The Thames District: I'm on holiday.

[joelyboy911]

[Inside Joke]
Hehehe, its one of Allan Crafar's farms.
[/Inside Joke] 

If you're a New Zealander paying attention to the News you'll know what I'm on about.
To cut a long story short, he's been in the news about his dairy farms and mistreatment (starvation) of animals by his employees. He's now out of business...

But don't worry, they'll be moved into the next paddock soon...

[adroman]

heh, a Google Search made that make some sense...

Anyway, sorry it took so long to get here, I think we both know why  ...

Great teaser, the real farms will be excellent! 

Havva good one,
Adrian.

[Nanami]

I will see what you do to that area!

[Battlecat]

Nice looking farmland, those fences look quite nice!

[dobdriver]

don't dive bomb the cows

[joelyboy911]

All will be revealed tomorrow. I will do the personal replies then, and you will be able to find out more... Loads of pictures to come. See you then!

[Tomas Neto]

Fantastic teaser!!! 

[Earth quake]

A splendid teaser.
I really like the second pictures.

[Battlecat]

Great shots!  Those are incredibly bright light poles there in the third shot.

[kwakelaar]

Just had a look through your earlier updates, and I must say I have seen some very nice nature images. I especially liked your estuary. I wanted to ask about the brownish sand there, is that a plopped texture or is it a part of a terrain mod? Great work all over

[adroman]

Very, very, very nice Joel!

I love the effect on that Pacific Blue jet you used, makes it all the more realistic...

Can't wait for the whole thing,

Havva good one,
Adrian.

[djvandrake]

Very impressive teaser!  I can't wait to see all you have in store. 

[joelyboy911]

Replies

Adrian (adroman)
Thanks, yes there were a lot of personalised planes. Well, guess what? There are even more today! Thanks for your replies to the teasers as well.

Tomas Neto
Many thanks, my friend. Your replies are always so nice!

Dave (tooheys)
Thanks, well beforehand, I was working within the confines of the available 737s and A320s made by the AC team. But now, I have found an elegant solution which will be revealed shortly. Qantas, or rather a member of the QantasGroup flies there now. I hope you like this airport just as much, I've changed a few things around though. And more planes (man, I love planes  ). Thanks for your reply on the teaser as well!

Sumwonyuno
Thanks, I hope to release some of them soon as well...

Bobbi
Thanks!

Battlecat
Thank you. I wish I could say building this airport was easy, but as you said, it was hard work - with a lot of trial and error. I always want it to be as close to perfection as possible, so you don't see any of my failed attempts. Yeah, I know about those... I had trouble finding a big enough, and less bright lightcone. Also, I did boost the contrast in that shot so...

djvandrake
Thank you, but I can't take credit for most of the planes. All except the Jetstream and Dash-8 (the prop planes) were made by other people. I simply re-textured and rendered them. Thanks for your reply to my teaser as well!

Zack (woodb3kmaster)
Thanks, yes the gate textures will be a part of the lotted set of the ATR-72 and ATR-42 planes, as Alex said. The planes themselves, will be released soon (I hope) as well.

Alex (Driftmaster07)
Thanks man!

Dobdriver
Sure thing, I'll be releasing the Turboprops soon, complete with Qantas planes! And don't worry about the cows...

976
Yes you will!

Earth Quake
Many thanks, I'm glad you liked the planes. I hope the real update lives up to the expectations of the teaser!

kwakelaar
Thanks. The muddy stuff in the Estuary was plopped, but unfortunately I can't remember the name of the set. I know it came from the STEX. I'm glad you liked the nature stuff, since I so much enjoyed making it! 

Now for a bit of an update.

Update

Preamble: There are several links embedded in this update (one might say I'd taken a leaf out of Adrian's Book) Click on names of Aircraft, to see a photograph, on Airliners.net of that aircraft. The other links will take you to the relevant wikipedia article. This update features some real life history of the Airline industry in New Zealand. Some facts have been made up, however. Try checking out the wikipedia links, if you're interested.


Snelson Airport, Also known as Thames Snelson, (yeah, I made up a dumb name) began life as an Air Force base for the fledgeling Royal New Zealand Air Force, in 1935 (still making this up...). From then, up until 2001, it served this purpose solely, as well as being a diversion airport for Hamilton Airport, and Auckland Airport. In 2001, the government of New Zealand began a downscaling of the RNZAF. The then Prime Minister, Helen Clark, canceled the Force's order for the 28 of the F-16 fighter jet, and disbanded No. 2, No. 14 and No. 75 Squadrons, leaving the RNZAF without an Air-to-Air combat fixed-wing aircraft. The Thames Air Force Base, as it was then known, was nearly (back to making it up...) itsself dissolved, but the District Council saw fit to lobby the Ministry of Defence to keep some aircraft and personell stationed there. However, space and landing slots were freed up on the base, making way for the establishment of a passenger terminal, a cargo apron, and a General aviation and flight training area.

Commercial flights began in late 2001, with domestic flights from Tasman Pacific Airlines, a Qantas franchise operating regional flights in New Zealand, using their fleet of deHavilland Canada Dash-8-102s.



As well as by Air New Zealand's subsidiaries, Air Nelson and Eagle Air flying their deHavilland Canada Dash-8-311s, and Raytheon Beech 1900Ds, respectively.



Air New Zealand's low cost subsidiary Freedom Air operated Trans-Tasman (to Australia) flights using its fleet of Boeing 737-300





And Airbus A320-200



Domestic services were also operated by Origin Pacific Airways, utilising their fleet of BAe Jetstream 41



In 2002, the Qantas New Zealand venture collapsed, leaving its fleet to be bought up by local airlines in New Zealand and by companies abroad. However, the Flying Kangaroo would not be absent from Snelson for long, as in July of that same year, Qantas' subsidiary Jetconnectwas established, and later in the year began flying the Trans-Tasman  routes to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, the exact same routes as Freedom Air, using a fleet made up of Boeing 737-300 and 737-400.



In January 2005, Origin Pacific Airways went into bankruptcy, and ceased operations.

And Then There Was One.

With Qantas New Zealand, and Origin Pacific out of the way, regional airports across New Zealand were faced with a new dilemma. Air New Zealand now held a monopoly over their heads. With no competition, what would stop prices from soaring?

In 2007, a new airline appeared in the Thames Region. Basing itsself solely at Snelson, avoiding Thames International (future update), Virgin Blue's subsidiary Pacific Blue began flights to Wellington, Sydney and Brisbane, using their fleet of Boeing 737-800

Here's a wee mosaic with one of their planes, on final approach.



In 2008, Freedom Air was disestablished by Air New Zealand. For a short while, Air New Zealand operated their own 737-300s from Snelson, but they were gone entirely by year's end.





In 2009, Qantas Jetconnect ceased services to Snelson, replacing them with services by their cut-price subsidiary, JetStar using the A320. Snelson now saw a competition between two low-fare airlines, on the same routes.



Later in 2009, Polynesian Blue, which had been established in 2005, began flights direct from Snelson to Apia, using their 737-800. The Samoan community of Thames was said to be... pleased. Not to mention the other holidaymakers...



Air Chathams also operates their Convair CV580 on flights to the Chatham Islands.



Air New Zealand Link is going strong, as always, at Snelson. 



There is also a cargo apron on Snelson Airport, as shown in my teaser pic yesterday. Here's a close up of the Toll Priority 737-300, and the Air Freight New Zealand Cargo CV-580F and CV-5800F.



The Thames School of flight is based on the General Aviation apron at the airport. Here's a shot showing it, as well as a few privately owned aircraft.



The RNZAF's presence on the airfield is, obviously, greatly diminished from its height in the 1940s. It now occupies only a small apron on the far side of the runway, where are based some Lockheed P3-K Orions, and the Boeing 757-200 is a frequent visitor.



And now, to close I'll give you this:



Just a little overview. The full size is 2719 x 2756 pixels, so be warned. And, you might notice a couple of things different from the earlier pics. Don't worry, I changed a few things, not too proud to admit it.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this airport from Thames. I'm also planning the Thames International, which I really think will be more exciting than this one (especially for me!).

Please, comment! Share your thoughts, I value them.

Epilogue

Now, you might be asking: Where did these 737 and A320 planes come from?

The answer is this: While scouring the Net for useful gmax source aircraft, I 'found' the Google 3D warehouse. Luckily, Adrian (adroman) was on hand with his SketchUp Pro ready, and he converted them to a usable format for me. Then, I had to UVW map them, and make the textures, as well as rendering them (which didn't exactly go as smoothly as I would've liked).

You might also be wondering: Can I get these planes?

The answer: No. Not Yet. The original creator of the 737 model, was very happy for us to release the rendered form of his model. Therefore, there is a possibility for Adrian and I to release a set. Nothing is confirmed as yet

[adroman]

Fantastic work Joel! 

That, in my opinion, is the best Airport ever shown in any MD (if not, it certainly has the most Custom Custom Content _{try saying that 5 times fast} of all the airports)

You've raised the bar, to say the absolute least... 

Our planes turned out quite well, eh?... I particularly like the Qantas 737!

Havva good one, you definitely deserve it!
Adrian.

[BarbarossaS]

Great looking airport you've got there Joel. I like the pastures in the end of the runway. I take it this airport is placed in a smaller city then?
Once again excellent work and I do hope you'll get around to making that set, I'd love those planes in my own cities 

-Stijn-

[Nanami]

Wow, great airport. I like it.
Btw, hey who know. I'm working in the airport on my MD too.

[jimbo_jj]

Nice airport! All those pastures nearby are an interesting contrast. I like all the pics of the custom planes, too. Hats off to whoever modded those! 

-James

[Battlecat]

Fantastic job on that airport!  Love the layout, it's very realistic indeed.  Nice job keeping the approach clear as well.

Those custom planes look excellent, hope to see them released someday!

[KoV Liberty]

Y'know Joel. I was a little skeptical on the 737 and A320 models. Until..... I saw them in-game! They are completely awesome! I'm still not sure on that Jet Star livery, but it was probably the nighttime effects. Anyways, looking foreward to their release. And do you think you could possibly send some to me? It is totally your decision though. Anyways, they look great and looking foreward to their release!

[WC_EEND]

looking great there!
I just love that mosaic of the plane on final, but were did the flaps go
I also like your airport layout (just watch out with those high light towers )