Danno

Nice.

Good stuff.

Nice.

Excellent!

Impressive.

That's nice!

Great job.

Neato!

Nice twice.

They're all beautiful, but I love the Forty combo.

Nice.

Nice.

Very nice builds. They may not be the right ones, but they look right to me!

Ggood stuff! It was a GGGGgreat year, G!

G ~ Kansas City? Not familiar with that one. Writing up the blurb on Lakewood reminded me . . . On Baby Blue police cars: 1. One unfortunate individual tried to replicate a vintage late 60's police car from black and white photos and a vague caption that described a medium metallic blue as 'baby blue.' Thus was born a not-very-authentic looking caricature of the original subject. Hoots and hollers wherever it went. 2. Wichita KS Police cars in the 50's and 60's were white with black hoods, gold shields on the front doors with the word "POLICE" arced over them, beacon ray on the roof, A-pillar spotlight, antenna on the rear fender, and a "STOP" light on the right front fender. Resale value after retirement from duty was dismal. In 1970, somebody in fleet management prevailed and a new concept was born: improved resale value was a goal. New patrol cars were ordered from Dodge: 4-door Coronets, no pillar spotlights, "send us some of each color you sell except white or black." Thus, patrol cars came in all the various Mopar colors, metallic and all. The fleet was beautiful. Clamp-on Federal light bars (with twin Federal 14 beacons) were installed. The electronic siren speakers were in the center. Steel signs were bolted to the cross bar between each beacon and the speaker: "Wichita" on the left, "Police on the right (as viewed from front or rear). Antennas were mounted to the bar on small brackets. No other markings, no holes in the bodies. Most of the older white/black cars were surplussed out (sold), but there were a handful that just didn't have enough mileage to justify being gotten rid of. So, staff sent them to a body shop to get repainted a solid color, to be upfitted to match the new Dodges. After the bills came in for the first couple of repaints, staff had a cow. Then, some genius came up with a fix. Send them to the city shop (where dump trucks, etc., were repaired) and have them repaint the last couple of low mileage patrol cars. The instructions were simple: paint them some random color except white or black. One unfortunate '68 Ford with only a few thousand miles came out "Baby Blue." I mean, real, honest-to-omigod Baby Blue. It looked . . . well . . . sweet. But not very manly like a patrol car should. No one would drive it. There were fights over it ~ "I'm not driving it, Sarge. YOU drive it!" It sat. And sat. Finally after amassing 35 or 40 miles over the next several months, staff gave up and took the lights, siren & radio out of it . . . and gave it to the parks department. Where it continued to sit. 3. I recently saw a newly-restored 1973 Scottsdale Police patrol car. A Plymouth Satellite sedan. I was surprised to see that "The West's Most Western Town" ran white and baby-blue two tone police cars back then. Apparently Scottsdale cops didn't fight over who had to drive the baby blue cars!

Nice stuff. Love the Hudsons. And, that '62 Impala snowplow? Different!

Nice.

Very nice job!

Good stuff.

Beautiful!

Great idea.

Wow. Very nice. Best build up of that kit I've ever seen!

Very good!!

G, you're thinking of Lakewood, CO, a suburb of (and adjacent to) Denver. Lakewood became a city in 1969 and its "Department of Public Safety" was organized and became operational in 1970. Around 1974, the legendary Pierce Brooks (The Onion Field) retired from LAPD (CA) and became the Director of the Lakewood DPS. Brooks brought progressive new community policing concepts with him. The most controversial was abandonment of traditional police labels and uniforms for a more politically correct, softer image. Specifically, policemen and women were no longer referred to as police officers, police men, police women, or patrolmen/patrolwomen. Instead, Brooks designated the patrol division personnel "Police Agents." Sergeants were re-labeled "Supervisors" and Lieutenants became "Commanders." Typical, traditional, and immediately recognizable uniforms were ditched. Police Agents and Supervisors wore gray slacks, white shirts, and medium blue blazers with an embroidered shoulder-patch style emblem on the left chest. No shoulder patches, no badges, no brass, no whistles, no other adornments common to the typical law enforcement image were permitted to be seen. The equipment belt, handgun, handcuffs, etc. had to be fully concealed under the blazer. But, Brook's make-over didn't radically change the marked patrol cars. Lakewood cars were medium blue (some called it Baby Blue, but it was actually a touch darker) with white front doors and roofs. They remained equipped as prior to the Brooks-era: Federal Visi-bar gutter mount light bar with two Federal 14 beacons, both red. The cars had door shields that dared to use the words "Lakewood Police" in conjunction with the shoulder-patch style shield. Supervisors and Commanders drove unmarked slicktop cars in the same blue and white paint - but no white doors. Brook's experiment failed. Citizens and area law enforcement agencies alike derided the "soft approach" as wimpy. Police Agents were largely unrecognized or ignored at most incidents, because, well, they just didn't look like cops. Brooks was surprised to see that instead of engendering a more cordial interaction between the public and the police, an opposite reaction occurred. The law-abiding public was dismayed that they didn't see police on crime scenes (simply not noticing the armed yuppies from Brooks' agency). Bad guys laughed at the wimps sent to control them. And drunk & disoriented people joined the bad guys in fighting or attacking Police Agents because they just didn't perceive them as real cops. Assaults on Police Agents and Resisting Arrest cases increased dramatically . . . until Brooks abandoned the experiment after just a couple of short years (or were they lonnnnng years!).

Dittos!