Charter's airports from the world.

Charter

Well-known member
Hi to all.
During my about 30 years collecting i have bought (and sold worldwide) many airports in scale 1:500 (mainly), 1:400 and 1:200 (just for selling them); some very nice, some not so good, some real masterpieces (for me, of course), some just and attempt to make something different.
Anyway, having few space for storage, i was specialized in the creation of small sections of the various airports, up to five parking stands widebodies size.
Since some years, because of real life problems, i stopped to create them, even if i would like to restart with Rome FCO runway 16R or 27 threshold.
I also created many fantasy airports because, unfortunately, in 1:500 scale Herpa "insane production" was so schizophrenic that we could not know if, creating an airport type then we could have had the right models and the right airlines. Example: how to create Nice "Cote d'Azur" airport, France, without Transavia France, Ryanair and easyJet? Or Manchester, UK, without TUI Airways, easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2holidays?
Anyway, with the Dark Side collection (1:400) i started to create also 1:400 scale airports.
My most important realizations? "Funchal 3D" 1:500, Manchester full airport 1:400 (sold to an English friend and collectors) and Dubai full airport 1:400 sold to an important collector from Dubai.
I hope to restart to create handmade airports because this beautiful activity was an important part of my collector's life.
 
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I never printed 2D aprons, because i am old, because i am not able and because i was specialized in creating handmade airports. Today 2D printed aprons, runways, taxiways and 3D printed Terminal buildings are a must, but i prefer to realize handmade airports and handmade terminal buildings. Of course the effect and the result Is different but i am happy the same.
Multilayer wood panel enough thick to avoid bending once treated with paints and colors, water-paint, Uniposca and Stabilo markers with different sized tips, then pencils, straighr and curved rulers, compasses and protractors.
Then fixative spray.
Final ingredients: a lot of patience and good skills.
Among all these things there Is the real job: Google Maps and starting to create the airport or the airport section i want. I am happy that in the last years even Greek airports are clear with Google Maps: in fact i love holiday airports, where leisure and charter airlines land handling tourists, and in Europe the most important and common holiday airports (inbound traffic) are in Spain, Greece and Italy, then UK and France but these two countries with almost all outboud traffico for holiday destinations.
Since few years ago Greek civil airports were considered military zone, so It was forbidden take pics and even Google Maps was obscured over the airports air space. They are still considered military zone but after Fraport Group work in almost all Greek airports (excluding Heraklion), now we can see everything even with Google Maps.
Good thing for us handmade airports builders.
Living in Europe, about USA i have created almost all the most important airports, especially the mega hubs for International/Intercontinental traffic. Special mention for (even) holiday airports like Orlando, New York JFK and Miami.
I also created many holiday airports of the Caribbeans (Cuba, Jamaica , Dominican Republica), Indian Ocean islands like Maldive, Seychelles, Réunion Island, some airports of South East Asia.
 
Rovaniemi Airport (Finland, RVN).
A classic example of a very small regionale airport becoming a relatively important winter hot spot for tourists wanting to live in full Christmas atmosphere. In fact Rovaniemi Is the official village of Santa Claus, very close to North Pole, and authorities were good to emphasize and develop the fact, making the airport an important winter destination for snow and Christmas Eve related events. Rovaniemi Is a good destination also for families with childs.
Result? About 1 million pax per year, a traffic composed by the most important European charter/leisure and low cost airlines but even (and this Is the real news) by major airlines (ex flag carriers...) performing seasonal charter: among them Aer Lingus, Air France, Austrian Airlines, Finnair (of course), Iberia, KLM, LOT, Lufthansa, Luxair, SAS, Turkish Airlines.
Times changed and civil aviation world must adapt to passengers demand. The only industry not adapting to customers demand and civil aviation world seems to be Herpa...
Anyway, this Is the first attempt for RVN 1:500 scale airport, of course a winter version: the snow Is in flakes and the result seems to be nice but too crude and strong, like the airport after a violent snowstorm.
Then i used snow paste and the result was much better.

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Hi to all.
During my about 30 years collecting i have bought (and sold worldwide) many airports in scale 1:500 (mainly), 1:400 and 1:200 (just for selling them); some very nice, some not so good, some real masterpieces (for me, of course), some just and attempt to make something different.
Anyway, having few space for storage, i was specialized in the creation of small sections of the various airports, up to five parking stands widebodies size.
Since some years, because of real life problems, i stopped to create them, even if i would like to restart with Rome FCO runway 16R or 27 threshold.
I also created many fantasy airports because, unfortunately, in 1:500 scale Herpa "insane production" was so schizophrenic that we could not know if, creating an airport type then we could have had the right models and the right airlines. Example: how to create Nice "Cote d'Azur" airport, France, without Transavia France, Ryanair and easyJet? Or Manchester, UK, without TUI Airways, easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2holidays?
Anyway, with the Dark Side collection (1:400) i started to create also 1:400 scale airports.
My most important realizations? "Funchal 3D" 1:500, Manchester full airport 1:400 (sold to an English friend and collectors) and Dubai full airport 1:400 sold to an important collector from Dubai.
I hope to restart to create handmade airports because this beautiful activity was an important part of my collector's life.

You took way too long to show your airport creations here! 😜 I'm glad you're finally doing it!
Don't forget your Madeira airport, it looks really cool!!!
 
You took way too long to show your airport creations here! 😜 I'm glad you're finally doing it!
Don't forget your Madeira airport, it looks really cool!!!
Thank Leo.
About Holiday hot spots and thinking you are from Brazil and your language is Portuguese, i was remembering some things:
incredibly i forgot Azores and Madeira, a top holiday destination and One of the most beautiful, most favourite and most challenging airport ever... FUNCHAL, with a great traffic and with a right turn for the short final approach very similar to Hong Kong Kai Tak but with left cross winds and windshear added! In fact the approach to runway 05 (ex 06, the runway was renamed 23-05 instead of 24-06) is not dangerous, like many people say, but Is challenging: about 40° right turn, this turn has a strong rateo and it is very "short" because the airplane must avoid the hills behind it (almost in front of runway 05), then the pilots must be very well skilled because of the sudden cross winds coming from the hills on the left and the wind coming from Atlantic Ocean, especially in some particular weather conditions. Then the real danger can be the windshear, especially "bastard" because of the confluence of the various cross winds. Pilots landing at Funchal must have special qualification and be ready for any sudden changes in weather conditions by reacting within seconds to, very often, dramatic situations. In fact the go arounds are frequent.
All this boring speech to say that Funchal Airport (Cristiano Ronaldo airport) is AMAZING!
 
Thank Leo.
About Holiday hot spots and thinking you are from Brazil and your language is Portuguese, i was remembering some things:
incredibly i forgot Azores and Madeira, a top holiday destination and One of the most beautiful, most favourite and most challenging airport ever... FUNCHAL, with a great traffic and with a right turn for the short final approach very similar to Hong Kong Kai Tak but with left cross winds and windshear added! In fact the approach to runway 05 (ex 06, the runway was renamed 23-05 instead of 24-06) is not dangerous, like many people say, but Is challenging: about 40° right turn, this turn has a strong rateo and it is very "short" because the airplane must avoid the hills behind it (almost in front of runway 05), then the pilots must be very well skilled because of the sudden cross winds coming from the hills on the left and the wind coming from Atlantic Ocean, especially in some particular weather conditions. Then the real danger can be the windshear, especially "bastard" because of the confluence of the various cross winds. Pilots landing at Funchal must have special qualification and be ready for any sudden changes in weather conditions by reacting within seconds to, very often, dramatic situations. In fact the go arounds are frequent.
All this boring speech to say that Funchal Airport (Cristiano Ronaldo airport) is AMAZING!

Yes! And I remember you had this airport, you even did the extended runway section with the pillars. It was really amazing!
 
Copenaghen "Kastrup" airport (CPH), 1:500 scale. We moved in Denmark, very North Europe even if about 1800 km far from Rovaniemi.
I always loved Scandinavia, Scandinavian airlines (SAS, JetTime, Sunclass, TUIfly Nordica, Airseven, Norwegian, Braathens Regional) and Scandinavian airports.
In Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Norway) Kastrup is the main airport with about 30 millions pax, followed by Gardermoen (Oslo) with 26 millions and Arlanda (Stockholm) with 22 millions.
A huge list of airlines from all over the world serving this beauty, including for example Air Cairo, Air India, Air China, Singapore Airlines, Delta, American Airlines, FlyErbil (Iraq) etc.

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