Fire brigade staff car

[playmofire]

This started life as a 3139 red family car (see here http://www.collectobil.com/images/items/3139.jpg) off eBay.  I decided it would make a good fire brigade staff car as it was a bit smaller than, say, the 3904 police car.  Tests showed that the working blue light from the 3925 ambulance was unsuitable as the battery compartment projected too far down into the passenger area, so I decided originally to use the non-working blue light off the 3177 fire brigade car (http://www.collectobil.com/images/items/3177.jpg).  However, when the new 4221 ambulance came out, it had a new design of blue light which used smaller batteries and so projected less into the passenger area.  Although the car roof was all sprayed up by now, I decided to risk cutting a hole in the roof for the new style blue light and this worked without damaging the paintwork at all, to my great relief.  The vehicle is used by Fiona who is the brigade's fire investigation officer. 

[Tiermann]

Great job Gordon, looks very much like stock Playmobil in style

[Tim_w]

Hello  Gordon 

Many appologies for the delay in replying  . I meant to leave you feedback when i first saw the thread but it completley slipped my mind. As allways you never fail to amaze me with your work, the attention to detail is allways first class. I have been looking for a solution to Playmobil's shortage of a staff car for a while now but most would require a complete re-spray. I guess i am hoping Playmobil will do the work for me this time and release some Fire vehicles in the near future !! Mind you seeing your work has inspired me to investigate things further myself.

Kindest Regards  Tim 

[playmofire]

Thank you for your comments, both Tims.  They're much appreciated.

The spray colour I used was Red 033.  It looks good and is a reasonable match for the Playmobil colour if you're spraying up whole panels on, say, a 3880.  It just looks as if it's been in an accident and been repaired!

[EDWINMODELS]

Hi Gordon and another great conversion. I really thought that playmobil let us/you down with thier 3177 chiefs car. Yours is a great improvement Regards Craig

[playmofire]

Hi Craig (got your name right second time!), thanks for your kind comment.  The Playmobil fire car is based on the Smart and these are actually used by some German fire brigades and a few English ones.

[EDWINMODELS]

Hi Gordon and I stand corrected. But apart from a hat, radio and meagphone they cant be carrying too much equipment in the back. Regards Craig

[FireChief]

Hey Gordon,

Sorry for not seeing this custom earlier.

Good job. It looks good, and appears to have a nice selection of equipment.


Ben

[playmofire]

Hi Gordon and I stand corrected. But apart from a hat, radio and meagphone they cant be carrying too much equipment in the back. Regards Craig

I don't know what the situation is in Germany, but over here they tend to be used for community fire safety education.  Looking in this quarter's Fire Cover I see that Northumberland have just taking a Smart into use for this purpose and that the Smart was chosen as the brigade "wanted a vehicle that would attract the public's attention".  Otherwise, as you say, a tight squeeze for anything major.

[playmofire]

Hey Gordon,

Sorry for not seeing this custom earlier.

Good job. It looks good, and appears to have a nice selection of equipment.


Ben

Hi Ben, better late than never, and thanks for your comments.  I must admit I'm very pleased with it.  Usually there is some niggle in my mind at the end of a custom, even if it's only that there is a duff bit of paintwork which no one will ever see unless they take the whole vehicle apart but I know is there.