D. Krakow Auto Repair in 1/87 scale

[Malachi Constant]

Thanks everyone for your comments. Christian I´m not sure which oil cans you refer to but here is a pic. Decals are N-scale Gas Station set from Microscale.

Anders

Geez, Louise!  That photo is a painful reminder of how neatly done these little tiny things are.  You must be completely crazy ... and very good at it. 

Cheers,
Dallas

[BKLN]

You are killing me, Anders! 
Thanks for the close up. It's interesting to see you and Dallas working pretty much on the subjects, just different scale.

[Junior]

Hello guys....hadn´t planned to bore you with more detail pictures but I have two questions.

1. I´m not sure how that small grinder on the workbench would be powered. I have a large grinder in my machine shop that is belt driven and my guess is that I should just run some wires to an electrical outlet for this small one.

2. Would appreciate if anyone could help with some pictures of an auto repair/gas station facade from the 1930´s. Brick or wood is not so important more the general design.

Hired a real pro for this picture - that´s DALLAS Kinsey behind the camera focusing on some of the Vectorcut parts on the workbench.

Anders

[lab-dad]

The details are excellent.

The bench mounted grinders are usually driven by a motor inside them.
Hence the middle being large where the belt normally would go.
Just run an electrical cord to a plug.
Make sure the cord is frayed in at least one spot too 
-Marty

[BKLN]

Oh, yes, and take a look at the electrical outlets Dallas made. He set the bar pretty high, but I am confident that you won't have any problems matching is attention to detail in 1/87. 

[DaKra]

yes, at this level of detail you need outlets, those scary old two-prong porcelain ones.

I assume you want a rural fix-it sort of garage.    Couple of typical garages with an office attachment.  These are more off-the highway sort of establishments, not really backwoods.   





This one was in NYC, but looks rural.



Ray & Irwin's Garage is one of my favorites 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtl4sipVBHA

[DaKra]

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51567

A website worth browsing

[Junior]

Marty, thanks a lot - excellent info. Christian, lucky boy Dallas has all those Verlinden parts that he creates pure magic with. I don´t even know what an electrical outlet from the 1930´s would look like but I will probably find one on the Internet. Dave, that´s some great pictures I searched Flickr. etc. couldn´t find much so this is really great. Unfortunately there is no access to the You Tube clip in this part of the world.

Thanks guys!

Anders

[DaKra]

This old garage could make a pretty nice design.  The structure on the right would look better as a false-front office, with windows and a people-door and a simple cornice up top.      Or maybe leave that one as is and add a people door and windows to the structure on the left.

[Junior]

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51567

A website worth browsing

That´s a gold mine! Many thanks.

Anders

[Junior]

This old garage could make a pretty nice design.  The structure on the right would look better as a false-front office, with windows and a people-door and a simple cornice up top.      Or maybe leave that one as is and add a people door and windows to the structure on the left.

That´s probably THE one but larger and in better condition...great!

Anders

[Malachi Constant]

Hey, I'm honored ... I think ... who knows? 

Wasn't Kinsey the sex researcher?  Does this mean that I have to shoot photos of naked women draped all over your auto shop?  Sounds like a difficult and taxing job, but I'm willing to try.  (Heck with Darius Kinsey ... Dallas Kinsey has some more interesting ideas ...) 

Did some research and found that the grounded outlet was patented in 1928:
http://illumin.usc.edu/article.php?articleID=181&page=3

BUT ... the two-prong outlets remained far more common in widespread use for many, many years ... into the 50's and 60'.  I tried using two-prong outlets in my first go-round, and they looked "funny" to me.  Since they're intended as background objects, and I don't want them to become focal points, I opted to go with the 3-prong outlet ... because my eye quickly saw those as "outlets" and kept moving.  Right or wrong, it's the "editorial" decision for my version.

ALSO ... I considered simply PRINTING photos of the outlet faceplates ... not enough depth that way in 1/35 scale, but might work for you in HO.  Sample photo of porcelain outlet below.

And, I just posted some more "parts source" reference info over on the RR Line forum that might be useful if you get into doing 1/35 stuff ...

PS -- Photos help prove that I carefully researched "reality" and then made my own stupid decisions to suit my little fantasy world! 

Cheers,
Dallas

[Malachi Constant]

PS -- My breaker box is a bit on the modern side too ... one of those things where I can sorta fake-justify it based on "when were they invented" ... but the FUSE box remained far more widespread for many years after my 1942 time period.  That said, the Verlinden breaker box had nice detail with a separate door and I think the casual viewer just sees it as part of the infrastructure.  (Hey, $5 word today!)

Lots of good fuse box photos out there ... I have a few pix of neat, older ones with conspicuous copyrights that I won't post here, but I can forward privately for reference if needed. 

Cheers,
Dallas

[DaKra]

Some nut makes the two prong porcelain outlet covers in HO scale.   

[Malachi Constant]

Marty, thanks a lot - excellent info. Christian, lucky boy Dallas has all those Verlinden parts that he creates pure magic with. I don´t even know what an electrical outlet from the 1930´s would look like but I will probably find one on the Internet. Dave, that´s some great pictures I searched Flickr. etc. couldn´t find much so this is really great. Unfortunately there is no access to the You Tube clip in this part of the world.

Thanks guys!

Anders

It might be worthwhile to poke around the web and search for "HO scale engines" ... "HO scale engine parts" ... "HO scale motors" ... "HO scale auto parts" etc ... you'll get a lot of un-related junk, but may find a few goodies.  

ALSO ... consider doing those as IMAGE searches ... kinda makes it easier to "see" what's out there ... for example, I quickly turned up some neat stuff here:

http://ralphratcliffemodels.com/catalog/product_reviews.php?products_id=65
http://ralphratcliffemodels.com/catalog/product_reviews.php?products_id=65

Of course, it's possible that I just go lucky and Dave and "that guy" are the only ones making parts!  

Cheers,
Darius