NIcely done man. I always wondered as a kid why Ecto 1 didn’t fit lol
This just really makes me hope my friend back home wasn’t pulling my leg when she said she had one of these for me.
Pure awesome. Very nice work!
Awesome work…VERY cool indeed!! I was checking out your progress pics of the Ecto you restored/customized. Question… how on Earth did you get it all deconstructed and apart? I tried SO hard getting mine undone, but for the life of me, I couldn’t get the bottom apart from the body. I was afraid of breaking it.
Hey Ludy,
You mean the Firehouse, right? The Firehouse is held together by 3 round "pegs’ that snap into 3 tabbed clips that are molded into the base. You need 4 things to take the bottom off.; a large sink or tub, hot water, liquid soap and a flat head screw driver. An electrician’s screw driver is the best as the head is small and thin.
Soak the botom of the Firehouse in the hot water to help the plastic soften up and become bendable. Flip it upside down and apply some liguid soap around the first peg to work on. Slip the screw driver between the peg and one of the tabs and gently pry (bend) it back. As you do this, apply pressure to the bottom of the “peg” to pop it out of the base. You may have to bend back all 3 tabs to get the “peg” to let go. If you wind up breaking a tab or two (or don’t have the patients and just bust them all off), you can always glue the bottom back on.
Thanks Capt… that info will definitely come in handy down the line, but I meant the Ecto-1 vehicle. I presume, after reading how you took apart the firehouse, that taking apart Ecto is done with a similar process? When trying to remove the “chassis” from the body, I found that popping them apart at the back bumper more challenging than I’d have guessed it’d be.
Oh, You’re crossing the streams. :lol: Well, they actually do pop apart at the back bumper. Slowly separate the front grill from the hood and the back bumper should snap loose from the body.
Had a request for a “proper” sign for the Firehouse. While I was at it, I figured I might as well try to make it light up. We shall see how it goes. First step is to copy the origional Kenner sign and use that for a size reference. It works out that it will fit on the Vac-U-Form, so I’m in business. I make multiple copies on heavy weight paper.
I attach double faced tape to the back of the paper. I then take the base shape for the sign and stick it on a thin sheet of styrene and cut it out.
Next I cut out each additional layer that I will be adding to make a 3D paper buck.
Once I have all the layers, I drill out the eyes and mouth. I’m ready for a test run, so I heat up the ol’ Vac-U-Form and pop in a plastic sheet.
The first pull looks pretty good so I will make one more.
I now have the 2 sign faces. The next trick will be to make the sign box.
How durable are the sign sides?
Second question: Would you be willing to a run of them?
If you don’t use them, they could last forever. They are as durable as thin plastic, which is what they are made of. So they would also be susceptible to extreme heat and cold, whatever makes plastic break.
I’m not done refining the buck, yet, but yeah I could crank out a few when I’m done.
Pending the final result, I may be interested in a set.
I’ve actually been toying with the idea of a Firehouse scale sign myself, and I’m interested in what efforts others make, before I decide whether to get one made myself.
want one!
So awesome.
How you do the weather effect ??
I used 2 different techniques. For the building, 3 steps. I first coated it with a textured paint to simulate a stone surface. Next I painted it in the basic colors (acrylic Masonary Red and Stone Grey, both flat paints). Last and most important is a wash of acrylic Flat Black and Flat Brown paint.
The wash is done by wetting the whole model down with water ( I use a spray bottle with a mist setting). I put a few drops of Flat Black and Flat Brown paint in a cup and dilute it with water. I then brush the diluted paint at the top edges of the building and let it run down the sides, this stains it in a natural way. I work my way to the bottom, adding more wherever the building juts out, like the ledge around it’s middle. If the starting point looks too dark, brush over it with plain water while it is still wet. I keep a paper towel handy In case it looks like there is too much color or puddling in one spot, just leach it away. The wash dries lighter, so a 2nd or 3rd application might be needed to get it to where you think it looks good.
The Firehouse doors were dry brushed to look stained because they have no texture. They were first spray painted Flat Black. I used a fan brush to apply the colors, brush strokes going from the bottom to the top, building up the brown colors dark to light. A topper of the Flat Black/Brown was applied to help match them to the rest of the building, then the hinges, locks and handles were painted brass to finish it off.
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Started to soften up the edges on the ghost. I’m using Squadron Modeling Putty (in very small amounts) to do this.
Here is a before pull.
Here is after addind putty to the ghost’s edges, then sanding it smooth. I also got rid of the small hitch at the bottom of the no ghosts circle and repositioned the eyes and mouth to match up with the decal I’ve made.
Thats looking GREAT! I’m wondering though if you should add another layer to the back, so the entire sign is thicker? If I recall, the original source material sign was fairly thick.
If the plan is adding a black “framework” edge around it, you’ll need enough of an edge to glue styrene to. And if its thick enough, you could probably even add micro leds inside it to light it up!
Top row shows 2 sign faces cut out from the pulls, I added a ■■■■■■ so they would be easier to mount to the frame (which I haven’t made yet). The grid on the mat is half inch, so you can get an idea of how big these things are. Bottom row shows the decal (left) and the first attempt to apply the decal on a sign face (right).
Tried to match the angle to the movie shot (without looking at the movie shot first). You get the idea.
You’re pretty sharp there, son. That’s why I added the ■■■■■■ to the sign face.
Here you go, buddy. :crunch:
Hmmm I’m actually seeing three edges to the sign. Here’s my assembly thoughts:
First top “layer” is what you have in the vac formed sheet.
Second layer could be a black piece of craft foam, with the center cut out. Odds are, you’d need to add some thickening strips to the back of the vac formed front, so you’d have something that glue would adhere to. That would give you probably 1/8-3/8 inch thickness per side, enough for a string of those mini ribbon leds I found around christmas, or similar micro led strings.
The last edge layer could be thick styrene, plexiglass, or balsa wood. if thick enough, you could drill small pilot holes on the edge, and attach small jewelry “o” hooks, and then add a small jewelery chain for the chains to hang it from. It looks liek the electrica wires were run up the back chain, so thin led wires would work with that fine, I’d think.
You could power it by batteries, or if using those led ribbon things, plug it into the wall.
If you don’t have access to anything like that, maybe we could work out a trade? I could send you one of those white led strings with the power pack for a set of the signs, with the decals?
I was considering adding one of those strings to light my firehouse, and this would give me more incentive, since it would also have an outside lit sign as well.
Great project!