I faintly remember George Sellios constructed a building to just end up starting it on fire. This was to simulate a fire-ravaged engine house. That was waaayyy back into the 80’s [:I][?][:I] Does anyone have a clue as to what I’m talking about? I’m trying to simulate that. If someone has a better, less volatile way of doing it you can send me email. [^]
One of the European companies put out a ‘house’ that had been burnt. It is more like an apartment building. I have one on my East Central Indiana HO railroad. The middle portion of the high pitched roof is burnt away. I think that the building was supposed to be HO, but it is a little small so I set it back into the city scene…
George Sellios wasn’t the first with the idea. He just burnt his own building which is different… 
Roger
I built mine with an incomplete structure from a yard sale, flat black spray paint, a piece of black sponge foam, and pieces from the bottom of my drawer.
I recall John Allen built HALF a burned structure and set it against a mirror. I believe some of the smoke from the smouldering ruins was painted on the mirror. If you a going to model a structure that is more than a little fire damaged, you will probably have to model some of the internal framework that has been exposed by burning of sheathing or roofing, such as roof trusses, beams, studs. I was once going to model a hurricane-damaged building. Built the entire building with complete 2x4 stud framing, double-hung windows, individual board sheathing, nail heads, individual cedar shingles on the roof, electrical meter and fuse box and conduits, water, gas and sewer lines. Lid left off the toilet tank in the bathroom so you can see the ball and float mechanism inside. Figured I needed to model everything so it would destroy properly. Then I decided to keep the building intact, and since it had everything a nit picker would look for in a structure, I made it the United Farm Workers Nit Pickers Union Hall. N scale course. I can’t do detailing in the big scales.
Way before Sellios, the great E.L. Moore built a structure (maybe a fireworks factory?) and blew it up. Then he reconstructed it and blew it up again (for the photos).
We old timers remember the Renwal “House A’Fire” structure which Con-Cor has just announced as a reissue.
Dave Nelson
Colin,
To make your burnt structure scene appear less static, you might want to consider adding a fire truck from Jordan Industries, or even a more modern truck flying an American flag. Plus, you could add some curious onlookers in addition to any firemen wetting down the ashes with a stream of water simulated with fiber optics. Bob
Both Vollmer and Faller put out kits for burning and burned buildings with lights and smoke. Try Walthers, they carry a lot of the German kits. It would be a lot safer than trying to scorch styrene.
while we are on the subject of disasters, has anyone tried modeling a tonadoe ? My layout is set in centeral Oklahoma and I have always been fasinated with tornadoes ( as well a terrified as one passed about 4 blocks from our house this spring ) and would like to have a removable one for my layout.
Alex in the sooner state
train boy,
I don’t think you could have just a removable tornado for your layout. You’d have to do a lot of work between making it seem “normal” and tornado damaged. I’m sure you saw the destructive power of the tornado this spring. It would be cool to see a thunderstorm on a layout, though. :0) You may want to work on that…
George Sellios did have a burned out building on his layout. It was discussed in one of the MR articles featuring his layout.
I faintly remember George Sellios constructed a building to just end up starting it on fire. This was to simulate a fire-ravaged engine house. That was waaayyy back into the 80’s [:I][?][:I] Does anyone have a clue as to what I’m talking about? I’m trying to simulate that. If someone has a better, less volatile way of doing it you can send me email. [^]
One of the European companies put out a ‘house’ that had been burnt. It is more like an apartment building. I have one on my East Central Indiana HO railroad. The middle portion of the high pitched roof is burnt away. I think that the building was supposed to be HO, but it is a little small so I set it back into the city scene…
George Sellios wasn’t the first with the idea. He just burnt his own building which is different…
Roger
I built mine with an incomplete structure from a yard sale, flat black spray paint, a piece of black sponge foam, and pieces from the bottom of my drawer.
I recall John Allen built HALF a burned structure and set it against a mirror. I believe some of the smoke from the smouldering ruins was painted on the mirror. If you a going to model a structure that is more than a little fire damaged, you will probably have to model some of the internal framework that has been exposed by burning of sheathing or roofing, such as roof trusses, beams, studs. I was once going to model a hurricane-damaged building. Built the entire building with complete 2x4 stud framing, double-hung windows, individual board sheathing, nail heads, individual cedar shingles on the roof, electrical meter and fuse box and conduits, water, gas and sewer lines. Lid left off the toilet tank in the bathroom so you can see the ball and float mechanism inside. Figured I needed to model everything so it would destroy properly. Then I decided to keep the building intact, and since it had everything a nit picker would look for in a structure, I made it the United Farm Workers Nit Pickers Union Hall. N scale course. I can’t do detailing in the big scales.
Way before Sellios, the great E.L. Moore built a structure (maybe a fireworks factory?) and blew it up. Then he reconstructed it and blew it up again (for the photos).
We old timers remember the Renwal “House A’Fire” structure which Con-Cor has just announced as a reissue.
Dave Nelson
Colin,
To make your burnt structure scene appear less static, you might want to consider adding a fire truck from Jordan Industries, or even a more modern truck flying an American flag. Plus, you could add some curious onlookers in addition to any firemen wetting down the ashes with a stream of water simulated with fiber optics. Bob
Both Vollmer and Faller put out kits for burning and burned buildings with lights and smoke. Try Walthers, they carry a lot of the German kits. It would be a lot safer than trying to scorch styrene.
while we are on the subject of disasters, has anyone tried modeling a tonadoe ? My layout is set in centeral Oklahoma and I have always been fasinated with tornadoes ( as well a terrified as one passed about 4 blocks from our house this spring ) and would like to have a removable one for my layout.
Alex in the sooner state
train boy,
I don’t think you could have just a removable tornado for your layout. You’d have to do a lot of work between making it seem “normal” and tornado damaged. I’m sure you saw the destructive power of the tornado this spring. It would be cool to see a thunderstorm on a layout, though. :0) You may want to work on that…
George Sellios did have a burned out building on his layout. It was discussed in one of the MR articles featuring his layout.