MRC Texaco Station build update #1 and 3000 Subscribers Winners Named

[@tomcatflynn805]

Congratulations to the winners. Thanks for picking Texaco. If u seen my pics I did one to kinda honor my WWll uncle who had a Texaco 20 ft from my house in Hazelton PA. Looking forward to this build. Thanks

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

That is very cool. I hope I can do your Uncle proud. I have lots of plans for this one. Not sure how much will be realistic, but it will look good. . . Well I hope it will look good. LOL Thanks for following along.

[@kyledehartsscaleworks]

Got to go with green for the man door too!! Has to be bright and shiny for the customers with a nice Texaco logo on it. 😂. I think for the tow truck you can definitely build your own “toolbox” in the bed of the tow truck to hold the battery. This thing is just going to be too cool. Great ideas for the station and great job on the garage door. I really like the idea for the removable walls. Good stuff.

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Yes, I will go with a green door for the front and the restrooms. I think I will use the top of the toolbox and build taller sides that are the battery holder and then when I put the top on the toolbox it turns on the lights. Or something like that. LOL That garage door may be the hardest part of the entire build. LOL

[@Bruces-Eclectic-World]

@@grandpamarkshobbies When you make the tool box, since it is outside in the bed, you can put a little leaver on one the side to slide back and forth to turn the lights on and off. Better yet a latching push button micro switch, one push the lights are on..Disguise it as a vent cap . Lol

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

I was even thinking of a magnet reed switch so I can turn it on and off with a small magnet that I will keep on the bottom of the fire bottle. LOL See we are all thinking inside the box. LOL

[@Bruces-Eclectic-World]

@@grandpamarkshobbies That was going to be my next suggestion.. Lol They make the little Mercury style switches too. That explain's why it is so cramped in here... 🤣 You do realize as we bounce the idea's around my build of both gets easier... 🤔 Right?😁 LLAP 🖖

[@kyledehartsscaleworks]

@@grandpamarkshobbies now we’re really thinking!! Lol

[@martindaredare]

This is looking great, your plans for the removable walls is a brilliant idea, this is going to be fun to watch ,enjoy your breakfast with your good lady

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thank you. I am always looking for ways to show off the crew and cool ways to take pictures of the cars. She loved her breakfast.

[@patrickwells8302]

Congratulations to the winners. This Texaco kit looking good. Thats great feature having the garage door open and close

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thanks. It makes endless photo opportunities for future car build videos.

[@michaelcooke2559]

Very nice work so far. That is going to look great. You have an endless amount of options available. Thanks for sharing.

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thanks. Yes, this will be one of those kits that is never done. LOL

[@robinbryde3038]

Thanks for sharing this,Mark....great build details!! I'm looking forward to following you through this series...😎👍

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thank you. I have some cool ideas to add to it too.

[@ModelCarMinion]

Sounds like an awesome plan. Glad to hear it's going together well. I like the plans for the lighting, can't wait to see more updates.

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thanks. The more I work on the building the more I think about things to do inside. LOL

[@alancyr3100]

That is looking cool! You can just keep adding details. Thanks for sharing.

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

It really is. It's one of those kits that will never be done, but I'm good with that.

[@themediocremodeler-zm7ny]

That's going to be very cool Mark. Thanks for putting on the drawing and taking the time to make the content. congrats 3000

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thanks. I am so blown away by 3000. I wish I could have gotten something for everyone.

[@davidchin350]

Looks good Mark look forward to seeing it in Park Green and the lighting. I always thought this was a great diorama base for completed car kits if you have the room.

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

I'm not sure if I have the room right now, but I will be making some. Time to get rid of some stuff. LOL

[@richiek6379]

Oh man Mark it's gonna be so cool !!! Like all your ideas. The rest room is a nice touch. You have to paint or put a real (scratch built) door on the inside with the Mens/Ladies signage on it. All that wire needs to be run in conduits too and then the tubing for the air compressor. Lots of fun stuff to do Mark. You may have to expand to make it a two bay garage just for all the ideas you want to do. Some tough decisions are going to have to be made. But it's so much freakin fun !!! It's bringing back memories too. One thing I'm thinking may be a problem is not being able to put shelving on the walls because you want to be able to remove them for your picture ideas. You'll think of something to get around that. Like maybe permanent stanchions on the inside of the walls to run wires.and attach the horizontal conduits to. So many possibilities!

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

I love the idea for the doors on the inside too, but I may need that space for my welding booth. LOL I've decided to make the back wall non removable. That will give me so many more options. Room for shelves and a workbench. I also want to add some shelving behind the managers desk too. So the only removable side will be the side where the lift is. Still a ton of options. I am also going to make a bigger base that this base will sit on. That will have the parking lot, the lit sign, and two sets of lit gas pumps with the small pump canopies. I'm also going to put a green screen behind it so I can add cool backgrounds. Sunrises, full moons, all kinds of ideas for that too. I can see this getting big. . . Like a drive in next door. LOL

[@rickborland661]

These are all great ideas! I never would have thought of the green screen, a very cool idea. A parking lot is a must and a great way to display completed builds. Did you mean a Drive-in movie or a hamburger joint? Probably the hamburger joint, heh? I’ve been having similar ideas but as separate dioramas? It makes sense to combine if you’ve got the room. You know Mark, if this gets much bigger, your going to have to rent a room to display it.@@grandpamarkshobbies

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

The Green background will make it cool when I do my build videos, and make it easy to add a background to the station when I'm taking pictures. Only problem is I will have to go blue screen because of all the green in the building. LOL When I said Drive In I was talking about those Saturday nights when we would all drive in to the local garage where we all worked on our cars and hang out. These usually ended up with a couple of guys ending up on the old state road doing what the cars were built to do. LOL I have a pool table in the basement that I am giving away so I have room for this and a drive in theater that I will be using an old small TV to play old sci fi movies. LOL I love old cars and old B-movies.

[@richiek6379]

@@grandpamarkshobbies Very cool ideas. We had a Dairy Queen right down the block from our station where we all used to hang out. Yeah and then hit what we lovingly called "connecting highways" to drag race. I still can't believe it was over 50 years ago. Man how it flies bye. I think your right on about having all the room you'll need for the drive-in and the station. Nice big table with a 4X8 plywood on it to make the ground effects on. It's going to take a nice long super enjoyable time to put together!

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Yes. I am thinking of a 4X8 sheet with a 2X4 section cut in 2 feet on each side so I have a walk in area and am surrounded so I can reach the back side all the way around.

[@DonnieGriffin-eo2eo]

Cool! Sound like a lot of work and a great plan, Have fun and enjoy the build Mark. Thanks for sharing, Dinnie

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thanks. It seems like it's going to build easy, so the only hard part is going to be the stuff I add. LOL

[@umutdestan4678]

Amazing ideas for the project Mark! Especially the arduino control and the electronics stuff İs going to take it to next level 👍👍

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Yes, with the Arduino I'll be able to use an IR remote to run a small MP3 player and LED lighting like a welder with the tip flashing blue white. Another idea I have is to have one of the fluorescent lights over the gas pumps flicker every once in a while. LOL plus a few garage sounds too.

[@rickborland661]

Would the flickering tea lights work? I remember driving in Northern California in the summer and those lights would be one huge mass of bugs!@@grandpamarkshobbies

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

They would, but you would have to take the LED off the board and run wires because the boards are kind of bulky. With the arduino I can program 9 lights to turn on and off, and have another 5 that I can control their brightness too. I will be doing a video on how I set all this up because it's going to get complicated because I am also going to add an integrated mp3 player, and an IR remote control so I can control some of the lights and sounds. So I will have to integrate two or maybe 3 of the little arduino boards.

[@rickborland661]

As I mentioned once before, I’m mechanical minded, not electrical. I’ve never heard of arduino before, but now I want to know. Really looking forward to the videos. Meanwhile I’ll do some research.@@grandpamarkshobbies

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

It's just a small computer board that you can program to do straight line programing. It uses kind of a C++ software. I've taught myself how to program them, and am able to integrate IR remotes, MP3 chips, LED's, digital readout boards, and speakers so far. There's more powerful boards out there, but for what I do with them these are perfect, and can be stacked with one mother board and several tied in.

[@kenpiscitelli2703]

Is this all scratch built really cool

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

No, it is an old MRC kit. It is very cool and loaded with extras too.

[@markellison1364]

That's really neat, keep the videos coming.

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thank you. Will do.

[@joewilkowski923]

Congrats Winners!!

[@Mannysscalemodeling]

That is so cool Mark!! The colors your doing are going to make it look awesome! Congrats to the winners too!! Congrats on the 3k subs Mark! Awesome

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thank you very much. It is such a cool kit. I wish they brought it back so everyone can have one. Thanks again.

[@Mannysscalemodeling]

Your welcome!! It is very cool! I wish they would too lol. If I remember right I thought there were a few kits like that back in the day one was a good size garage too.@@grandpamarkshobbies

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

I know this kit came out a few times with different station names. I would love for Round 2 or someone take over these molds, they are fantastic.

[@Mannysscalemodeling]

Thats cool!! Oh know that would be awesome! It looks awesome@@grandpamarkshobbies

[@Bruces-Eclectic-World]

Congrats to the winners! 👏 I don't even know where to start. I did not expect this thing to be this cool... Love the wall idea, that will be so neat! Man now I really need to get off my butt... 😱 I do have plans, just not started, the walls are up and I'm behind the 8 ball... Lol That Teri is a awesome person and you should take her out... 😁 LLAP 🖖

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

It is a crazy cool kit. I decided to make the back wall solid and only having the side open. I don't think I would ever spin this big bugger around to take pictures in the back. I am going to be adding a sub base to it to add the gas pumps and sign, so it's going to have an even bigger footprint than it does now with wires run under it somehow to light the sign and gas pumps, so I had to make a command discission on photo ops. LOL

[@timryan1785]

This is just a suggestion, why not reverse the sidewall mounting so that the columns are glued to the removable wall and the magnets attach to the upper and lower parts of the wall. This way you can remove that panel from outside instead of inside. You won't disturb details along the floor or the lift by having to slide that panel in. You could cover the inner side with fan belts or what ever as well and it not damage other stuff insude the station. I love this build and will be following it which ever way you go with it!!!

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

That is a great idea. I will see if I can flip that wall around. Then I can put that center support in.

[@Bruces-Eclectic-World]

@@grandpamarkshobbies Man this is going to be one crazy ride of a build. You have herd of a lazy Bruce right? 🤣 What about a Lazy Susan? They sell all kinds of sizes at Lowe's, Manard's hardware store's. That way you can spin it a 1/2 turn with ease to film. Just a thought! 🤔 I will send you a link to a video of what I'm thinking when it get's uploaded to my "G-Drive". You can get a 2x2 split it in 1/2 to make the sub base frame and some Masonite as the base top. It is smooth and can be painted as you like and it is light weight and strong. Use to be cheep but who knows now days... Lol Ok were at 20 minutes upload so have a Great Sunday. Going to try to get 4.5 Update on the 1950 Showboat edited today so I can get it uploaded tonight before tomorrows eye surgery... 😁👀 LLAP 🖖 Will send the link in a email... 😆

[@geoffhipwell2198]

Hey Mark, that's an ingenious idea with 'mooving the walls' for photos!! That'll actually look like they were taken by a 'Real little person' in a 'Real Place'!! - (Hey, Try running the Battery Wires up from under the Floor)!? 🤔

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thank you. Yes, endless cool photo opportunities. I am planning on running a lot of wires from underneath. I also want to make some kind of plugs so I can add or remove different things for different photo options.

[@modelcar1589]

looking good, I got to get that kit.

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thanks. It is such a cool kit. I wish this would be re-popped somewhere. The mold is so clean and the rest of the build parts are amazing.

[@tjeisenbraun647]

This is really cool, Mark!

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thanks TJ

[@robertlafontaine4238]

Awesome plan!

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thank you.

[@BIGJIM1934]

Please let me help with some lenses for the tow truck headlights?

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

This one comes with headlight lenses, but the turn signals are all plastic. I wish they were a two piece setup, but I think they are to small for that. You don't make one of those old cop car rotating lights do you? I think it would be cool to have an amber one on the roof.

[@BIGJIM1934]

@@grandpamarkshobbies that shouldn't be too hard to find. I'll work on it.

[@davidzdziarek-zl8cu]

What's the prizes for the winners?

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

I gave away two model kits.

[@paulrosel9923]

where do you get your figures .

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

I get them from Amazon. They are from American Diorama. They have a lot of cool figures to pick from.

[@RobFerrellDrumStudio]

This is really cool! Gonna be awesome! Duke’s Wilhelm! 😂

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

LOL. I was able to use it twice. I was rolling.

[@MsterBill]

I've been trying to find something similar. Does anyone make stations at all?

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

I found one on Ebay, but it is missing the base, and it's not cheap. www.ebay.com/itm/295936173138?hash=item44e72ba452:g:sJIAAOSwTV5k72KY&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8J%2Bfr%2FoK34o0LHOhu%2BxMW63SG5WOM9uWUT%2BJUp66IkiuZp60Lytszc1uBYQn42VgruQcmfaMIF6hyfa4AkjpwH7FQCUW5ObBsNcdt08bybX4DG0OF3vpEfG0wXMIWo3Vi0efayq1bQ2WRr60If3BkPhidfi8HY8JXBG%2BnJ6EBPxRaV6ddyqMZpAPfyxRWjUBDzN2DkKcAvkO0yNND1qfy4pE3GIwvaL4uGn57LCu0S6Mtq8Dr9H5BeZHnlC0zFP7OUxJ8BgfXQuZbjL8wDtqT9NBpUHFlcT6Ma5nhAJsoClSiZ4PPMuq0AIitJ8ECy%2F6uQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5qTu_HYYg

[@davidzdziarek-zl8cu]

There are plenty of easy ways to get into building a gas station. Even if you're not a gifted professional, you can make an awesome one. I have a Mobil, a Gulf, and a Sinclair.

[@shieldofthebear1784]

Where can I find a kit like this one?

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

I found one on Ebay but it doesn't have the base. Here's the link. www.ebay.com/itm/295936173138?hash=item44e72ba452:g:sJIAAOSwTV5k72KY&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8J%2Bfr%2FoK34o0LHOhu%2BxMW63SG5WOM9uWUT%2BJUp66IkiuZp60Lytszc1uBYQn42VgruQcmfaMIF6hyfa4AkjpwH7FQCUW5ObBsNcdt08bybX4DG0OF3vpEfG0wXMIWo3Vi0efayq1bQ2WRr60If3BkPhidfi8HY8JXBG%2BnJ6EBPxRaV6ddyqMZpAPfyxRWjUBDzN2DkKcAvkO0yNND1qfy4pE3GIwvaL4uGn57LCu0S6Mtq8Dr9H5BeZHnlC0zFP7OUxJ8BgfXQuZbjL8wDtqT9NBpUHFlcT6Ma5nhAJsoClSiZ4PPMuq0AIitJ8ECy%2F6uQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5qTu_HYYg

[@shieldofthebear1784]

Could I have the dimensions for this one. I think I'd have more fun scratch building it.

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

16 3/4” X 11” X 5 7/8” This is straight from the box.

[@shieldofthebear1784]

@grandpamarkshobbies thanks a lot Mark

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Let me know if you build one.

[@openexhaustmodels5139]

Looking cool mate👍

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thank you very much.

[@ellisevilsizor4525]

I love the song

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Me too. I also have it sung by Ethel Merman too. LOL

[@rayrussell6258]

You fabricated all of this we see so far? After the Brougham, nothing you do on the channel is impossible. 😉 Instead of just a clear wall top to bottom with your vertical braces, might look good if you carry the lower front wall buttress under that window around over the other 2 sides, fitting those vertical pieces you showed into the buttress, like it is next to the front entrance, but that's just me. Only you would know how much more work that would be. If the station came as a kit, where did you get it? Danbury Mint sold assembled gas stations, but they were too small to fit 1:24 diecast inside the garage. This looks bigger, you have a whole kit box inside. I might be interested in one of these for my diecast display.

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

No this is an old MRC kit, I'm just adding removable walls so far. The sides have the same trim as the front, so I will be blending the vertical pieces into that trim so it all looks like it was built that way. I am also going to make the back section non removable, and drop the center support on the side so I have a better opening for pictures. I think I will add a window to that side so I can add supports horizontally to that wall on the inside so it doesn't flex as much, and is easier to remove. This kit was given to me by a very good friend. There is one on Ebay right now, but it's missing the base. That being said, the base would be easy to make. Here's the link to the kit. www.ebay.com/itm/295936173138?hash=item44e72ba452:g:sJIAAOSwTV5k72KY&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8J%2Bfr%2FoK34o0LHOhu%2BxMW63SG5WOM9uWUT%2BJUp66IkiuZp60Lytszc1uBYQn42VgruQcmfaMIF6hyfa4AkjpwH7FQCUW5ObBsNcdt08bybX4DG0OF3vpEfG0wXMIWo3Vi0efayq1bQ2WRr60If3BkPhidfi8HY8JXBG%2BnJ6EBPxRaV6ddyqMZpAPfyxRWjUBDzN2DkKcAvkO0yNND1qfy4pE3GIwvaL4uGn57LCu0S6Mtq8Dr9H5BeZHnlC0zFP7OUxJ8BgfXQuZbjL8wDtqT9NBpUHFlcT6Ma5nhAJsoClSiZ4PPMuq0AIitJ8ECy%2F6uQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR5qTu_HYYg

[@rayrussell6258]

@@grandpamarkshobbies I'll be watching the progress.

[@valerycarpentier852]

It looks awesome so far!

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

Thank you very much.

[@davearmstrong1932]

No flush toilets, what's this world coming to !

[@grandpamarkshobbies]

LOL. I had to use space from somewhere. They'll just have to use the Lawsons next door. LOL