EGNT Newcastle Airport Main Terminal Pier 1/144

[Swamp Donkey]

This is brilliant. Spent hours waiting around for the Eastern S2000 and the short lived LCY flight from NCL when I was backwards and forwards to London. I decided the train is much easier! Great project

 

SD

[phil1]

The part I have been dreading.....the windows. As mentioned before the easiest thing would have been to have real windows and build inside the pier itself the gate waiting rooms but this would involve more work and make applying the outer cladding a very intricate and painstaking process,  So in I decided to take on another very intricate and painstaking process and build the window frames and there's plenty of them to make!

 

 

 

eventually I'll fill each gap with a square of mirrored paper. I actually bought some dark reflective paper and some gunmetal but this seems to work the best. 

 

 

I've just gently tacked these on temporarily just to see what they'll look like so forgive me if they look a bit askew. 

 

 

I'm actually quite pleased with the mirror effect and looks better than I thought it would. If I can get some good reflections of the aircraft it may take the attention away from what's behind the window itself. 

 

The red circle shows an alternative I'm thinking of using than the current columns that fit over the bare wire. The current columns look a bit too thick, unfortunately these new slender columns only cover the wire on one side so I need to make a decision on that.

 

 

As I ran out of materials to do more windows I decided to crack on with an important feature that is not present on my model. About halfway along there is a small tower on the main roof. Newcastle has the Emirates tower which is nearer the main taxiway off airport and it still has the old tower which has been abandoned since, therefore I'm not sure what this is used for whether it's purely observatory or security I really don't know but it has a birds eye view of everything happening around the pier, 

 

 

As with the height of the pier I also have had to guess the height of the tower. Again I will be using the magic window effect

 

 

I've spent this afternoon throwing this together, it's not a 3-D print but pretty much feels and looks like one with the amount of plastic I've used. 

 

If you remember from earlier in my thread that I said that I'd divided the whole structure into squares of 4.3 by 4.3cm, again the base here is 4.3 x 4.3cm but straying from the commonality of the rest of the structure, the roof actually extends out to a slightly larger size. 

 

A tidy up of the edges tomorrow and I'll see if it's acceptable, I'll also need some window frames to give it some detail. 

 

 

 

[bzn20]

What ever windows you end up with ... Hope you won't see me struggling with the Coiled snake of a Cumberland Sausage gig they served me in 1993 . 

[phil1]

50 shades of Gray....paint

 

With several coats of Tamiya Insignia White (a match in my opinion for airbus gray) it was time to start colouring the different building sections on the roof. I was looking for a very subtle difference from the Insignia White and after plenty of research I found the best spray can is probably Tamiya AS16 Light Grey (USAF). 

Like most tamiya sprays It came out darker than expected. 

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a spray somewhere in between these 2 lighter shades.  I was hoping to use Revell 371 spray paint but it's identical to Tamiya Insignia White and everything else is just too dark a shade. 

 

 

 

 

The second building with the vertically striped roof also needs painting the same shade to the one on the far right (I painted one just to test the colour) This is Tamiya TS-81 Royal Light Gray which I originally painted the whole thing as the primary colour. Again it was way to dark but I found it more suitable for this area. 

 

The area where the observation tower is going to be is darker asphalt looking in appearance and for this I have Tamiya AS-2 Light Grey (IJN) which is a little darker than TS-81. Your probably wondering why I am not using an airbrush however this thing is more than a metre wide so spray paint is a must

 

 

 

 

For reference 

 

Revell 371

Humbrol 196

Tamiya Insignia White AS-20 

 

are all the same colour. All are what you'd call Airbus wing gray. Boeing gray is a tad darker I believe but the only match for that seem to be by Xtracolor in a tin.  I did read that Tamiya surface Primer Light Gray is a match for boeing gray but the store didn't have any and so I went with the AS-16 (USAF) Light Grey instead. 

 

[bzn20]

Looks very good , Must be quite rigid if you can carry it around .

 

Careful you don't rip the columns off getting it caught in that  Australian rolling weed . Well done 

[Back in the Saddle]

I've missed a few episodes on this build!

Great progress Phil, it's going to be stunning once completed.👍

[phil1]

Finally managed to give the board a full coverage of halfords primer. I'll need something a bit darker for the asphalt and then get a bit creative for the reinforced ramp areas. Once I've done that I'm going to coat the whole thing in matt laquer.

 

 

All aircraft have been given a coat of primer. The light gray aircraft are already have their wings painted Tamiya Insignia white and the dreamliner is the only aircraft with pure white wings so I used that as it's base colour

 

 

a new addition closest the shot is a KLM 737-900 (conversion) replacing my air france babybus a318 conversion. This stand historically alternates between KLM and air france. I'm considering ordering the Zvezda 757 kit to replace my Braz minicraft conversion, I've done a decent job but the zvezda kit will be far more detailed and the Jet2 757 I'm doing is all metallic and will look better with detail in the fuselage. I may convert this to a United 757 which featured on the short lived new york route.

 

 

The little tower is just a prop at the moment as I'm not overly happy with it, I need some better tools for a start

 

 

I've swapped the 737-900 and the 757-300 here for my a318 conversion (pic isn't the best sorry) and a 767-300 which probably belongs in a pre dreamliner era when there was First choice rather than Thomson 

 

 

For my back to the 80s theme I've been working on a 747-100 for Wardair Canada and a DC8 transamerica. The airport peer is too modern for this era but what the hell. 

 

 

[phil1]

The next task will be to mark out where each stand is located, I'll do this by using the pier as point of reference. Each distance is taken from google maps and is divided by 144 to find it's precise location on my board. I've started with making a basic shape of the reinforced areas of each stand (the lighter area)

 

 

 

now I can start forming the area around each stand making space for access roads. I'm lucky as the width of the masking tape (5cm) is nearly exactly the width between each stand in 144 scale. The darker paved areas have had some sanding treatment to make them look a bit more realistic.  This is the reverse side of the board 

 

 

The only slight problem is that although the base was sanded and primed, the wood effect is showing through some areas of the lightest grey, I think a lot more paint will have to go down to hide this. 

 

 

this is the progress so far. Once I'm happy with it the whole base is going to get a few layers of matt laquer to protect it. There is an incredible amount of detail to actually go into this, including 

 

taxi markings in yellow

white border lines separating each stand

red hatched areas of danger

 

I'll either have to airbrush these in or find some decals of some sort

 

[phil1]

Right.....it's been a while

 

The original board has been abandoned, it proved too be too flimsy, there were imperfections and the wood patterns were showing through the paint. 

 

So attempt 2, and I purchased MDF board but also double thickness. unfortunately this was far heavier and I had to chop quite a bit off the far end just to reduce the weight. 

 

 

With a second attempt it give me an opportunity to be more accurate with the ramp areas using halfords Ford Polar grey

 

 

With everything looking a bit too uniform I blended in most of the different sections and used a white paint pen to divide the board up. 

 

 

 

After drawing the basic outlines I put some detail to bring things alive a little

 

 

I might give the ramp areas a blast of polar grey just to being them out slightly. After the white divider lines I will be using a yellow paint pen to bring in the taxi lines to the gate

 

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

That's coming along very nicely Phil. The ramp areas look great 🏆

[phil1]

10 hours ago, Romeo Alpha Yankee said:

That's coming along very nicely Phil. The ramp areas look great 🏆

thanks mate, nice to make a bit progress

 

phil

[phil1]

I've got a slight problem with the pier as it's tilting up at the ends a few millimetres off the ground, I'm not sure how that's happened as it's lay in the house for 6 months gathering dust. I think I will put some light weights on top of the structure to weigh the ends down 

 

 

Unfortunately you don't get much in the paint markers so I'm going to have to buy a batch as there's a lot more detail to put in. I think it's probably a good idea to get the pier in to make some reference markers as thinks like the little access tunnel in the centre need to match up to it's road lane. The bus lanes need drawn in on this side as well as a few mini access roads and some walkways for passengers leading from the gates to the aircraft 

 

 

a busy day at newcastle. A few new additions are the zvezda 737-700 top left which will be the KLM cityhopper which has always been a regular, a pair of zvezda 757-200s next to it on stand 11 and 12 respectively which will be a couple of old Thomas cook machines (probably a little out of sync with the dreamliner and NEO's parked around) and another 757-200 with winglets which was Jet2 regular G-LSAB

 

 

Probably the wrong place for a 757-200 as the wing is encroaching the vehicle access lane, however the dreamliner is by some distance and it's common to see that parked in that stand (maybe if the stands next to it empty?)

 

 

next steps -

 

1. finish off the white markings

2. draw in the yellow taxi in lines and STOP markers (yellow on black)

3. add the red checked danger areas around the ramp

4. some additional resurfaced areas (especially where the 777 is that are a brownish grey in comparison) 

 

 

[TonyW]

What a project! It looks fantastic as it is. It's going to look magnificent in full colour.

 

Regarding your new MDF base, I hope you have sealed every surface as the stuff will warp over time , probably due to it being a bit absorbent.

A few coats of dilute PVA or varnish is cheap insurance. Some additional bracing underneath would be a good idea as well. I've used 18mm board for shelving in the past and until I braced them with a wooden front piece, and plenty of vertical supports, suffered from them sagging. Your garage environment will probably have temperature and humidity changes in it, making sealing and bracing well worth doing.

 

I also started using Tamiya tape for lines over concrete on the far simpler bases I use with my builds. The earliest are a few years old now and some of them are starting to lift in places. I put that down to repeated temperature change cycles over time. I now take extra time and effort burnishing the tape right down and then spray a few coats of clear car paint over the whole surface. It dries to a flat finish on an absorbent surface if you don't go overboard with the coats.

 

Good luck with the rest of the build, I can't wait to see the finished thing in all its glory.

 

Tony.

[phil1]

On 3/23/2022 at 9:20 AM, TonyW said:

What a project! It looks fantastic as it is. It's going to look magnificent in full colour.

 

Regarding your new MDF base, I hope you have sealed every surface as the stuff will warp over time , probably due to it being a bit absorbent.

A few coats of dilute PVA or varnish is cheap insurance. Some additional bracing underneath would be a good idea as well. I've used 18mm board for shelving in the past and until I braced them with a wooden front piece, and plenty of vertical supports, suffered from them sagging. Your garage environment will probably have temperature and humidity changes in it, making sealing and bracing well worth doing.

 

I also started using Tamiya tape for lines over concrete on the far simpler bases I use with my builds. The earliest are a few years old now and some of them are starting to lift in places. I put that down to repeated temperature change cycles over time. I now take extra time and effort burnishing the tape right down and then spray a few coats of clear car paint over the whole surface. It dries to a flat finish on an absorbent surface if you don't go overboard with the coats.

 

Good luck with the rest of the build, I can't wait to see the finished thing in all its glory.

 

Tony.

cheers Tony!

 

I give both sides a few coats of ronseal waterproof varnish, I hope it suffices but I agree with the changes in humidity and temperature could wreak hovic. Underneath 75% of the area are propped up by crates that are stacked upside down but now I'm concerned that where the gap is it will allow it to droop. The airport model is actually not lying flat and that's probably an issue with the board rather than the model. 

 

I don't know if you noticed but in the background but I have a sheet of plywood which was attempt 1 but I abandoned when it showed signs of warp, I might slip that underneath to see if that helps.

 

what clear car paint do you use? does it dry matt rather than glossy? when I finally finish, I was going to use some halfords clear matt lacquer to try and protect the top, it will also make it easier to wipe off the dust

 

Phil  

[TonyW]

I'm no expert here, but in my experience any clear will do. All it has to do is seal the surface.

The only problem is that the more you add, the shinier is has the potential to get. Halfords Matt Clear isn't a product I've used, although I should think it would work as intended, but dust retention would then rear its ugly head. The matt surface would probably be a swine to keep clean. A cover of some sort would get around that though.

I store my built models in supermarket fruit boxes. Bubble wrap on the base and more wrapping over them. Still they get dusty. I'm not sure there's a solution to the dust problem short of sealed cabinets.

 

As far as keeping things in flat goes, mass is your friend. I had nightmares during the Anything but Injected Group Build when I tried to build a Ford Dealership showroom using foamboard for the structure. It warped all over the place. If I did it again, I would brace it in every plane and use the most rigid materials I could.

 

I hope some of this helps. your project deserves to succeed.

[phil1]

One thing I've noticed about the buildings exterior is that nearly every wall is surrounded by a slightly larger footprint of the structure which in places features steps to give excess to passengers to arrive or exit via the ramp. These areas are slightly elevated to kerb height but at the moment I'm only concerned with having the 2-D footprint to help me line up some of the walkways and vehicle access lanes.

 

 

This is the basic footprint of the lower floors, some area's protrude out further depending mainly passenger walkways. Once the building is on top there's actually very little of the base visible.

 

 

 

These are a car lane and 2 bus lanes (right). the new gray area is a access path for personnel to walk under the tunnel, eventually I'll add a railing between the path and bus lane. 

 

The front section has 2 large access doors with 2 large sets of steps leading up to them. 

 

 

 

This is just a little right of that area and is stand 3 and gate 3 which is always for BA. The odd shape on the side wall is there because this stand houses a jet bridge in that exact location

 

 

Not the easiest area to get reference photos although google maps offers some views in 3-D globe mode

 

 

got some areas of paint bleed which will need touched up. 

 

 

toward the rear of the building we've got more access doors for passengers and to the left of that is where all the ground equipment is stored. 

 

Forgive the elevated end of the pier, a few gently placed weights on top for 24 hours might help straighten it out

 

 

This shot is just on the other side of the corner showing the concrete base and steps for passengers to board or exit

 

 

 

[bzn20]

I was in that far left bay in 1993 where they had a White Hobart Pallet loader sat in there . Rememinded me ...On the way out I ended having a row with the guppy on the car  park exit . He' sat in that box picking his nose and handing out tickets and change ,couldn't believe my eyes . Anyway this is all coming together nicely ,well done .

[phil1]

 

 

bit more progress tonight, most of the white painted areas are in with the exception of some of the corners that are circular, a few more taxi lanes are in....

 

 

started on the neglected opposite side of the pier which is mainly international gates which has some of the heavier metal that the airport can accommodate. Used to be mainly 757s but the centre stands can arguably take a 767 or a a310. The corner stand (9) can take anything up to 777 size but the dreamliner has to take up 2 smaller stands otherwise it's on a remote. 

 

 

The mighty emirates 777-300, a common sight again at Newcastle 

 

 

Need a few more bus lanes on the left and some minor detailing around the pier. Also I need to fully paint in the passenger walkways leading on ramp.

 

There will be some red hatched danger areas soon and obviously the rest of the taxiways need applied. For the painted 'STOP' sections i was thinking a stencil set or decal

 

full speed ahead! 

 

[Jo NZ]

I don't know if it's still relevant, but a very long time ago I laid out the positions for the fuel pits at Christchurch airport in NZ. The refueller has a finite hose length, so the distance from the pit to the refuelling nozzles under the wing must be within this length...  bear in mind the restrictions on aircraft position to access skybridges , not hit the terminal etc. I spent a while with scale cutouts of aircraft, circles from fuel ports and possible positions for the pits. Air NZ was running DC10s at the time, and told us that the parking layout would allow for Jumbos and DC10s to alternate. No reason to have a row of 747s, in other words. We dug up the tarmac, installed the pits... and then AirNZ announced they were changing their international fleet to 100% 747. Sigh...

[James G]

Really nice work on an interesting project