Adding grass

Now with almost all of the painting complete on my 25R panel, its time to add a little grass. Its basically the same as doing the dirt. Mix water and white glue (I use wood glue) and then brush it onto the areas you want to have greenery. Sporadically adding it helps unless you are going for a fully grassed area. At LAX the areas between the runways are usually only green during the winter months but i think it looks nicer so thats the season period Im going with. Lightly sprinkle the grass on and then tamp it down with the palm of your hand or something flat and heavy. Its going to get a little messy. Let it dry for a good while before brushing away the excess.

Glue added lightly where I want the grass

Loosely sprinkle fake grass over glue. Multiple colors look more realistic

Tamp it all down with the palm of your hand or other.

25R update

Finally got around to working on my 25R piece again this week. Taxilines were painted for the taxiway Juliet intersection as well as all the little yellow lines along the taxiway. I then outlined all the taxi striping with a black sharpie marker. This really covers the little flaws in the yellow lines. I used a pinstriping brush for the taxi lines and was very pleased. Much faster than masking and fairly straight.

After that I was ready to begin scoring the concrete areas to make it look more like concrete sections. I use a giant drywall T square I bought from the Home Depot which works really nice. Using a pocket knife I carefully slice down the length of the runway and then come back and do the opposite side. Watch your fingers when doing this. I ended slicing into my left pointer finger going to fast. After a trip to the LAX urgent care, I was back at it although 3 hours later.

 

Now with the lines cut into the concrete areas it was time to dirty them up a little. Normally I use a grimy black powder I picked up at a Model Railroad shop but thats in my hangar and not at home. I experimented with using a wash (50/50 water and black acrylic paint). It worked to get into the grooves I had cut but didn't give the right effect for the tire rubber marks. Under all of the black rubber which I'll add later are thousands of tiny skidmarks. These are made using a black china marker and making tiny little skids all down the touchdown area. 

25L with the runway rubber added