Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Adding earth

One fun part of creating a new section of LAX is the addition of infield land areas. The areas between the runways and taxiways at LAX are a mix of dirt, grass, and light scrub brush. I've found a relatively simple way of replicating this using actual dirt and some basic Elmer's white glue. Some fake grass or similar from model train scenery really looks good too. First I paint the area to be filled in with a dirt like tone. Next Ill take some white glue (wood glue works well too) and thin it out with water. I've found that a thin mixture works better than straight white glue. Brush it on everywhere you want dirt to stick. Next take your dirt and pour liberally over the glue section. Press down firmly and then sweep the excess away gently. I like to run my hands along and cause different areas to appear slightly different. This will help make it look a little more natural and not so filled in. I typically will let it dry overnight before adding any grass. For that Ill take my thinned out glue mixture and dab it on where needed. Then take the grass and sprinkle it on the glue. Press down and sweep away the excess. Lots of tips and tricks can be gathered from the model railroad community by searching google.
Earth tones painted prior to glue
Glue being brushed on
Adding dirt that actually came from LAX



After sweeping away the excess dirt
While the glue was still wet I made a service road with my finger


Thursday, May 15, 2014

Current progress

My previous posts have all been about sections built quite awhile back. Currently I have done nothing except work on the South side of the airport. From the cargo center, I expanded northwards to give me a little piece of runway to use as a background. From there I went west and continued to build parts of 25L and 25R. Next step will be to start on the FedEx ramp adjacent to the cargo center to the west.

 I opted for keeping the runway boards parallel with the runway itself and angling any board that will be south of the runways. This created a wedge area that needed to be filled in, hence the triangle portion north of the ICC.
Another board was then added to lengthen 25L. The blank boards with the jets on them will be the future DHL/FedEx ramp. In this photo above, I had not begun to build 25R.

Here is the current layout as of May 2014 (excluding the cargo center and Terminal 3). Note the second piece of 25R has been started but is not complete.

 

Terminal 3 rebirth

After having done a decent job on the cargo center (I thought so at least), I decided to revamp the original Terminal 3 I had built back in 2006. I took another MDF board and began laying out the ramp. I used the old terminal I had made of wood previously, yet another structure that needs to be converted to styrene one day. This board was a lot of fun to build, because I had personally taken measurements while working there. As of 2009 when I began constructing the new T3, I no longer worked at LAX. Excited about the new board, I began to conceptualize whether it would be possible to build the entirety of LAX in a modular format. Thus began my goal of building the entire airport to scale.
Shown here missing some ramp markings


Pushing AirTran out was part of my nightly job

Cargo Center

With the desire to have somewhere to set all of my cargo birds, I decided to build the ICC which is in the Southeastern corner of LAX. I took 2 MDF boards and with a little help from google maps, I recreated the parking areas where cargo is unloaded/loaded. Not having much experience scratchbuilding buildings from styrene, I opted for wood blocks and began painting them. It wasn't long before I decided they didn't look good enough. Still to this day I have not gone back and rebuilt them. Future project...




It begins

Decided to write a blog detailing the progress on my 1/400th scale model of LAX. The idea began way back in 2006 by building Terminal 3 where I was working at the time. Not having much of a budget, I opted for scraps of wood I had gathered and then cobbled together a Terminal and tarmac. As you can see, it ended up being a little smaller than expected.
This got the ball rolling and I soon started planning to build another section of LAX. The difficult part was finding a suitable base to build it on. Something that was light and durable with a good amount of size. I finally found a 24x48 piece of 1/4'' MDF bpard at the Home Depot. Construction began in 2006 and went on into 2007 for the first of what was to become the ICC or International Cargo Center.