Fire Apparatus Model Forums

Some nice decorated vans coming from Greenlight...Police, Fire, and EMS.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/glcollect ... 641533457/

I got the first round and a few blanks. They are decent for the price. They have separate mirrors that may or may not fall off the model.

My only beef right now is that GL likely will underdeliver on the deco. No lights, etc for the emergency models. Sure as a modeler I will dress them up, but I also like a nice stock model for my collection that looks fairly accurate.

At least you are getting some west coast love with the Anaheim piece.

I agree, their vans leave a lot to be desired in the emergency lighting department. Another promising release is this vintage Los Angeles County Sheriff AMC Matador. Should look nice parked next to the Code 3 Engine and Squad 51 set.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/glcollect ... 637522983/

I suspect GL will add a lightbar to the AMR ambulance and possibly to the NYPD. A quick on line showed the Anaheim van has no exterior lights. If they add the lights to these models most likely it will be just light bar only and no other lighting is my guess, not even the tampos of the upper body flashers and spot lights on the ambulances is my guess.

I think they make a good starting base for updating. I agree they do seem to lack the details that collectors want. But in the end, a lot of people consider them toys to begin with.

Thanks for sharing

The vans are OK, but will need some work. They will never be "musuem" quality collectibles, but can be turned in to some respectable pieces with some work. The fit is good, because its just the body, windshield and chassis/interior. It fits the body mounting studs with screws, which is really nice. Now you dont have to drill out the mounting studs after they mushroom them. Greenlight did a good job fixing the fuel filler door mistake on the 1:43 scale version, and put it in the right way. The filler door protrudes in to the driver door area. On the 1:43 scale version, it is behind the driver door line. But who knows why, Greenlight put a fuel filler door on the passenger side as well as the driver side.. I suppose you could fill it in if you wanted. There really is no excuse for any company to make a mistake this blatant. I would imagine that the driver side drawing was just mirrored to the passenger side. The driver side also features the rail that the opening door slides on. On the real vans, if there is no driver side sliding door, its just the indentation where the rail goes. So you do have to remove the tampo if making an ambulance. Not a huge problem. And there are no windows at all. An easy fix, with decals. I am making decals for the Transit, just like I have done in the past with the Hallmark and Greenlight ambulances. The front grill will be tricky. I will do both the black, and the chrome versions of the grill outline. As you can see, I have used some of the Greenlight ambulance decal sheet side lights, just to see how they look. I will probably do LED's similar to my 1:43 scale versions. Repainting these will be a chore. They do not do a very good job of detail painting/printing. Most of the tampo's are not very straight, and there are lots of bleed over. I suspect they don't clean the tampo mask very often. But again, its more of a sandbox style of toy and not a high end collectible. There is a ton of potential though.

Greenlights in general are an odd lot. For the price we should forgive some inaccuracies. But they also want us to think of them as collectibles. SO we hold them to a higher standard. I don't know many who view them as toys. Or at least are buying them in general over MB or HW for kids to play with. But as Rich points out many of their mistakes appear to come from laziness not manufacturing principles. Lately there is a general lack of QC in the model with missed colors, parts that fall off or are missing, heavy glue marks, fingerprints and fogged windows. All of this is more frustrating when they have to be purchased online and can't be checked before purchase. I also don't see them adding any lights to the models shown.

As for these vans. I think most of us would have paid another $1 or so to get clear lens for the lights and a separate grille. The same goes for the cars they do.

I look forward to Rich's decal sheets.

"But who knows why, Greenlight put a fuel filler door on the passenger side as well as the driver side.." it is representative of the European diesel versions, one side for the Gas-Oil, one side for the AD-Blue

"On the real vans, if there is no driver side sliding door" it's the same thing, on European versions we can buy vans without side door, with a left side door, or with a door on each side

Greenlight has chosen to reproduce a version of van (L1H1; L2H3, L3H2, Etc...) , it is the decoration that may not match the reality

Greenlight does make a European version of the Transit low top that is not available in the US. It would be nice if it was available here, I like doing Crime Scene vans, and police are using the low top types.

Those look good. I have kept my eye on the Euro versions. But shipping usually makes them cost prohibitive.