Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana Scale Diorama 1969 Body Shop Gas Station

Grand opening of my 1/24 scale 1969 body shop Zephyr gas station. Some components were built from scratch and some from kits. The present cars were purchased already built. I've enjoyed building it and plan on adding some more details and a small town Buick dealership next door. I was a combination body shop tech for over 30 years and a painter for the last 10 before I retired.

More photos of the grand opening of my scale model body shop gas station. I've gathered bits and pieces for nearly 20 years, hoping to find time to do this. Finally hashed it out.

Wow that is crzy insane the detail you went through. You better not ***** that painter off!

That turned out great! You have a lot of patience. I can’t imagine it was easy to do with such small pieces.

The painter is a pussycat. The guy to watch out for is his buddy holding the engine.

That's an incredible piece of work - suitable for a museum. I would love to know more about which items you fabricated. How did you come up with the realistic looking lighted neon?

Did you make the signs yourself--and is that an outhouse in the last picture? Don't tell me you worked at a place with an outhouse.

I like how you kept the roof off, so everyone can see all the cool stuff inside. Did you say someone made the figurines for you--nice detail there!

Thanks for the kind words. The neons are just photos I printed on heavy card stock and covered with clear packing tape for gloss. That's the poor boy's lamination method. I built the lubester, parts stand (holding the car door), oil can rack and the tire display stand from scratch. The gas globe is two shirt buttons glued together, painted, then photos of globe lenses glued on. Next, I'm making a Milton driveway bell out of a button.

Thanks! The signs I printed in a highly reduced size, nearly all from photos I took. The outhouse is not really in the correct time period, but I couldn't resist adding it to the diorama after seeing the kit offered for sale. Fun building it. Lots of figurines are available for "G" scale model railroads. I picked some that looked appropriate and modified a couple of them to be closer to what I wanted.

Great job Jim! You have to pretty proud with the way it all turned out. We greatly appreciate you sharing it with us.

Now, to protect it form collecting dust.

Beautiful work Jim.I'm saving these to my browser for future reference.

Great job Jim! Love the detail

Real labor of love . Great detail . Keep it up and your will be putting an extension on your garage to hold the display !

Here are pics of some of my scratch-built pieces. The lubester is a block of wood with bits of electic wire and a sewing pin. The oil can rack is a photo on thin wood with wire legs. The tire stand is printed on card stock paper and folded with a model car tire. The Milton Bell is a painted button with a photo glued to it. The fan belts are black rubber bands with photos of belt labels glued on. The parts stand is 12 ga wire soldered together with necklace chain.

The neon is just a printed photo with clear packing tape over it. I'm sure I could replicate neon with wire painted with neon color paint. But the precision bending would be the crucial test of skill.

Awesome Job Jim, great detail all around!