S-F-O: San Francisco International Airport

ATP

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For about the past 10 years I've made different dioramas of SFO, and I'm starting to dig out the photos of the older ones, and ones I still have boxed away. First up in SFO as it was in the late 1940s - back in the "San Francisco Airport" days.

The terminal was built in 1937, as part of WPA project (if memory serves correctly). The design was Spanish Colonial Revival, and certainly one of my favorite terminal designs. It's a bit hard to get models for the diorama, given the timeframe (1:400 scale).

The diorama has made the rounds in the Model Airliner magazine (2018) and it's seen time to time at the SFO Airliner Collectible Show (I brought it over back in March 2020).

I'll post more SFO dioramas as I find the pics.
 

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My goodness that setup! Is the Western plane a DC-4? I’m looking to have a DC-6 made in that livery.
 
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For about the past 10 years I've made different dioramas of SFO, and I'm starting to dig out the photos of the older ones, and ones I still have boxed away. First up in SFO as it was in the late 1940s - back in the "San Francisco Airport" days.

The terminal was built in 1937, as part of WPA project (if memory serves correctly). The design was Spanish Colonial Revival, and certainly one of my favorite terminal designs. It's a bit hard to get models for the diorama, given the timeframe (1:400 scale).

The diorama has made the rounds in the Model Airliner magazine (2018) and it's seen time to time at the SFO Airliner Collectible Show (I brought it over back in March 2020).

I'll post more SFO dioramas as I find the pics.
Nice setup!
 
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Thank you, everyone, for your kind words - I really appreciate it. Despite it representing an era about five decades before I was born, I've always been interested in the early days of SFO. At the moment, the diorama is chocked full of more modern jets (a parking space for them while laying out a modern-ish SFO diorama), but I will have some pics of what it looks like today as soon as I can.

JJ Skippy - Regarding the Western Airlines prop - yes, it's a DC-4, by Aeroclassics. Such a nice scheme and I look forward to seeing your custom.

Rich - Thanks, I've been essentially under a 1:400 rock the past 3.5 years (college then work + an interest in public transit....long story short I run the BARTchives website (all about the Bay Area Rapid Transit fleet) and I'm part of a campaign to preserve a few of the legacy fleet rail cars at a museum...it's been fun). That being said I have been lurking around the past few years and kept up with the collection from time to time.

I made an official return last month, and since then have added about 35 more models to the collection. I'm laying out the next permanent SFO diorama, which is on top of my BART model railroad. Of course, the financial situation is wildly different compared to what it is during college, and I've been fortunate to have a little, but a consistent, pot of spending money for trains and 1:400. It’s been great to finally nab some of the older stuff I wasn’t able to afford back then (e.g. some old GJ B744s and B752s, a FedEx MD10 and MD11).

The worst part about getting back are the prices! When did everything go up $15-25?
 
No problem! Prices came up for various reasons, but mainly due to the pandemic. All throughout the last 3 years for the most part. Super sad, I hope the quality comes up soon.
 
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