Jac's Lines - 2005 Challenge

[Jac's Lines]

Been fooling around with the Atlas tower today. I've been building the Jordan fire pumpers, and I like the idea of a 1920s era firehouse. I am not sure about this particular configuration -- don't care for the big blank wall on the right, and will eventually need to expand the width of the main building to accomodate the fire engines. Anyway, this is the mock up that I'm working with for now.

Some big decisions to be made in the near future:

1) Brick techniques. I want the main building and tower base to be brick, but I'm not sure how I want to proceed. I have two sheets of the Plastruct HO scale brick, which will need to be laminated to a sub-wall. I like the texture of this sheet, but it doesn't quite fit with the Atlas brick. I may try my hand at casting a plaster building and carving...but that's sooo much work. I also may try a mock up with just the first floor of the main building in brick, and the second floor in clapboard to match the top of the tower (I'm thinking white clapboard on pale orangeish brick right now). No mater what, I think the tower base needs to be brick.

2) Interiors? I very rarely do interiors, but that big main building just cries out for a ground floor interior with truck bays, cross beams, tools, etc. and a second floor with housing for the firemen.

Ok, so that's where I stand on this so far. Lots of time, right?

 

[modelsof1900]

Great idea! I wish good success!!!

 

[belg]

Jack??, many old time firehouses had towers for drying the hose on the outside of the building, if you incorporate something like that it might break up the large blank wall. Love what you have done w. the pumpers they look super. Pat

 

[revandy]

Drying towers are also used for ladder and pompier training, therefor requiring windows on each floor. modeling a training scene would certainly give action to the model! Hoses are 50' in lenght, so the averge tower was 5-6 floors high.

Rev. Andy
Rretired smoke eater

 

[MasonJar]

Jac,

I wouldn't worry about the brick not matching - maybe it's an addition?

Andrew

 

[Jac's Lines]

Thanks for the comments/suggetions everyone.

I wasn't very happy with the cardstock mock up, so I spent some time driving around and looking at older firehouses in my area last weekend, just to get some ideas. I came across one in that has a three story hose tower (with a pulley system inside) and a smaller garage area. Although this new incarnation isn't a duplicate of the prototype, it's a close approximation.

These first photos show the basswood base with the Plastruct rough brick laminate. I would not recommend this product. The Plastruct is vacuum formed rather than injection molded. Because of this, the brick texture is very shallow and has no grooves for the mortar lines. Getting these mortar lines right was a huge problem, and I'm still not 100% satisfied.

 

[Jac's Lines]

These next photos show the station much further along. To get the mortar lines right, I experimented with virtually every recommended method -- grey paint wash, rubbed in pastel or chalk, diluted plaster wash and Durhams water putty. Because of the Plastruct brick texture, none of it looked good although the Durhams wash worked really well on the brick part of the Altas tower. Finally, I painted a full coat of grey over three coats of brick red and sanded down until the bricks seem right. The trade off, of course, is that I lose the "roigh brick" texture. Ah well...

I also started work on the interior. I decided to model the front doors open, so this was necessary. To save some pain, for the interior I printed a sheet on an inkjet printer based on my own scan of a good section of the Plastruct brick sheet.

On the left side of the building, where the gap in the brick laminate is, I intend to add a two story false clapboard structure which will house the living area for on call fire fighters.

 

[N Gauger]

That's cool!!! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Jac's Lines]

Ok, I've been working on windows and doors for the past two weeks. In retrospect, I should've planned this better and used premade doors. Unfortunately, the door openings I cut are of unusual size, so had to scratch them from strip wood. The basic technique was to draw a very simple template of the right dimensions on Photoshop, and glued strip wood directly to clear plastic. some of the doors will be modeled as open, so I needed to sandwich the clear plastic between layers of stripwood. Hopefully the pictures will show this better than I can explain it.

The doors on the rear of the garage are to be closed, so I've glued them in place. The open doors will need to be added after the builiding is based. I also at some point will add hinges.

 

[Jac's Lines]

These photos show other additions:

-Brick arch work. This was done brick by brick, with individual bricks cut from the Plastruct sheet.

-Windows. These are frankensteined from Tichy industrial windows. Another place where it would've been easier to begin with a premade product and design the building around it. Live and learn...

-Interior on the garage. This includes I beam supports, framing on windows and doors, and addition of doors connecting to the Atlas tower addition and the living quarters.

-The living quarters addition. This is a false front structure scratched from scribed clapboard siding and will be painted white. Dimensions are 18'X15', which is plenty big enough for a living area, small kitchen, bathroom and sleeping quarters. I am going to do the interior of this as well.

Next on the agenda:

-Roofing. I like the lines of the roof that came with the Atlas tower, but not the shingles. I also need to decide whether all three parts of the structure (tower, garage, living quarters) will have identical roofing material.

-Foundation and basing. This is going to be a diorama that can eventually be dropped into a layout. Dimensions of the building right now are about 9"X6", so I'm thinking a 12" X10" base, which should leave lots of room to display fire engines.

-More interior work

I'm having lots of fun on this project and have enjoyed looking at what others have come up with based on this kit. :thumb:

 

[Jac's Lines]

Ok, some quick updates. I added a base for the diorama (1" foam) and a foundation (scribed basswood siding laminated to 1/8" balsa and covered on the sides with Durhams water putty). I also added the roofs. The 3-tab asphalt shingles are a Rusty Stumps product (www.rustystumps.com) and I am very pleased with the results -- they shipped quick and the product's great in all ways. I've also started some interior detailing -- the pictures cover a small office in the tower and the wall layouts for the living quarters.

With the holidays coming up, I'm not sure whether I'll do much more before Christmas, but it's shaping up. Adding the leftover pieces from the Atlas tower (staircases, chimney, etc.) and landscaping are my main priorities, followed by more work on the interiors and some exploration of lighting options.

I've been watching other projects with interest -- cool stuff out there guys! :thumb:

 

[ezdays]

Wow, fantastic.:thumb: Uh, I can see where the competition is heating up to the boiling point.

 

[Drew1125]

WOW!
That is really nice work, Jac!
Outstanding!
:thumb: :thumb:

 

[rksstl]

Great work Jac :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Clark A.]

Wow, very impressive!!!!!

 

[N Gauger]

That's great!! So neat!!! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Chessie6459]

Great Job on the Fire Department. Coming from a firefighter ( Me ) it looks Great.:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Jac's Lines]

Ok, the better half insists that the diorama should get off the dining room table until after Christmas. I wonder if that means I'm safe dragging it out at 12:01 on the 26th???

Anyway, I've been working hard on landscaping and a lot of detail work. With free time next week, I should be able to finish up some detail work, paint some firemen, and do some final dithering over this project.

 

[Jac's Lines]

A couple more...

 

[N Gauger]

Man That's Great!!! Too Cool!!!!