports but I went there ( Newcastle Airport) a few times  in late 92/93 and the  Buyer for the Airport Cargo handling GE swore by Hobart stuff , its all he ever wanted to spend the Airport's cash on . 

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I've started on the exterior walls of the upper floor of the pier, this has now give me a better idea of how it will look in comparison to 1/144 scale aircraft. Initially it looked too tall as I hadn't counted an extra few mm that's been added by the layer sandwiched between the 2 floors so I had to remove the difference from the top which was not easy without removing the pieces altogether.

 

 

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I've elevated the 737 by imitating the height of the gear and this looks close enough to the correct height comparison. I certainly don't want to be adding to the height so I was thinking of sinking the roof between the walls rather than build on top of them.  

However, some parts of the roof are uneven so there will be some exceptions, the most notable exception is a viewing tower about 2/3s of the way along which is not used in real life but is the most conspicuous part of the pier. 

 

I also have to make a decision on the windows whether I will cut them out (which will mean interior detail I didn't plan for), make them 3-d but just black them out, or use some kind of paper decal if it exists. 

 

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24 hours later and the whole upper floor is finished and It's definitely starting to take shape now. 

 

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The gaps underneath will require matchstick sized pillars every 4.3cm to support the weight above them and help the structure sit correctly. As these pillars are going to be fragile it will be one of the last things to add. 

 

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The whole structure is supported by these L shaped strips. I'm going to use these to support the roof by adding them to the edge of the inner walls.

 

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For extra support I'm going to build some inner supports for the roof to sit on 4.3cm by 4.3cm. On this diagram the yellow dots represent the weakest parts of the structure where I'm planning to reinforce it. 

The red area's represent the airbridges. The airbridges by Braz are very expensive so I'm in 2 minds whether to build my own or make the purchase (too late to ask santa). Either way I'll have to think ahead to how I'm going to integrate them into the structure, obviously if they are Braz they will be resin and a lot heavier.

 

 

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The weakest part in the structure is probably here right in the centre around this maintenance tunnel so I'm going to place 2 strengthening columns either side

 

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The outer structure is surrounded by horizontal slats. Initially I wanted an adhesive building paper but I also could use something like this to create more of a 3-D effect. 

 

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