MOC: Firehouse "Engine Company 5"

[ER0L]

Firehouse "Engine Company 5" - GBHQ/2 by ER0L

This build started some years ago when there was a certain “GBHQ hype” (Ideas sets, official set, plus quite a few nice MOCs). I just wanted to see if a facade with a SNOT windows section could be built to get narrower window bars which for me are an important aspect of the facade. It proved to be possible, however, the build was far from being finished at that time. Fortunately I didn't scrap it though it took a lot of dust over the years. 

Now that there's another Route 66 layout section to be built (the actual shape of the building being a requirement for that), and now that there’s a renewed pumper engine I took the chance to finish it and to turn it into an actual firehouse again (though the Ecto-1 fits in, too).

(Btw. there’s a building fault at the facade which I have seen only after shooting the pictures - does anybody recognize it?)

One of the main features of the building is the upside down ceiling:

Firehouse - Ceiling by ER0L

By using an upside down baseplate as a ceiling several problems are solved at once - you can fix the L&S lighting elements easily, you get a (more or less) smooth floor surface without tiling, and you need relatively few parts. The old 1x2 bricks with cable cutout do a great job here. This is something to be further developed, I guess.

Built in ceiling:

Firehouse - Detail by ER0L

As usual for this type of building there's no baseplate underneath but a 5-layer foundation matching the height of SNOT road plus sidewalk - this allows to strictly separate buildings and sidewalks which provides more variability:

Firehouse - Detail by ER0L

Furthermore I built a small diorama together with the olden 21-wide Painted Lady from 2013 (see https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/84685-moc-victorian-townhouse-san-francisco-style-21w/) just to see how the firehouse will fit into a downtown surrounding - the modular character of the layout allows quick combinations:

Firehouse & Painted Lady (R66 mini diorama) by ER0L

By doing so I used the opportunity to update the Painted Lady which also had taken a lot of dust in the meantime. Now there’s a proper chimney plus an exterior light. I also reduced the depth of the building due to layout requirements.

Last but not least a night shot of the mini diorama (all the lights being Lego):

Firehouse & Painted Lady (R66 mini diorama) - Night Scene by ER0L

Thanks for looking!

 

Edited July 16, 2018 by ER0L

[LM71Blackbird]

The whole MOC itself is awesome, but I must say, you are a master at car building! I like the one with the 22 on the door. Keep up the great work!

[ER0L]

36 minutes ago, LM71Blackbird said:

The whole MOC itself is awesome, but I must say, you are a master at car building! I like the one with the 22 on the door. Keep up the great work!

Thank you! In fact I’m a car builder mainly, however, I was always interested in the surrounding of a vehicle - after some time you end up in building a whole layout for them.  That’s also the reason why the road is not the least important structure of the Route 66 layout, compared to buildings and also to trains. - The car you mention is my take on the Speed Champions Ferrari 250 GTO, shrunken down to City scale purposes, see https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/108630-speed-champions-alternates/&do=findComment&comment=2952386

 

[LM71Blackbird]

14 minutes ago, ER0L said:

Thank you! In fact I’m a car builder mainly, however, I was always interested in the surrounding of a vehicle - after some time you end up in building a whole layout for them.  That’s also the reason why the road is not the least important structure of the Route 66 layout, compared to buildings and also to trains. - The car you mention is my take on the Speed Champions Ferrari 250 GTO, shrunken down to City scale purposes, see https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/108630-speed-champions-alternates/&do=findComment&comment=2952386

 

Your welcome! Thanks for the link.

[jfbat]

2 hours ago, ER0L said:

(Btw. there’s a building fault at the facade which I have seen only after shooting the pictures - does anybody recognize it?)

 

I'm guessing it's the grey part next to the SNOT built windows on the top floors? At the left it's one plate wider...

What a great building and what great cars you build!

[peedeejay]

Fantastic build. And I have to second what has been said about your cars. They're just brilliant.

[ER0L]

49 minutes ago, jfbat said:

I'm guessing it's the grey part next to the SNOT built windows on the top floors? At the left it's one plate wider...

What a great building and what great cars you build!

Thank you! - Correct. Probably I built the two versions back in the day to see which one looks better and didn't recognize it when finishing the build.

34 minutes ago, peedeejay said:

Fantastic build. And I have to second what has been said about your cars. They're just brilliant.

Thanks a lot! Glad you like the cars, too.

[ER0L]

As a last addition, a video, moving Greyhound Bus included:

Only a short impression, however, it shows quite well some of the basic principles of the Route 66 Brick Project layout standard:

• no use of unchanged sets (though MODs are allowed) 
• matching scale throughout (more or less; I call it "Larger City Scale", see also https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/97314-citytown-vehicles-range-of-possible-widths/)
• brickbuilt roads and sidewalks 
• no baseplates used as a foundation of buildings
• strict constructive separation between buildings and sidewalks
• 100% Lego lighting of streets and buildings plus on some of the vehicles (here: PF + L&S, see also https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/87577-mocs-100-lego-lighting)
• motorized vehicles (only a few of them, of course), either steered by a guiding arm or moving freely as RC vehicles, see also https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/144073-moving-vehicles-in-a-lego-city-100-lego-solution/&do=findComment&comment=2971069.

All elements are harmonized with each other (e.g. streets are wide enough and junctions are smooth enough for the turns of moving vehicles, there's enough room for the necessary wiring underneath the sidewalks and buildings etc.) which makes the building process of further MOCs for the layout much easier. You just don't have to think about all this stuff any more - which is where the fun begins in my opinion. 

More on this soon, thanks for commenting and viewing!

Edited July 21, 2018 by ER0L

[LegoModularFan]

I'm loving this! The road and the sidewalk look so smooth. The GB Firehouse looks awesome too, I really love the SNOT windows, the thinner masonry effect around them and the orange plate work which adds so much to the look! Great photography skills you have as well, the reflection make look this MOC even more gorgeous! Keep up the wonderful work!  

[ER0L]

On 8/5/2018 at 10:47 AM, LegoModularFan said:

I'm loving this! The road and the sidewalk look so smooth. The GB Firehouse looks awesome too, I really love the SNOT windows, the thinner masonry effect around them and the orange plate work which adds so much to the look! Great photography skills you have as well, the reflection make look this MOC even more gorgeous! Keep up the wonderful work!  

Thank you! Glad you like the SNOT masonry - of course by using this technique the masonry doesn't protrude like it does in reality, however, mimicking such very small protrusions with Lego doesn't work that well in my opinion, it might even spoil the lines of a building too much. But well, in either case compromises have to be made. Concerning the colour design I have the impression that dark red goes especially well with dark orange (much better than with red) - both have that kind of earthy look to them. 

Regarding the reflections: In fact they aren't intended, I even regard them as a downside of black SNOT roads (though I already try to use rather old and scratchy bricks to build them). Roads rather look as if they're wet, in combination with the desert sections you may at least think of a mirage on a hot road surface. But well, regarding the many advantages of a brickbuilt road design I guess I can live with that.