Firehouse

Hi, folks. A few days ago there was an ad on TMP about a new Stoelzel's Structure Firehouse. The Stoelzel's Structures are 28mm paper and designed to be used on foamcore. The thing I found most interesting is that they have interiors, also. You don't often get that with paper terrain. Also had plenty of interior furnishings. The price is great on them, too, ranging from $4-8. After looking at preview pics on Wargames Vault I ended up buying 3 of them and went back and bought 2 more yesterday. I will eventually be building and posting all of them.

I'm using mine as an old Firehouse which has been purchased by the "Occult Research Center" for their HQ.

The Occult Research Center or O.R.C. I guess I can have a "Man From O.R.C.". :) If you're younger than me, you may not remember the old "Man From U.N.C.L.E." tv series. I cut out the windows from the original design and replaced with 1/4" chicken wire. I also cut out the garage-type door and hinged it across the top. The windows on the garage door were also cut out and glazed with clear plastic. As you can see, the garage door is too small to accommodate a big vehicle, but I found something to fit.

This pic shows the partially open door and something happened to the address number sign. Something bad...

A view into the ground floor. That Pontiac Solstice fits in here fine. The urban camo wearing Man From O.R.C. is not gonna let some Undead scumbag eff up his car!

Side view of the O.R.C. building. Sister Maria confronts a Zombie. Sign from a model RR site. The rooftop vent is from a Hirst Arts Sci-Fi mold. I'm using it as a handle to help remove the roof. One thing I didn't mention about this build yet is that I printed the wall pages out on full page label sheets. Then you just peel off the back and stick them to the foamcore. That was one of the suggested methods for building this in the instructions. I had some label sheets so I decided to try it. The method has pros and cons. Pros: Quick, easy application (at least for outside walls) and not messy at all. Cons: They're not sticking too well in some places, even though I carefully burnished them. Fixable with Tacky Glue, though. Another con is that it is difficult to line up the print-out well for the interior walls. Hard to reposition. I think I'll just stick with Tacky Glue from now on, but it was worth a try.

Rear of the building. Sign added from another model RR site.

Other side of the building. As you can see the side door is hinged to open and close. I cut out the windows on the door, and applied some more of the silver puff paint for the doorknob. The sign is another from a model RR site.

Interior view of the first/ground floor. The 4 pillars support the next floor and have some nice graphics on them. I wrapped the paper for the pillars around some square basswood dowels for added strength. The stair at the rear of the build has been kit-bashed. I had a hell of a time trying to build the stair the way it was designed and decided to just keep the paper as a skin to apply over a frame I made from 3mm mattboard. (Using mattboard for these paper builds is something I learned from Vampifan). Basically the two stair sidewalls are spaced by some Hirst Arts 1" bricks. The stair treads are popsicle sticks cut to size and glued atop the risers. In the foreground is a firepole left in place from the building's origin as a Firehouse.

 View of the 1st/ground floor interior toward the front of the building. The firepole goes up all the way to the to top floor.

Here's a shot of the 2nd floor (1st story for our cousins across the pond). The stairway is designed to be open on the front so you can slide the front edge of a mini's base into the opening to help hold it in place. Sister Maria has a 30mm base and the stair can keep her in place. The firepole in the left foreground is coming through a hole in the foamcore that has a sleeve made from a black plastic drinking straw. That was done to strengthen the spot where the pole passes through the foamcore and to help hold it in place.

Pic above is just a different angle showing how minis can climb the stairs. If you make some be more careful on the heights of your risers. :)

An interior view of the top floor. I cut the hole for the firepole out completely to make it easier to get the pole into the building, because the 2nd and 3rd floor are designed to lift up and out of the building for access.

The 2nd floor has been removed in this pic and set aside.

Here's the removed 3rd floor.

I always have liked the notion of multiple level gaming.

The Zombie Ho' seems to dimly recollect something about poles. Perhaps she was once an exotic dancer. :) The Firehouse kit includes a nice texture for the pole, either brass or wood, but feeling lazy I just painted a piece of round wooden dowel with silver spray paint. You can see the rather crude base I made for the firepole. I took a piece of black plastic drinking straw, split the bottom into 4 sections which I used as flanges to glue to the wooden disk base piece. I then superglued a small metal washer on top of the "flanges" to help hold them in place, and to add weight and stability. Then I put some wood glue into the well made by the straw to fix the pole to the wooden base. 

My obligatory looking through the window pic. Something I didn't mention about the windows. They're not glued into place. The sides of the grid were trimmed flush with the edges. I left some longer chicken wire spikes on the top and bottom and stuck them up into the foamcore to hold the windows in place. 

Well, that's all of the pics. This is a very nice little kit and for only $5 you can't beat it. Not pictured in this article are some very nice exterior and interior furnishings. Eight pages of them. There's 3 different rooftop vents, bunkbeds, lockers, vending machines, picnic tables with benches, upholstered chairs, desks, tables, refrigerators, stoves and ovens. Only thing missing is bathroom stuff, which I found in the Hospital set I also bought. 

Another caveat I should mention is that I think with a better printer the texture of the print-outs would look much better. They certainly look better on my monitor before I print them, and even after repeated cleaning of the printer, I'm still having trouble the yellow.

If you're looking for some very nice, affordable terrain designed to be used with foamcore, and having nice playable interiors, Stoelzel's Structures really fits the bill. 

Thanks very much for looking. I hope you find some useful information here, and that you will check out Stoelzel's Structures. He has a total of 14 models, I bet you'll find something you'll like.