I've always thought a classic Fire Station modular would be a nice addition to our LEGO® town
and with my multiple mentions of missing out on the LEGO® Fire Brigade 10197, I decided to
fill the void by designing and creating one of our own.
I started out with some initial sketches for the design and during the visualisation process
I was able to set some direction to it's design and architecture .
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| The sketch of our Fire Station MOC |
Classic Design
Based on research most LEGO® Fire Stations are often built with the dark red and gray bricks
like the Fire Brigade. As I didn't have much of these colours available here and wanting to do
something different I took inspiration from Fire Stations around Asia where most were rendered with
bright red and white exteriors, colours which are commonly available at my neighborhood
pick-a-brick shops.
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| The Fire Station with 3 Garage Bays thanks to a customised 32 x 48 Baseplate |
Size and Part Utilisation
I could have either gone with the height of 3 floors or width with the Fire Station and based multiple
sketch and test builds I decided to go with width as this would allow us to beef up the Fire Station
with 3 garage bays instead of 2 as per Fire Station 60004 and 1 as per the Fire Brigade 10197.
To house 3 garage bays a standard 32 x 32 baseplate was not going to cut it so I got myself a used
X-Large LEGO® gray baseplate and modified it into a 32x48 baseplate with a regular box cutter.
This gave room for 3 garage shutter doors and a side entrance for crew and visitors of the station.
With the design of the Fire Station targeted to be wide this meant I would need a lot of 1x1/2/3/4/6/8
bricks. So I spent time sourcing used parts by weight and picked my way through multiple mounds to
get what I needed till my fingers bled...seriously my fingers were pretty torn up.
In hindsight the decision of used bricks gave the Fire Station a unique and subtle weathered
look which contributed to its charm as most Fire Stations tend to be old buildings anyway.
So with the parts sourced, design set and with multiple nights of repeated builds and rebuilds
we came up with what you see here.
Architectural Design & Features
To give this Fire Station further character I focused on nice large windows with arches.
As the sides of this building would probably be closed of by other buildings when places in a town
I wanted a decent amount of light going into the structure.
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| One of my favourite parts of the Fire Station, a fun build too. |
To add more light into the building I designed a simple skylight on the roof, this also added a
little fun for my kid as he gets to peek into the mess hall without having to remove the roof all
the time.
To finish the top I built a simple Finial with a Flag Pole and an ornament, the flower ornament
is a similiar part found for the Cornice of the Grand Emporium 10211 but white.
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| The Finial of the Fire Station. |
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| Fire Station all ready to go |
Overall the white and red combination was fun and challenging to put together, to not overwhelm
the station with the vibrant red I encapsulated the red bricks within the white columns and edges.
Fire Station Crew & Vehicles
Pretty much the entire crew and vehicles from LEGO® CITY Fire Station 60004 moved into the
new Fire Station except for the Helicopter and Pilot (I found it hard to integrate the Helipad into
this MOC).
Added to the crew were the Fire Fighters from LEGO® CITY Fire Truck 60002 set and the
Fire Truck for the new extra garage bay.
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| The new LEGO® Fire Truck 60002 Team |
To be honest I always thought that the LEGO® CITY Fire Truck 60002 had a nicer design
as compared to the Fire Truck from 60004 set. The 60004 Fire Truck comes with a sloped
windscreen which I felt was not really consistent to the boxy design of real fire trucks, the 60002
fire truck in general feels more like real fire trucks you see in the real world.
In addition to the truck and its 2 man crew it comes with a fire hydrant and a
connecting pipe for filling up the water tanks.
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| Side view of the LEGO® CITY Fire Truck 60002, resembling real Fire Truck designs |
Another cool feature of the LEGO® CITY Fire Truck 60002 is the large compartment in the
mid section of the vehicle, enough space to fit the provided crate, nozzle and breathing apparatus.
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| A cool compartment to keep all the equipment nice and neat. |
The LEGO® CITY Fire Truck 60002 is overall a good set to have and keep, the design and play
factor with the mid section compartment and fire hydrant makes it so. My only problem is that one
can't easily fit the connecting pipe into the mid section compartment which means while the fire
hydrant can be fitted somewhere in the town the crew won't have space to carry the connecting pipe
on the truck. This will mean loose parts lying around but small issue,
my son still loves the new addition.
ADVERTISMENT
Ground Floor
Ok now back to the Fire Station, starting with the ground floor with the 3 garage bays with
all 3 vehicles fitted in their bays.
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| Ground floor of the Fire Station |
On the right the entrance and the stairs to the upper floor along with the bottom section of the fire
pole. At the back of the fire van enough space for repair and maintenance equipment; the tool cart
and fire dog seen there are from set 60004.
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| Garage bays with 2 vehicles out. |
I managed to find some nice old red arches and beams for the interior of the garage,
this gave a nice feel and some descent walkways when the trucks are out.
Upper Floor
Up the stairs you get the busy upper floor where we have the Fire Chief's Office and
Control Room on the left of the building.
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| Plan of the upper floor |
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| The Fire Chief and his high-tech equipment |
Behind the Fire Chief's Office you get a rest and relax room with a couch, coffee table,
bookshelf and bunk beds for the night shift.
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| Common rest and relax room area for the crew |
And in the middle the mess hall with a kitchen and fridge and all the required equipment for
when an emergency breaks out.
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| The Mess Hall with full kitchen and equipment area on the right |
Most parts seen on this upper floor such as glass doors, red bricks, kitchen and equipment were
taken from the Fire Station 60004, which served as a nice upgrade for the crew of the original set.
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| A Fire Fighter enjoying his morning coffee and paper. |
Fitting into the Town
As the Fire Station is based on the LEGO® Modular specs it has the standard Technic pin connectors
on both sides allowing it to fit other official modulars perfectly.
It is definitely larger than most modulars as I had to fit the lengthy fire trucks within the structure.
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| The Fire Station tucked in nicely between the the Grand Emporium and Parisian Restaurant |
The back wall of the Fire Station had to be built all the way the end of the baseplateto accommodate the Fire Trucks but I managed to build a little side entrance to match theback of other modulars.
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| The back side entrance of the Fire Station fitting well with the back of the Parisian Restaurant |
Closing
Overall this was a very fulfilling and fun build and my son could not wait for this to be finish
during the design and build process so you can only imagine the countless questioning of when it
was going to be ready.
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| A view of the Fire Station with all garage shutters closed. |
Nonetheless we finally got it completed and he's really happy with the new building for the town.
He enjoys the garage doors as he did with 60004 set and now he has an extra bay, truck and
bigger crew to be in charge of.
For myself I enjoyed thinking up it's classic style and architecture and after working with all these
white bricks has got me thinking about the LEGO® Architecture Studio 21050.
Maybe a modern style architecture home might be nice as a next project. Time to do some research.
Hope you enjoyed the MOC.
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