Guys!
It's about time for a new, proper, project. I have bored you with little Bora Bora, LAX etc., but now I want to do a whole new, epic thing like LHR T4 again. And the good news is: I have already started in secret. So I already have many of the buildings done, some 40 working hours in summer have been contributed to this project next to Bora Bora Airport and finishing and photographing LAX TBIT.
Anyway, let's get to the point. I am building Naha/Okinawa Airport in 1/500 scale as usual. Time frame is mid 2000s (2004/2005 to be precise), so it is somewhat historic, but nothing much has changed at the airport since then (apart from a two-gate int'l terminal being built as we speak). I guess there are two questions you might ask now: Why the hell Naha and why 2004?
1) Why Naha?
- To be frank, I have always loved Japan and Japanese aviation in particular. Although I am German, I was born in Tokyo when my parents lived there as expats in the mid to late 1980s. I grew up with Japanese toys, later with books about Japanese planes and I never failed to fascinate me that they fly literally any route with at least 767/777s or 747s
- As you saw in my models of Bora Bora and Samui, I love palm trees and anything tropical. The islands of Okinawa etc. are in the tropics with palm trees and everything. Naha is in the top 7 of Japapese Airports in terms of traffic because it is such a popular tourist destination for Japanese People.
- I love the fact that Japan has these two large competing airlines (even though Skymark and the LCCs diffuse the market quite a bit nowadays) and back in 2004, the two piers at Naha were evenly split between ANA at the north pier and JAL at the South. So it's a very nice blue and red setup.
- a final reason for Naha is the military base it has at the airport. Within my model I will show the exciting closeness between a civil airport terminal and hangars for the Japanese navy's Orions etc. (Herpa actually makes these in 1/500, I could not believe my luck at first since I am a total beginner when it comes to military aviation)
2) Why 2004?
- today, as I said earlier, the market in Japan is mixed up. But back then, it was basically all ANA and JAL. This is nicely resembled at the domestic Terminal at Naha in the mid 2000s.
- The early 2000s were very cool in Japan in general, since JAL was mixing up everything in its fleet. They had the old DC10s still flying, the ex-JAS planes like the MD80s, the A300s etc. Those all still flew in 2004. So they JUST overlapped with the epic (now gone) two Pokémon 744D (Yellow Pokemon 747-481D: introduced in May 2004, Blue "Ohana" Pokemon 747-481D: December 2004). There are very cool satellite pictures of 2004 where both these colourful ANA 747s are at Naha at the same time standing next to each other at the terminal! That picture alone inspired me to buy the two Hogan models (at 100€ a piece) and start building the Naha model.
- Later in 2005, 2006, the DC10s were gone and so I narrowed the time frame for my model down to late 2004 to be able to show all my cool Japanese models in this diorama.
- also cool: the yellow DASHs of the Ryukyo Air Commuter (before it was bought by JAL and integrated to the group's livery system) I have three of those in 1/500 made by Herpa in the early 2000s (so actually old generation, which is a no-go for me, but since they are turboprop they have those cool custom wheels by herpa
)
So here are a first few inspirational pictures for those of you who are not familiar with Naha Airport. Once I continue building, I will start posting pics of my creations.
First though, here is an overview pic with the area that my diorama will include in red. This is as big as I can go since I just moved to my own flat and this is the size of my dining table. It measures 200x110cm in 1/500, so it is somewhat comparable to my LHR T4 model. Yet, I have the terminal in there, at least one of the military hangars, the landside with the parking decks (which have proven VERY popular in my LHR T4 model, surprisingly), and - very importantly - the whole diorama has nice grass frames on the long sides so it will look very nice and round.
This is it for the moment, more to come soon. As always I look forward to your comments, feedback, ideas etc.
Happy days!
Paul
1/500 Project: Naha/Okinawa Airport of 2004
Merry Christmas 
Re: 1/500 Project: Naha/Okinawa Airport of 2004
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- very much Detail also on all other areas.
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