I know it’s mostly in the finish, but still you need a good foundation to start.
I need some decent modern era (1990s and later) wall air conditioners, but unfortunately finding pictures of the smaller manufacturers offerings can be tough.
Depots by John has a drawing on Walthers, as drawings go the unit seems OK
Cal Freight has a picture buried on their site, and I think painted light grey and the cooling fins weathered with an ink wash it may do.
The air conditioners that come with the various ‘low-end’ building kits (e.g. Bachmann Motel) usually seem to be crude and unusable, alas.
Am I missing any potential sources (since not every manufacturer is on Walthers)?
I think I saw some made by Alloy Forms once. Might be worth a look.
Bob Boudreau
surry custom models I would check this site this guy makes some very detailed detail items.He is a very good and reailable person to buy from.I have many of his detail items cast and metal exellent quality.I do’n know if he has ac units but it might be worth a look.Terry
Alloy Forms makes a small wall air conditioner–a couple of companies, including Campbell, do evaporative coolers.
A wall A/C unit is essentially just a beige rectangular box with a grille on one end that would be impossible to make out in HO scale–why not just use a piece of styrene cut to the appropriate dimensions, with legs made from a couple bits of brass wire? Paint the back side black and the rest tan, and you’ve got a pretty good approximation of an air conditioner. If the A/C unit is within six inches of a potential viewer you might want to add more detail.