Post pics of work in progress or to your fan art here on Ghostbusters Fans.
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By midmanc82
#4851333
Hi folks, flooring all painted now, also made a start on the back interior of the firehouse, the white needs another coat on the wall piece and the bottom part that I've left unpainted will be covered with the panels for Venkmans office so I'm just leaving it as it is.

Ordered the self adhesive carpet for venkmans office too so while I wait for that to arrive I'm gonna make a start on the front fire house interior wall and then will be focusing on all 3 exterior walls which will prob take me a while but once those are done I can finally screw it all together and all the other work can be done while it's semi assembled :)

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The flooring I decided to go with the heavily weathered look with having years of fire trucks and ecto-1 driving and skidding over it so I chipped out a fair bit, prime coated with solid black, semi dry brushed a light grey and then brushed over with white in some areas more than others, got a bit carried away here and there lol but overall I'm pretty happy with for now, I'll take another look at it in daylight tomorrow.

I'll be sure to update anything else that looks significant as I go along, be sure to keep dropping by :)
Egon's Pompadour liked this
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By midmanc82
#4851420
Whoop whoop, just ordered my A1 foam board, pack of 10 so now I can focus on the exterior of the model, can't wait to get my teeth into the front of the fire house! soon as thats all done I'll be screwing it all together and I can resume working on the interior.

Also some bits came today, my green self stick dollhouse carpet (for the green rug inder the snooker table on upper floor), self stick beige carpet for venkmans office and also a little 1:12 scale telly which I just couldn't resist buying :p

By thursday I would imagine the foam board arriving so as soon as that's here I'll be going at this hell for leather, expect pics before the weekend is done!
By gold333
#4851459
For me, this is easily the most exciting topic on Gbfans.... Awesome build :) and good luck!
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By midmanc82
#4851480
gold333 wrote:For me, this is easily the most exciting topic on Gbfans.... Awesome build :) and good luck!
Thank you mate, I've gotta say this is the most fun project I've ever worked on, I predict that by the end of next week the bulk of this should actually be finished and screwed together, I have just ordered 4 packs of 1:12 scale newel posts for the stairs and venkmans office plus by tomorrow I should hopefully have my A1 foam board so the exteriors can be done which is basically whats stopping me screwing this thing together now lol!

When I was a kid my mam wouldn't let me have the kenner firehouse. I think I asked for it 5 years solid for xmas/birthdays but my mam was adamant that it would break and to be fair on her logic I did used to play extremely rough with my toys, I'd constantly be asking my gran to superglue heads back onto figures from all the "fighting" they used to do!

I've been browsing this website for years now, I think I first discovered it in 2010 and was absolutely blown away by the many talented and good natured people on this site who build their own props and customize their old toys so rather than try and get hold of an old kenner fire house on ebay I did a quick search on here and it seemed that nobody had tried a scratch build of a fire house for the mattel figures and voila that was my project :)

I think aside from actually having a decent looking display for my now full mattel collection, I would love for this finished project to be featured on the ghostbusters news website, I've seen some amazing fan art on there, If I can get something written up on there then I'll be over the moon lol, just better make sure the finished project looks good lol!

Be sure to keep popping back, there's not much I can do on the model that will be worth posting pics for the next couple of days, it would be stuff like cutting panels and staining them walnut brown for venk's office and the guys lockers, maybe making a few bits and bobs like storage boxes etc, until that A1 foamboard turns up that is. Once that's here I'm gonna absolutely fly at it tooth and nail and for every finished front I'll post a few pics and then screw it all together and mock build what I already have so you can see it in some sort of glory lol

Thanks again for the support and feel free to drop me a comm any time :)
By gold333
#4851586
Thanks for your reply!

I've been posting here for a while but I still need to fill out an introduction post, which I will do soon. For me personally the best part of the franchise is GB1, it was the first movie I ever saw.

Although there are far more worthy people on this site (who actually build their own props) I don't have the time (skills actually ;)

To build a real life model of the fire house is awesome for immersion.

Personally I've always been in love with the equipment of the GB's more than anything else, Ray and Egon, being electronics and applied physics geniuses would have their office full of all manner of gadgets from which to build.

Shots like this are awesome to me:

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It really shows that Stantz and Spengler (perhaps because of the income from the mortgage, Ray's parents must have been rich...) had vast reserves, enough to almost mass produce the equipment they needed. Which may explain the difference in look of the equipment between GB'84 and GB'16.

For me the iconic fire house was always 1984, with the classic early 80's look.

Although the video game being the (first) version of the firehouse a fan could walk through also had it's charms (pre all the achievements you collect throughout the game).

And even the way they did it was very respectful, (slimer caught and in an aquarium, etc.) it was respectful of The Real Ghostbusters and GB1 both.

I like to think the GBTVG firehouse would be a natural progression of where the firehouse would have been in 1991.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short you are doing an excellent job! I wish I could give you tips but I can't... Not enough skills.... Actually perhaps one tip: The GB firehouse was very "wooden". It may save you the trouble in painting wood if you just apply a wood varnish using a cloth to the untreated wood. It may look more realistic than painting as well. Or it may look crap :) I might be off, don't take my tips too seriously.

Good luck!
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By midmanc82
#4851663
Thank you for the awesome words of encouragement, it always makes me all the more enthusiastic of making this as good a job as i can possibly get :) As it happens I got a nice message off somebody from ghost corps facebook page, to be fair I messaged them first and sent a few pictures but they did indeed reply with similar kind words so I'm now in a mania to get this all finished lol.

As it happens my A1 foam board arrived today, a whole 10 pack which is more than enough to get a start on the exterior parts to this model, I could have pieced a few A3 sheets together but with an A1 it will be seamless and will just look a damn sight better I think so as we speak I'm just waiting for a prime coat of paint to dry on the final interior wall I had left to do and then I'll give it a couple of white coats before getting a serious crack on with the exteriors and screwing this behemoth together lol.

As for the wood fear not, I've got it covered :) I've got some leftover laminate flooring which at the moment is a beech colour but I have 2 tins of walnut wood dye, I think if you skip back a page or 2 on this thread there is an example on a test piece i posted up, it's a bit lighter than mahogany and seems to look more like the wood colour fo venkmans office (all those panels) and also going to be using the same flooring for the guys lockers. The good thing about using wood dye is that it still shows the grain of the original wood/laminte so feel free to have a scan at that on this thread to see how it's going to look :)

I also intend to dye/stain the staircase spindles and newel posts in the same colour, that's a task I'm going to tackle once the exteriors are fully complete and the whole thing is screwed together, in fact that will most likely be my second job, the first being the foam board bricks that will be covering the support columns.

Also believe me, I think you can have the skills to do anything you put your mind to, if the interest is there and a little bit of patience you can accomplish anything, plenty of times have I dropped a bollock with things I've made, it just all goes in the "that doesn't work" pile never to be tried again lol! If cost is an issue have a look on the forums here on foam core proton packs, there are some amazing pieces on here and the stuff is relatively cheap, someone made an amazing set of paragoggles on here out of foam core (i call it foam board) and a bit of drywall plaster stuff and they really did turn out to look outstanding :)

Very much with you on the 1984 film, to this day it's a film I have never ever tired of and can safely say I never will, the whole film as just simply a masterpiece and while I am prepared to give the reboot a fair chance before I slate it, I just can't see how they will capture the charm of the original but here's hoping ghost corps come up with something, even their animated film idea in the future that at least focuses on the characters we all know and love. As sad and gutting as Harold Ramis passing away I think the fella who voiced the RGB egon (Maurice LeMarche?) could do a decent job of it and have the 3 original busters return for their voiceovers... A guy can dream lol

Be sure to check back on here before wekkend next week, by that time I would imagine I will have made some significant progress and thanks again for the nice words and support :)
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By midmanc82
#4851728
OK, had a 10 hour stint on this today, here's a couple of pics I snapped earlier, since I took these I have scored the red brick pattern and marked out the grey brick pattern.

Prob not gonna work on this much before monday now as it's the first weekend since xmas I've been kid free with my gf :D

hope you like how this is looking so far :)

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By midmanc82
#4851909
It's my pleasure mate, I'm having heaps of fun making it at the moment, be sure to keep an eye on this over this next week as I'll hopefully have it all screwed together towards weekend, hopefully even sooner as I aim to have the front completely finished today and can start on the long side :)
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By midmanc82
#4851952
OK another 8 hours spent on this today and still not finished the front totally, I may have been a bit overly optimistic (cocky lol) in thinking I could have all the 3 exterior walls finished and screwed together by the end of the week :p

Having said that a fair bit got done. I weathered all the bricks/concrete bits, they've all had a prime coat and then their main coat of paint, the red bricks I dry brushed to give it a more toned look, not sure if you can tell from the pics but I will take a few more in actual daylight tomorrow and see if they're any clearer. The grey looks pretty block shaded which in truth I'm not loving, My first prime coat was way too light so I went over it with a darker coat but tomorrow I'll be dry brushing a lighter tone over it so it looks like it's got a couple of tones to it.

So basically I've got a few piddly bits to do tomorrow to finish it off, the dry brushing mentioned plus there are a good few little bits and bobs that need to go on it like at the bottom either side of the main door opening have 2 panels to go on which will be painted grey and poss black and just underneath the window I have a good few strips to put on along with the 2 bits around the bottom part of the grey bricks that are surrounding the window. Also the black needs applying to around the doorway, couple of touch ups here and there and of course I need to make the actual doors and cut a few strips of the foamboard to cover the transoms and mullions in the window area. So basically all fiddly bits that mount up to a big annoying job!

Also you may have noticed that scale wise this front does't seem tall enough? Well my plan there is that when I get the mdf board for the roof I'll be popping it on the top but leaving between a 10-20mm lip over the whole area, once cut I will be adding 4 extra "walls" to sit on top giving the building its taller/more accurate look. I hope!! lol

Anyway here's a pic of where I'm up to tonight

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Hope you guys like how this is looking so far and be sure to check back toward the end of the week as I imagine some significant progress will have been made albeit maybe not my overzealous prediction this morning lol :sigh::sigh::sigh:
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By midmanc82
#4851988
Some better pics with pre painted bits still to be added, just having a break and will be cracking on :)

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By Farah
#4852053
Very nice! I can't wait to see more of this. :whatever::blush::cool:
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By midmanc82
#4852087
Big busy day today, all exteriors are now covered with the foam board and the fire house front is more or less finished apart from the doors and a few bits of paint needing touched up. Also have popped the carpet down in venkmans office.

Now am just waiting for the glue to dry and then can get a crack on with the brickwork, Ill be sure to keep all in the loop with pics when decent progress has been made

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Thank you Farah, be sure to keep a check on here over the next week or so, it's all coming together now and should start actually looking like the fire house we all know and love :D
Egon's Pompadour liked this
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By midmanc82
#4852176
Thanks Joe, it's most def coming along, all thre glue has now dried on the foam boards that are serving as the exterior parts to the remaining 2 walls, I now have the mammoth task of marking, scoring and weathering the red brick work, boo hooooooo.... but as with the front exterior of the firehouse, will be so worth it when done. Sadly my son is off school today ill with a bad cough (sad for him, not for me having little time to work on this lol) so might not get a great deal done today but I aim to at the very least have all the red bricks painted and the grey brick stuff at the very least all cut to size and weathered ready for its paint job.

Be sure to keep checking in though just in case it all goes smoother than anticipated :)
By Egon's Pompadour
#4852178
Awesome work, man! I've been wanting to get into this hobby myself. If you don't mind me asking, can you suggest any resources for learning this craft? Keep up the good work!
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By midmanc82
#4852208
Egon's Pompadour wrote:Awesome work, man! I've been wanting to get into this hobby myself. If you don't mind me asking, can you suggest any resources for learning this craft? Keep up the good work!
I just spent 20 mins typing out a list of tips and processes I use to do mine and my cat, egon decided to do a riverdance across my keyboard and wiped everything! :sigh::eyeroll::sigh::eyeroll:

OK I'll bob on in a few hours and re type it back out for you once my irritability has subsided lol, it's a good job he's cute, I would have zapped him with my proton gun :cool:
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By midmanc82
#4852316
Egon's Pompadour wrote:Awesome work, man! I've been wanting to get into this hobby myself. If you don't mind me asking, can you suggest any resources for learning this craft? Keep up the good work!
Okie Doke, sorry for my delay, yesterday ended up getting a crack on with scoring the bricks on the huge back wall exterior, today I'll be starting to weather them ready for its prime coat of paint, will post pics of how it's looking so far.

OK as for the tips and tricks on some dio building for you :)

The first few dios I made were standard L shaped ones which basically were the back wall and the floor, heres a couple of examples
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This one was my first ever for my arkham city figures, I had never even heard of foam core/foam board at this point so it's mainly built up from cardboard boxes, fablon and the bricks I just printed out and glued on.

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This one for my neca terminator figures, wanted to make the tech noir battle scene, 2 pieces of wood, one for the back and one for the floor, the left hand side was just some mesh fencing I got from wilkos (like a hardware store in uk) and decorated with fablon, corrugated cardboard and a few small cardboard boxes covered in more fablon

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This was my first ever foray into foam board carving, I think you guys in the states call it foam core. I built this for my stepsons ninja turtle figures as you can see, up to making the ghostbusters firehouse this one was the most ambitious and I had a lot of trial and error in making it, one type of glue I tried using totally melted the foam board do to its chemical reaction and I nearly cried as it was all at the point where I was fixing it all together lol, luckily managed to save it!

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This was my second go at foam core/board for my own neca collection of turtles, again made from 2 pieces of wood, 1 for the back wall, one for the flooring, attempted making this look like the rooftop scene from one of the comics. used more bits of wood to make the top parts of the buildings and lolly sticks to make the knackered looking windows.

Here is a pic of the work in progress on the big back wall of this firehouse pre paint to give you an ide on process before painting
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OK the foamboard you can see here basically comes in packs of 10 and I usually get mine from amazon in A3 size but because this fire house is so damn huge I bought a pack of 10 A1 boards off ebay. They basically come with a paper cover on both sides which you need to peel off so you can get to the foam underneath. Some brands of foam board (my A3 boards) need soaking in hot soapy water for about 20-30 mins and then it just peels right off, the A1 foam board just peeled off easily without messing about.

To do bricks is simple, just figure out your pattern e.g 10mm high x 30mm wide, mark out your horizontal lines first with a bog standard biro, sometimes I score it as I go on small walls but for bigger stuff I tend to draw on the markings first and go over them afterwards. Once you've marked out your horizontal lines you can do the vertical ones and then using the same biro you can start to score them so the bricks become 3d.

I recommend sharp craft knives, scalpel or stanley knife to cut the boards to desired size, a remotely blunt one will hack and chip the foam etc and for the most part you don't want that happening. Patience too! You will need it in abundance and know when to take a break rather than rushing to get it finished as you will almost certainly make a rougher job of thing. For heavily cracked ond weathered walls like dilapidated buildings or sewer walls this can look good and quite fitting but for my gb firehouse I wanted the building to look pretty well maintained for the most part so I've been taking my time and slowly scoring the bricks so as not to chip them too much.

Weathering the bricks to give them a certain level of character I use a carving tool out of a set I bought when attempting to have a go at clay modelling. Most clay carving tools are pretty blunt, I just skim one of em over each brick to ruffle it up a bit, I would suggest maybe taking the first piece of foam board out of the pack and just experimenting on it with any tools you have already, maybe cut into a few pieces and use each as a test swab so you can figure out what works and what doesn't etc

As for all the stuff like wood for the base and walls, most of what I've built have been from old units I wanted rid off like an old bedroom work top, a computer unit that housed my printer, pc tower all that sort of stuff, the front and back of my firehouse are actually the doors off that unit but the rest of it like the floor and the big wall are mdf I bought from B&Q which is basically our version of the US home depot. Ha sorry if I assume too much, I'm assuming you're from across the pond to make double sure you know what I'm talking about etc

I only use the most basic hand tools really, Hand saw for the wood mainly as I get a straighter line, I do own a jigsaw cutter but I end up just going all over the place with that lol. Round and flat files, diff sized drill bits and for the most part PVA glue will stick the foam to the walls really well. Also get yourself a few mini G clamps, they will come in handy for a number of things. If you have no old units around your house that you are happy to demolish, I would go with buying either chip board or mdf, now I'm out of units to destroy I will probably roll with mdf in the future.

Always prime paint your brickwork, I either prime with black acrylic paint or mix my own grey depending on how light a tone I want the main colour to be e.g the firehouse floor was primed in black, given a moderate dry brush of grey over the top and then a really light dry brush of white to give it diff tones and look a bit more worn and torn. Well that was at least my aim anyway lol.

OK I hope I haven't frazzled your brain, am happy to help in any way that I can and hope some of this info has been useful, if you need anything explaining in more detail please feel free to PM me and I will gladly reply first chance I get and good luck for all your future builds and projects!

Here are a couple of pics of fire house progress, apologies for the crappy angles, hopefully you will get a good idea of how it will look when its screwed together. Am going to be weathering the bricks today for the red area, will see where I get up to and see If I can start cutting the grey brick area, I am almost certain I will be screwing all this together this next coming week

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By Egon's Pompadour
#4852354
Awesome! Thanks for the tips; it's much appreciated. I'm definitely going to get into this hobby when I have more time on my hands.
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By midmanc82
#4852423
Egon's Pompadour wrote:Awesome! Thanks for the tips; it's much appreciated. I'm definitely going to get into this hobby when I have more time on my hands.
Happy to help mate, any time :)

It is a really fun hobby although trying of patience sometimes but the end result usually makes it all worth it!

Today I aim to finish weathering the rest of the brickwork on the large wall, also aiming to cut the grey walls out and get the red bricks all primed and painted up, the next time I post any pics will be when this is all screwed together, hopefully some time in the next few days and will mock build up the insides too to give you guys an idea on how it'll look finished :)

Also have decided on where I am going to put this behemoth when its finished. I'm sticking to my idea of buying 2 or 3 plastic shelving units and splitting them down into halves so the surface area is greatly expanded, this will give me tons of space underneath to install a basement plus additional shelves to house more stuff, am thinking the diamond select dio that comes with the completed set of figures could be good also which will basically mean I have a large ghostbusters related entertainment unit set up in my bedroom! Oh my lucky girlfriend :p Saying that, she has said she likes the look of me in my ghostbusters uniform if you catch my drift ;)

Hope you all had a fab weekend, dunno about you guys but my diamond select 7 inch ghostbuster figures wave 1 are set to arrive by friday/saturday, excited much!!!!
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By midmanc82
#4852697
Today is a big day for this build! By the end of today barring any major disasters I will have screwed all this together and we will have the basic diorama set up of 3 walls and the floor/base, be sure to check back in a few hours, have still gotta paint up a load of fiddly bits in the grey and glue them on first, once that's dry we will be good to go :)
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By midmanc82
#4852775
Farah wrote:WOw how nice! I can't to see it compleled! :blush::whatever::eyeroll:
Aaaaaah still a long long way to go before completed, I still have a lot of the interior to do and also the roof and closing wall to properly box this thing off but as far as a standard diorama goes it will have its main basis :)

Sadly yesterday I had a change of heart on how to actually screw this together, I was going to screw some of it from the inside using L shaped brackets and the big wall was to have some holding it in place from the outside and would have been covered by the main grey walling buuuut I figured a way of doing it all from the inside. That basically meant In had to actually finish the big grey wall part plus all the little fiddly bits, paint them and glue em etc. I am now just waiting for the last of the glue to dry and then will be screwing it all up today for sure :)

Attempted to pop up a pic of the finished long wall but my photobucket is under maintenance at the mo, hopefully will be all sorted by the time I have this all screwed in :)
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By midmanc82
#4852804
Yaaay :) finally got the bulk of this screwed together :) Some pics for you guys :)

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OK so that's my progress so far now that it's all been screwed together! Am having a much needed weekend break from this build as I've spent pretty much every spare hour I've had on this, sometimes up til 3am some days so if I do anything with it I will most likely be playing with my actual figures in it lol :)

Hope you guys all like it so far, I dare say I'm approx halfway through this project, I'll be focusing on the interior areas now and will do the roof and the wall that will box this off last
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By midmanc82
#4853201
Nearly got the brickwork finished on the support columns, currently working on those plus the other supports that will be made from the dowels which will prop up the middle areas of the upper floor, soon as done I will post some fresh pics for you guys :)
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By Nicholszz
#4853810
I like this post... It's y'know, exciting.

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By midmanc82
#4853870
Alex Newborn wrote:
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I like Zuul on her bench, just hanging out watching her soaps.

Alex
haha i know, ive nearly finished the support columns now but have had a wee break from hammering it while i build a foam core pack for my sons book day at school, nearly finished that now though so i'll be back to hammering away at this after the weekend :)
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By midmanc82
#4853951
joeghostbuster wrote:i think you need some support on the bottom, the middle is sagging, this looks amazing so far
You're Absolutely right Joe, I have 4 dowels cut and ready to act as the cylinder style support columns, I think they are green in the movie so I just need to finish off the bottom interior i.e venkmans office, the guys lockers and need to finish the stair case off with all the spindles and newel posts plus bannister and I also need to sand/file a bit off that upper floor as it's not sitting in as flush around the sides as I would like, soon as all that's done I can pretty much put the bottom floor to bed and fix those supports in :) I'm just about to paint up the brick work that are gonna cover the wall columns too but have been splitting some time over doing this and my sons pack for his world book day at school so as soon as I've finished that (I'm on a deadline lol) I'll be hammering away at this full pelt again :)

I might pop pics of his pack on here somewhere but I don't want to shame myself next to the seasoned builders on here lol

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