A new super rare addition to our layout


Southwest Chief

Southwest Chief

Matt
A new super rare addition to our layout, McDonald's

I finally found a Life-Like McDonalds kit (unassembled).

Those who know about these know how rare they are. From what I've read, there was an issue with McDonalds licensing and the kit was pulled from the stores almost as soon as it became available many years ago.

I have been looking for an unassembled version since I needed to back date the kit a little. The kit is more for the mid to late 1960s. However I needed a mid to late 1950s styling for our 1957 layout. So this meant omitting the enclosed front and a few other parts, like the street sign. I also didn't care much for the supplied base, so I'll make my own. I have to make a Speedy Service sign too.

Here is what the box looks like:

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And below is what it looks like on our layout. Note it is not completed yet with many details still left to add. Also the arches and the roof are not glued yet. This was just a test fitting to see how it looked. I think it looks pretty cool :cool:

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Given that there's not much room on the interior (only 2 tables from what I could see), maybe you should convert this to a drive-thru..
 
I remember as a kid in the early 70's there was a McD's in Hackettstown NJ that looked like that. I remember the sign that had to be changed after another billion burgers were sold. Now they just say "billions and billions" served. Haha showing my age.
-Art
 
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McLayout, ha that's a good one.


The McDonald's will be a vintage "walk up" service window style. I'm going for a mid to late 1950s look in Southern California. The first McDonald's were in SoCal, and then Ray Kroc started franchising them around the country. So I'm going for the very first few McDonald's look for this one.

The overall scenery plan is to have a vintage style McDonald's road sign, some outdoor tables, parking, and basic landscaping. I'll also light the building's small kitchen and counter interior.

I might even experiment with EL wire to give it a neon yellow glow. Sort of like this McDonald's in Downey California:

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I used to have a White Castle in the same general area on the layout.

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But being a Southern California layout, White Castle wasn't really accurate. So it is finally being replaced with a McDonalds.
 
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Beautiful! I've been wanting one of those Life Like McDonalds kits for years, but whenever I see the unbuilt kits on e-bay, they go for stupid money. You sure the outdoor sign from the kit can't be made to work for the late 50's?
Once you have it in place with the lights and the scenery, I want to see more pictures.
Life-Like changed the tooling for this kit to make the Freezee Ice Cream stand, but it used the same basic structure (with a checkered wall panel rather than stripes), and it also included the same tables and trash cans. Those kits are alot cheaper and easier to find for anyone who likes the styling of this kit but doesn't need it to be a McDonalds.
 
That Vollmer kit is as modern as any other modern Mickey D's today. Even though it has the "old" arches it would look out of place on a 1950's layout.
 
Southwest Chief said:
Appreciate the links. Been looking around for a suitable sign (something that will be easier then crafting my own from scratch) and some of those are very promising leads.
Click to expand...

I think if I had to scratch build the golden arch, I might try to cut two matching arches out of yellow plastic (maybe from a plastic lid of I Can't Believe its Not Butter container). Then make a metal arch for the inside diameter of the arch and another for the outside diameter of the arch by bending a couple narrow strips of metal. Then sandwich the metal inner and outer frames of the arch between the two yellow plastic arches to create a single hollow arch. Then feed some inexpensive battery powered flexible neon wire through the hollow arch to light it up. The two sides of the arch would then give off a soft yellow glow at night but of course the metal edges of the framework would not.
The neon wire would probably need to be in direct contact with the yellow plastic to actually show through the thick plastic (as it did when I took some red neon wire that I have for another project and put it behind the yellow margerine lid at which point the red showed through the yellow plastic lid). But maybe you can find a better source of yellow plastic for your arch.

The example in this link is yellow but other colors including white is available.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-5FT-2m-EL...845?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19ca2b39ad
 
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I was just thinking. If the sign doesn't need to light up, and you still need to scratch build a plastic sign, the flat part of the sign with "McDonalds" spelled out is easy enough with just cutting out an appropriate size of flat styrene. The arch itself might be a little more difficult. One possibility might be checking the local Staples or Office Depot to see if you can order a set of sign board letters such as those used in lobbies of office buildings or hotel banquet halls that use changeable plastic letters. The letters come in different sizes and are usually white plastic. Since the letters come in different sizes, cutting off the curved part of a letter "P" or letter "D" could serve as the top of your arch and straight letters like "I" could be used for the vertical parts of the arch below the "McDonalds" signboard. Since the letters are usually beveled to some degree on one side, gluing two of the same letters back to back or front to front would give you the same finish on both sides of your sign.
If you don't know what these plastic letters look like, heres a link to some photos of a couple large 1/18 scale dioramas I made for my 1/18 scale diecast car collection. On the car dealership diorama, I used the plastic letters for the dealer name on the front of the building and for the sign on the back pointing to the service department. On the Bob's Big Boy diorama, the lettering for "Bob's" on the sign out front was also made using the white plastic letters (in that case, glued to margerine container lids and put atop a borrowed movie theatre sign to create a suitable restaurant sign).
You could get a set of these plastic letters in a fairly large size like 2" high or so, and cut up a few letters to make a pretty nice looking arch. You would just need to paint it yellow.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.106238162756576.3519.100001111775214&type=1&l=b49915c639
 
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Thanks to the helpful tips, I found a reasonably priced ceramic McDonald's on eBay. The sign was broken from the base which is why the price was so much lower then these normally go for. But it was super easy to glue back.

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Here's what the McDonald's looks like on our layout:

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Still more details and paint to add before I'm finished. But I'm getting there. The ready made sign though was a big help and saved lots of fabrication time.
 
Wow! The sign from the ceramic McDonalds was just the right size!! It looks like it came from the same source as your nicely detailed building. What a great score!! Your McDonalds is looking more authentic every time you post!

(And you can display your ceramic McDonalds under the Christmas tree along with the more modern sign from the kit.)
 
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nwdrummer379 said:
That Vollmer kit is as modern as any other modern Mickey D's today. Even though it has the "old" arches it would look out of place on a 1950's layout.
Click to expand...

That reminds me, I don't think McD's even knows what time they're in anymore.. The one by my work was made all retro-looking (with the old-style big yellow arches on either side and an older-style roadsign), yet you go inside and you have Wi-Fi and HD tv's and an electronic menu board.


This project though, I'm lovin' it. Lol.
 
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