Emergency vehicle lightbar experts....I need a scale Twinsonic

Hey, guess it was too specific an item? From the searching around I did (and to be honest I'm sure you knew about every site I came across prior to posting as I didn't even know there was an aftermarket for lightbars in the first place!) it looks like most of them are geared more towards more modern police light kits.

If I may though, what are you making? I'm curious what kind of 1/24-1/25 scale Emergency Vehicle you're putting together.

If you were going to scratch one, may I suguest building up the shape in something solid and then vacume forming clear plastic over top? As far as I can figure, it'd make adding all the internals a lot easier, you could even custom wire it with some little LEDs! Looking at the video of the lightbar in question, I'd say it's definitly one of the simpler ones.

I run EMS and I think we have something like an older Code 3 product or... well I'll just show you a picture, I'm sure you'd be able to ID it

It's got the two amber in the back replacing the two white scene lights up front. On second thought it's probably just made by Whelen, I know the sciren kit is. 

Now that I know they make after market for this kind of think I'm starting to think a scale model of our Expedition is doable after all! So if nothing else comes from your quest for a lightbar, at least you've inspired someone else.

Hope the holidays were good for you, and I like your screen name. Cussler is one of my favorite authors

That Expedition is very do-able, there was a kit of it from either AMT or Revell. I think a strobe bar is available from Chimneyville, but if you can't find one let me know I can probably scrounge one up.

There is actually quite a bit of a market for emergency vehicles, you might find this site interesting.

http://www.scalefirehouse.com/

dirkpitt77 there was a twin sonic in a Yodel Dodge Monaco police car kit, and in Revell's Midnight Cowboy tow truck. I might be able to help you out with one but it will take a few days to see what I have.

psstoff995 wrote:

If I may though, what are you making? I'm curious what kind of 1/24-1/25 scale Emergency Vehicle you're putting together.

      Heh, well, I have no idea myself actually.  The thread about the lime yellow emergency vehicle colors inspired me, and I'm leaning towards some kind of rural fire dept. truck or a brush fire unit.    So, I picked the Twinsonic bar cuz I think it looks cool and a bit retro, and I like the lime yellow color, so I'm trying to wrap a build around those two items.   I'm thinking of using one of AMT's Jeep CJ-7 kits, or maybe their International Scout kit or that '77 full size blazer kit.   Still searching though on that, so the jury is far from in.  I wish I could find a 1/24 or 1/25 Army deuce and a half kit-that would make a cool rig in lime yellow!

     Aaron, if you come up with something, great, but if not, no worries.  I've been scoping out old police and fire kits on Ebay too looking for something to rob that Twinsonic off of, so I think I may have luck there too.  We'll see!   Really can't wait to get started on this-I think it'll be a fun build.

   Chris

Ah! Retro rural fire fighting. Kind of like a volunteer fire militia if you ask me, you could pretty much stick a lightbar on any old car you want and be set! haha one of my friends is a firefighter from Williamsburg that's now going to school with me down in Radford and running EMS in the mean time, he came up to my area and saw some of the lime yellow (haha technically I've always thought this should be called lemmon ) fire apparatuses Centreville had and he was appauled. Half of the deciding factor on where he wishes to fight fires in the future is the color of the engines they run with, and anything but bright red is an abomination. Unless it's Chicago and the upperdeck's black... but I feel like he'd only let Chicago get away with that.

I think the yellow has it's place though, should be an interesting build. Looking forward to seeing pictures when you get it put together? 

Aaron, thanks for pointing me in the right direction, I just ordered a 1:25 Revell Ford, a 97 (I think ours is a 98 but I'm sure the exteriors are close enough) and a Whelen Edge lightbar from Chimneyville Hobbies. I figure the grill lights and the flashers are easy enough to scratch... I'll have to pick up some blank decal paper and fine a nice printer, my Photoshop skills are nice enough for the logo work and the striping, I think I just might be able to pull this off! Thanks for the inspiration you two and good luck Drik Pitt!

dirkpitt77 wrote:

psstoff995 wrote: If I may though, what are you making? I'm curious what kind of 1/24-1/25 scale Emergency Vehicle you're putting together.         Heh, well, I have no idea myself actually.  The thread about the lime yellow emergency vehicle colors inspired me, and I'm leaning towards some kind of rural fire dept. truck or a brush fire unit.    So, I picked the Twinsonic bar cuz I think it looks cool and a bit retro, and I like the lime yellow color, so I'm trying to wrap a build around those two items.   I'm thinking of using one of AMT's Jeep CJ-7 kits, or maybe their International Scout kit or that '77 full size blazer kit.   Still searching though on that, so the jury is far from in.  I wish I could find a 1/24 or 1/25 Army deuce and a half kit-that would make a cool rig in lime yellow!        Aaron, if you come up with something, great, but if not, no worries.  I've been scoping out old police and fire kits on Ebay too looking for something to rob that Twinsonic off of, so I think I may have luck there too.  We'll see!   Really can't wait to get started on this-I think it'll be a fun build.      Chris

The Federal Aerodynic came out in 1977, it is an oval shaped light bar included in several kits. The Jetsonic came out a year or two later and is in the AMT Ford Taurus police car (911, CHP, and Robocop), either would be about the right vintage for a Scout, or the Jeep CJ5 / CJ7 kits out there which are all late 70s I believe.

Wespe makes a 1/24 scale WW2 era 2 1/2 ton, it is a very nice resin kit and fairly reasonable in price for the size ($100-ish), of course shipping from Eastern Europe might add quite a bit to the price I got mine at the IPMS nationals 2 years ago so I didn't have any shipping to deal with.

Your mention of the Blazer reminded me that the AMT '75 Chevy Blazer had a Twin Sonic in it.

This kit has nothing on the box to suggest it has any emergency equipment in it and was recently re-issued (2007?) so should still be fairly easy to find. It has a white Blazer on the box and is part of the Hot trucks series.

  Hmm....I'll have to check that out as well.

     I was surfing around Ebay quite a bit last night, and I did find quite a few kits with lightbars that are close, and one or two that are exactly what I need, but a bit pricey.    I've got some time though, so no hurry.  We'll see what pans out.   

    If you guys are interested, I found a webpage last night with an illustrated index to a buttload of lightbars and their model names.  I'll post it up if you want, when I get home.

    Chris

dirkpitt77 wrote:

If you guys are interested, I found a webpage last night with an illustrated index to a buttload of lightbars and their model names.  I'll post it up if you want, when I get home.

Hey! Yeah sure, I'm interested, sounds pretty cool to me

dirkpitt77, if you're still looking for a Twinsonic, I'm pretty sure I have one here. I have done several law enfocement kits that came with their own light bars or those I've scratchbuilt. I'll check my stash this weekend for you.

   Yeah, if you can come up with one, that'd be awesome.  Otherwise, I can probably vac-form my own.  It'd be a good project to experiment with vacforming.

      Here's that site with all lightbars. Sorry about the delay:

              http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://scalepatrolcars.com/barclctn/twinsonic.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.scalepatrolcars.com/lightbars.html&usg=__3QDtW6q7NH_gACcPJj9IMzhvS2Y=&h=146&w=535&sz=74&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=pjmMGOCUY6uoHM:&tbnh=36&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtwinsonic%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

Chris

dirkpitt77 wrote:

Here's that site with all lightbars.

Cool find! Thanks

You need an image site, and all I have are the (very well illustrated) catalogues over the years from every company that produces light bars.

Some people are sooooo spoiled. *cough*

Aaronw wrote:

dirkpitt77 there was a twin sonic in a Yodel Dodge Monaco police car kit, and in Revell's Midnight Cowboy tow truck. I might be able to help you out with one but it will take a few days to see what I have.

 Actually, there was never a twinsonic lightbar modeled.  The lightbar you are referring to was actually a Code 3 lightbar that appeared a couple years after Federal released their Twinsonic.  The biggest difference between the Federal and Code 3 units were the rotators.  Code 3 had a second set of sealed beam rotators for a total of 4 rotating units vs. the two units on the Twinsonic.

This lightbar is found in the Force 440 Dodge Monaco kit as well as the Toyota tow truck. The Dukes of Hazzard and Gotham cars had the Aerodynic style lightbar modeled if I remember correctly.