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Superb... as usual! Tony

WOW! A superb model... even before the "accident"........ Tony

This is getting interesting.... I still stick to my previous guesses. Look at the man door........ the height is about 3 times the width. That would make it 9' high +/- (7' door including frame +2' transom above). A large hewn timber beam across at the second floor level would cut down the joist span to maximum 16'... easily achievable with full 2" x 10" joists. The rest of the dimensions would work out as I suggested. Tony.

Josh.... You're definitely correct that old buildings did have low height doors, but I believe that even a Model T pumper or ladder truck with a driver would need a garage door with more height than 6', especially if the driver didn't wanted to get beheaded. I once drove a 1928 Sanford fire truck that we had in our museum and it was like sitting way up in the air! My guesses were based on the fact that the garage door opening appears to be square. If the small door beside it is about 3' wide then it would appear that the garage door is about 3 times a wide as the small door... thus a 9' wide garage door. If it's square then it would also be 9' high. It also looks like the width of the building is about 2 1/4 times the width of the garage door..... thus 9' plus 9' plus 3' = somwhere between 20' and 24' wide, which would make sense for a building of this type, I think. If you measure the width of the garage door on the photo as 9', then use that as a scale across the width of the building you should be pretty close. As far as the length of the building is concerned, it difficult to say. However, as it's possible that this building was build in the early days of horse drawn fire equipment, there would have been a stable for the horse in the rear of the building approximately 10' long...... then a space for the wagon (another 20' or so) making the building at least 30' - 32' long. This would have also suited an early motorized fire engine plus some equipment storage space. As a small town fire dept. it's unlikely they would have had any large fire trucks like the Sanford or an Aerons Fox. (Did I spell that right?) All guesses of course, but if you relate the size of the community to the type of equipment they would likely have had and the time the building was built.... as Josh said, maybe some old timers in the community may settle some of these questions for you, Tony

Aw shucks Junior....... and I was looking forward to seeing you build 300 miniature chairs, etc. Oh well......! Tony

Great stuff Junior!! Where did you find those letters? Tony

Hey Brad... I hate to disagree with you... but I think that door opening is more than 6'6" high..... because the garage door beside it is the same height and you'd never get a fire truck inside if it was only 6'6". I'm guessing it would be at least 9' with the door at 7' and a 2' fixed transom panel above. The floor to ceiling height would probably be around 10'+. Second floor at around 8' floor to ceiling. All guesswork of course. I'm also guessing the building would be about 20' x 32' at least...... maybe a little bigger. If you build at 1/24 scale, the building would be on a 10" x 16" base and stand approximately 12 1/2" to the ridge, with a 4:12 slope on the roof..... (plus the height of the exposed basement). If you draw it out to scale on a piece of paper, you'll see how it fits together. As this is your first dio, may I also suggest you make a cardboard mock up first, then you can compare your sizes to the photos. If it doesn't look right, you can adjust the sizes to suit. Hope this helps. Tony

I think the cop should get a new dog if it can't figure out that the fugitive and the Elk are so close! Lost his sense of smell? Just kiddin' LOL. Still think the dio is great! Tony

Let me guess......... no interior in this one. You wouldn't...... would you?! Looking forward to it. Tony

It's definitely come together in a BIG way! Nice work. That's one brave Elk. Must be a tame one? Tony

And nobody even mentioned that nice '57! Tony

And all at 1/87 scale! Words don't do it justice. Tony

I need to light up the interior, so I picked up a string of lights from the local dollar store complete with a battery pack and on/off switch. I think these will give me the low light level I need for a dimly lit 1900's interior. To get an idea of the amount of light I punched some holes through the rear wall and pushed a few bulbs through. This is how it looks in daylight.... not very bright but when I turned off the room lights at night, they are just about right. I'll also add some exterior lighting to the building and (hopefully) a street lamp. The glow of a pot bellied stove? The three lamps on the back wall...... I'll change the location of these when I finalise the furniture layout.

If that's not a great diarama... I don't know what is! Great! Tony

Now this is looking good! But where will you sleep? LOL Tony

Lighting really brings it to life. Looking really great Junior! Tony

I wish the NNL East was a lot closer to South Eastern Ontario, Canada! Tony

When a master creates a work this special, what more can be said? Tony

It's the little details... the smashed TV, the old barrel, etc....... that really bring this dio to life. Fascinating and extremely well done. Tony

Thanks Junior and Tony. And thanks for the advice Maynard. Tony

Now that the weather is warming up, I'm going to put this aside for a while and get back to some of my unfinished car models... and some new ones! I'll get back to the dios in the late fall, when the weather turns cold and I can't spray paint outside anymore. Tony

There's some really neat stuff in those blister pacs.......! Tony

I also built a #28 Fred Lorenzen 1966 Nascar stocker. It wasn't until I finished it... that I discovered some internet information that said that the 1965 Galaxie was the last model year he raced! I'm not a great Vintage Nascar "know it all", so I would be interested to know if he did actually race a 1966 model Galaxie? Tony

Junior.... return PM sent.

This is getting better all the time Junior! Keep up the great work, I'm really enjoying following along. Tony