"American Firemen 1950's" Topic

Sorry that should read 15mm American Firemen from the 1950's.From the mid to late 1940's Mid-west USA to Southern California firemen.

Does anyone make them?
To go with this Matchbox engine.

Hopefully the type you'd find in small towns in New Mexico. Around Area's where nothing of interest happens.

I've never seen 15mm firemen sculpts. You better get the putty out. :)

28mm would look OK.

Check the Rail-Road type figures.
I know they make them in HO and N Gauge.

Have a look at Woodland Scenics ho scale metal castings, they're good on 1950's Americana

..and why is the fire engine painted yellow? I thought American fire engines were usually painted "fire engine red" and that the trend to paint them yellow (or more often, yellow-green or lime green) didn't start until the late 60's\early 70's when a study was done showing that the yellow-ish colors made the vehicles more easy to see than the red ones.

An odd oversight, I would bet khurasanminiatures has some yet to be made though.

Lee

I am sending an inquirey to Seagrave the maker of the truck to see why it is painted yellow.

Also what year and model.

I also notice some models painted white and burgundy.

Lord Ghee

Hard to say you did not see the yellow bus like thing, even at night.

At 15mm your best bet for hat conversion might be either cops or colonial troops. Wolseley style pith helmets are somewhat close to fire helmets. 50's firemen not wearing their helmets usually wore peaked caps and looked like cops.

Weedy 1/72 or HO scale railroad figures may be your best bet outside of conversion. You may find that a head swap between (for example) an Airfix 1/72 polythene figure and a metal or polystyrene 15mm soldier will work, since the former are realistically proportioned and the heads are often the same size, even though the model is taller.

You can probably find soldiers using SMGs that are the right pose for hoses – just trim back the gun bits and add a nozzle and hose with whatever works. Gun and vehcle crews are a good source for the sort of poses you may need for those manning the truck, and prone machine gunners can be converted to ladder climbers quite easily.

I did a google search on fire truck colors and the answer is..

"Colors of fire trucks vary from department to department. Some form of red is the most common, probably white over red is the paint scheme that you will see most. Yellow, Lime Green and White are other colors that you may see from time to time. Most of the colors are long standing traditions as some departments have had colors like green, brown and who knows what else for years. "

Oh, and be careful Googling "HO Firemen". It may think you want "HOT Firemen", so unless that's your thing try "HO scale Firemen" instead…

Oh, and I turned up this range of HO emergency personnel from German firm Preiser:

reynaulds.com/catalog/dept_334.aspx

Not much help for your American 1950's truck – their firemen have German coalscuttle style helmets – but some of the figures are… interesting. If you ever need a murder investigation scene set up on your HO track, or a hostage situation, or a riot, they can supply.

*edit*
I spoke a little too soon. Preiser 12102 in their "turn of the century" range may be what you need.

He is the quick responsive from the Seagrave rep.

Mr. Clayton,

Thank you for your email. Matchbox has over the last several years issued and reissued the same model in numerous colors. This is modeled after units built in the 1950's in Columbus, OH. Seagrave Fire Apparatus, LLC is now located in Clintonville, WI. Please visit our website fwdseagrave.com to learn more about our company.

The colors of the various releases by Matchbox is not based on historical fact. The cost of modeling for diecast models is very expensive and one of the reason you see these multiple releases of the same model. To make a new diecast model for a 2013 Seagrave for example would cost upfront between$60,000-$120,000 for design work before any manufacturing is done to create the diecast and packaging.

Thank you,
Michael

Boy I know a few modelers that could do that work for a lot cheaper.

I think the Balrog wins, demi-god entity vs large lizard.

(Of course it may depend on the Balrog having wings or not)

Regards

David F Brown

Almost certainly those costs are old information, given modern production methods. This guy's company makes the real thing, not the die casts.

But he is correct in that Matchbox will hang on to old models and pimp them up in new paint. I think this has more to do with feeding the collectors than overhead. They have that model in red, white and gold, for example.

Besides, the truck may have left the Seagrave factory in Columbus painted red, but been resprayed yellow by the buyers if that was the traditional engine colour at their station. Seagrave wouldn't really know. Found this:

Thanks be to all the learned fellows here. One of the main things that keeps drawing me to TMP is the work of people here.

I now find this.

TMP link

My converted firemen HO scale heads and FoW bodies

Try asking Martin of Peter Pig for a firemans helmet head pack. Heads are relatively quick and easy to do and he does some oddities like Lizard heads in that range.

Rebel minis has a new 15mm Firemen pack.
link

Yes just spotted that. Serendipity in action!