Just for funsies, has anyone tried a mild version of the minituar wonderland airport? Like having a small scene with a small ho scale athearn v tail with a motor to make the propellor spin or something. My first love is aircraft, so I want a small airport scenes with STRICTLY ho scale aircraft, not 1/100. I’m very picky. Please post pics if you have any! I would like to see what you guys have done.
Do you have any idea how big Miniatur Wunderland´s Knuffingen Airport is? Or a Boeing 747 in HO scale?
Making an HO scale small aircraft´s propeller spin, is certainly no biggie, but even a small airfield requires a lot of space to look realistic, even with a heavy dose of selective compression.
I know. Maybe I should have said INCEDIBLY mild. Like a tiny regional airport scene.
A few weeks ago, someone posted a video of a twin Otter float plane at the dock with a prop that spins. A few folks have airplanes ‘flying’ over their layouts
Here’s the link George referred to…
…and while this discussion is mainly about aircraft over a layout, you may find it of interest.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/p/228279/2547962.aspx#2547962
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
Hi Bear!
Thanks for the video! That is truly excellent modelling, although I think the rough starting may be a little overdone. The prop synchronization with the sound of the engine sputtering to life is amazing though.
On the few occasions that I have had an opportunity to ride in a Beaver I was always a bit leery with the way the engines started.
Cheers!!
Dave
[#offtopic]
Does depend on the amount of priming, and/or how foul the bottom plugs are.[swg]
I would re-think your insistance on 1/87 aircraft. To the eye, we almost always view airplanes from the ground, so they always look smaller than they are. When you use aircraft of the same scale, they actually look out of scale to every viewer except those in the aircraft service field.
.
Really, have you seen HOW BIG Walthers 1/87 DC-3 is? HUGE!
.
1/144 scale aircraft should look fine. Certainly a better choice for a home layout.
.
-Kevin
.
Have you considered a heliport?
A main rotor would be easier to spin and the whole thing would require less real estate.
“Gulliver’s Gate” is a relatively new attraction in New York City. It is a model of many parts of the world, built in 1:87 scale. When I was there, they were still working on the model of LaGuardia Airport, which features operating vehicles, taxiing, taking-off and landing aircraft.
They were still coordinating the sensors and actuators when I was there.
There are a lot of trains in the models. I noticed the presence of BNSF and Rio Grande boxcars all over the model space, even in the models of Europe and Asia, so I asked about them, since they were so out of place. My quest led to an introduction to “the train guy,” and a relatively simple explanation. They are standard, off-the-shelf Walthers track cleaning cars, but they hadn’t gotten around to repainting yet.
Since I was a modeler myself, I spent a good part of the morning getting a behind-the-scenes tour, which I enjoyed thoroughly.
The airplanes are actually 1:87 scale. They make them on site using 3D printing technology.
Anyone interested in modeling should visit this. There is a hefty senior discount and coupons being handed out to take the sting out of the admission price.
I saw that, but there wasn’t too much footage about it, and it is even more fictional than minituar wunderland. I like the heliport.
Well, it’s not a model railroad and it does not really strive to be. I thought it was a great display of models and modeling techniques, though. Each “continent” was built far away and shipped here, then re-assembled, so there are models from India, China, Russia, Europe, the Middle East and South America, as well as the U.S. A lot was still going on when I was there, so they had a lot of the workshops visible to the visitors. Talking with the modelers was fascinating as they were happy to discuss what they were doing and how they were doing it.
The club in Elmhurst, IL has a 1/87th DC-3 being used as a gas station roof. They also had some small scale airliners hanging from ceiling.
My club has had a crashed P-38 and a Stuka in the woods of a large hill (yes, both 1:87; Roco made them).
But airplanes in general are pretty hard to find on layouts in my experience.
Who else thought this would be a story about a train taking flight off someones layout?
I personally thought of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries![(-D]
.
Hmmmm… are you criticizing someone’s title for a thread?
.
This was certainly a more clear title than some other recent threads I can think of. Can you think of any recent threads with poorly chosen titles? [:-^]
.
By the way… there is NOTHING funny about a train “taking flight” off of a layout. It has happened to me a couple of times. Nothing funny at all.
.
-Kevin
.
If I were to include airplanes on the club layout, they would either be Matchbox Skybusters or Hot Wings planes which are 1/64 scale.
The HO Scale 1/87 scale models are good, but lack stunning paint schemes and moving parts the HW/MBX models have. Realistic aircraft only, No cheap plastic models!!! [:)]
I don’t know where people get this idea that MBX models are out of scale, they’re not out of scale! 
Currently no one in the club has a module with an airstrip on it, but that could change later on…
I have been looking at the 3d printed aircraft angle for a long time. Did not know that was how they did it at gulliver’s gate. Wonder if there is a way I could get the files for some small aircraft. I am willing to donate some space for a decent scene. Maybe if I email the people at gulliver’s gate…
I was not criticizing the OPs choice of title it’s fine with me, I was just saying when I first clicked on the thread I thought it would be about a train taking a nasty fall off a layout.
I have dropped one of my locomotives once, it was a terrible few seconds, then I realized that the tender survived and only lost a step, which I found.
Funny how thread titles can be interpreted differently, my first thought was a thread about modelers fleeing HO to another scale.
Even the ubiquitous Cessna 172 would take up as much space as a DVD case in HO.
At the other end of things, you’d need a whole 4x8 layout to build a diorama of two C-5s parked on the ramp. I couldn’t even fit one C-5 on one of my modules.