my gas station

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UP, that's some mighty fine modeling mate. The Heljan station is typical of the 1930s-40s. Many of them are still up and running as garages even if the pumps are no longer working or gone.

What are the roads made of? They're most impressive.
 
Thanks, WV. The Heljan model isn't bad, just too big for that space. I'd like to get one like the one at http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/184-187, it's a little smaller building with more room out front for the pumps.

The streets are made with .020 styrene, cut to size and glued down with latex caulk. I painted them Floquil aged concrete and then weathered them with chalks. I used a fine point Sharpie for the tar expansion joints. I like doing concrete roads. More typical of smaller towns and I think they have more character than asphalt roads.

Jamie. I'm also an emergency vehicle modeler and, being a retired cop, I've got to have at least one wreck scene somewhere. :) I'm working on a new Crown Vic for the Sheriff's Department and trying to come up with a way to battery power the LED's. All the ones I have now require 12 volt power so I had to drill down thorugh the road to wire them to the lighting bus. I'd like to have a vehicles I can move around to different scenes without being tied down to wires. I've tried doing a Charger but those light bars are just too small to make look good without some pretty complicated fiber optics.
 


Ever do any fire truck modeling of the 50's? Since that's my era, I have a few. The new Athearn engine and rescue truck, but in larger scales:

Franklin Mint 1/32 scale American LaFrance Mid Mount
Various 1/43 scale Trucks and engines
Matchbox 1/43 scale 1920-30 set, all boxed, never opened

I want the ALF mid-mount ladder in HO, a hook n ladder is too long for the rural areas I model. I think Praline's version is undersized.

I also have the hard to find Tomix ladder trucks in both red and yellow. They're TT scale 1/120.

What about using a watch battery to power your LEDs?
 
UP2CSX said:
Jamie. I'm also an emergency vehicle modeler and, being a retired cop, I've got to have at least one wreck scene somewhere. :) I'm working on a new Crown Vic for the Sheriff's Department and trying to come up with a way to battery power the LED's. All the ones I have now require 12 volt power so I had to drill down thorugh the road to wire them to the lighting bus. I'd like to have a vehicles I can move around to different scenes without being tied down to wires. I've tried doing a Charger but those light bars are just too small to make look good without some pretty complicated fiber optics.
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look on ebay for leds the ones i use in my structures are 5 mm and run on 1.5 v dc. you can get leds down to 1 mm at the tip i think and then all you need is a small battery pack and for light bars you might be able to use surface mount leds but i have never worked with them because i have never bought any.
 
WV, I've got a couple of more modern Boley GMC rigs and a 1923 Seagraves as the department's historical truck. I've been looking lustfully at those Athearn Macks. Some of the best 1:87 models I've sever seen. I just need to finish planning my fire department move. Mine is an old single bay AHM firehouse and I need at least four bays for my equipment. It's going to take shuffling around of some downtown buildings and I haven't worked up the energy to start on that yet.

Getting small LED's and powering them is no problem. The problem is where to jam the battery, circuit board to control the lights, and some kind of switch, in a Crown Vic. I could strip the whole interior and paint the windows black to get the room but that looks kind of tacky. With the new, small light bars, like the one on the Charger, the only way to do them realistically is with fiber optics, which takes up even more room and batteries, since you'd need at least one red and one blue LED. It sure would be a lot easier in 1:43 scale or if I was modeling an earlier era, where one Federal Beacon Ray on the roof is all I'd need. I've seen some really amazing lighting effects from guys who are building 1:25 scale models.
 
UP2CSX said:
Getting small LED's and powering them is no problem. The problem is where to jam the battery, circuit board to control the lights, and some kind of switch, in a Crown Vic. I could strip the whole interior and paint the windows black to get the room but that looks kind of tacky. With the new, small light bars, like the one on the Charger, the only way to do them realistically is with fiber optics, which takes up even more room and batteries, since you'd need at least one red and one blue LED. It sure would be a lot easier in 1:43 scale or if I was modeling an earlier era, where one Federal Beacon Ray on the roof is all I'd need. I've seen some really amazing lighting effects from guys who are building 1:25 scale models.
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what if your suv tows a crime scene trailer with the batery pack and micro switch in
 
Yeah 1/25 and 1/32 scale guys have it made for lights. Where did you get a 1923 Seagrave in HO? I've seen the Resin Unlimited Seagrave pumper but it's 50s era (I have one, just haven't put it together yet.)

If Athearn ever does a 50s Seagrave, I'm on it like stink on somethin' rotten. If they ever do an ALF mid-mount ladder, I'll get a ticket going to the hobby shop, even if I have to sell other goodies to get them, those two trucks are at the top of my list.

Those little circular watch batteries won't work?
 
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Those Athearn Macks can be quite expensive :eek: Atleast for me anyways. For my small town FD I'd like to have a Maxim mid mount 65' open cab aerial. Anyone know if they make these?
 


WV, the watch batteries will work, but the ones that provide enough amperage to run the lights for more than about 15 minutes are pretty large. I can get a cylindrical hearing aid battery that's about the same length as a watch battery but has twice as many amps. Puts out 1.4 volts so no need for resistors either. Expensive little devils though, at about $9 a piece.

I kind of lied about my 1923 Seagraves. It's really just that hunk of red plastic that comes with the AHM firehouse. I don't think it's from any real prototype so I chose a 1923 Seagraves because I like the sound of it. I've detailed it out to look like an old engine and attached a picture. It would be nice to see some of the late Maxim's and some of the other rarer engines but ones like the Macks, Ford C cabs, and the 480's are so much more popular. With the level of detail on the Athearn engines, they need to sell a bunch, since even the $25 retail price is fairly low for what you get. Boley has given up trying to sell engines at the lower price point because they just weren't making any money at it.

Jamie, the trailer idea would probably work, but I'd like to do a free standing patrol car. I could do an SUV like a Blazer, though, and have a little more room to work with. I'm trying work out all the measuements on paper before I rip a $10 vehicle apart.
 
UP, I think that's the best I've ever seen anyone do one of those plastic AHM trucks. It's a 1923 POS, LOL. Actually, if I'm not mistaken, it's a really bad caricature of an Ahrens-Fox.

There are several firehouses which have come along lately.

Woodland Scenics just made one.

Walthers has one too.

Boley has one.

Life-Like has one, which being from Baltimore, I have seen in person.

All are two bay stations and not very deep.

Con-Cor had one in its Courthouse Square series, now made by Bachmann. (One bay, but very long, good for hook n ladders.)
 
WV, thanks, I think that it's actually a cross between a Seagraves and an Ahrens-Fox without the pressure ball on the front. I just wanted to make it looks like an old, historic engine for parades, and something for the boys to wax occcasionally. :)

I really like that new WS fire station, even at the price, but it's only two bays, and pretty darned big on top of it. :( The only four bay station I know of is the modern steel building by Pikestuff. It's a little more modern that I'd like but I can kitbash it to fit the space I have available. I've been debating ways to backdate it a little but haven't come up with anything that looks good yet. If you have any ideas, let me know.
 
what if you try and custom build an entire fire house. or take two smaller ones and kit bash and custom build parts of it. personally i would find nothing cooller then a fire house with different roof heights
 
Easiest conversion? Life-Like firehouses. They go from 2 bay to 4 bay in nothing flat. The only thing you really have to do is work up a new base, or trim the old one down, and do a new roof. It's not super-old, I think the Hampden stationhouse was built in the mid 20's or 30's. Batimore has some of the most interesting stationhouses in the country. #6 is now the fire museum and it's wedge shaped.
 


Yeah, I'd love to do a kitbash of the Hampden firehouse and make it into a 4 bay. The only problem is the footprint is huge. :eek: On my dinky layout, it would take up almost a whole block and require a major rearrangement of the downtown section. The problem with most of the firehouses on the market is that they were made to provide second floor living quarters for the on-duty firefighters so they are much larger than modern stations, where the firefighters work more or less normal shifts. The Pikestuff version has the advantage that it's basically just bays with no other additions, and it's easy to kitbash into the space I have. I really don't like the modern steel building look but I don't think I have a choice. :(
 
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