The photos and text here are from the article "Light Police Duty" which appeared in the July, 1993 issue of Car Modeler (#20). Special thanks to Scale Auto Enthusiast magazine for allowing us to reproduce most of the original article here.
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Light Police Duty
The History of New York Police Vehicles - According to the Town of Newburgh Model Car Club
By Mike Felix
Photography By Douglas Whyte
One of the themes of the 1992 NNL East was "Light Commercial Vehicles". With that in mind, the Town of Newburgh Model Car Club put their efforts into a group project featuring police vehicles. The members decided to build various cars that would illistrate the changes New York police vehicles have undergone over the years.
The models shown here were built by eleven different members of the club. Before you say that no club could get eleven different guys to agree on the same kit - let alone build it in a coordinated way - think again. We did manage to work together on this project and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Now on with the story.
This was to be a project for fun, not for the scrupulous eye of a judge. Therefore the club members set out to build light commercial models that would be "light" in detail. In keeping with the light theme, the following descriptions of each model will also be on the "light" side. The occasional scratchbuilt part, custom decal or body modification may be apparent in the photos accompanying this article, but will not be highlighted in the text.
Simplicity itself aptly describes the appearance of the first three subjects. Ron Weissinger created these models to represent the early years of police vehicle use in New York City. The markings could have been for Yourtown, USA, but since the club is located near New York City, it was easiest to do some basic research in our own backyard. With the exception of one model in this article, all of the subjects are based on actual police vehicles used in New York city and state. Sources of information that served as the basis for particular models were plentiful and free. This information was taken from books, gathered from police archives and visits to police departments, gleaned from the club's collective memory and shared by a collector of police vehicle photographs. This collector was generous with his time and photos and without his help, many of the models could not have been built.
All of the models featured here were assembled with the "light" concept in mind. Therefore, you may notice that some of the colors, lettering, and details are not exact replicas of the originals. That's OK. It IS possible to do some research, build a model that is not an exact replica, admire it when completed and learn something in the process, without feeling guilty about overlooking something or leaving a specific detail off the car. By documenting the history of the New York police vehicle through the medium of model building, the Town of Newburgh Model Car Club proved just that.
reproduce most of the original article here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Light Police Duty
The History of New York Police Vehicles - According to the Town of Newburgh Model Car Club
By Mike Felix
Photography By Douglas Whyte
One of the themes of the 1992 NNL East was "Light Commercial Vehicles". With that in mind, the Town of Newburgh Model Car Club put their efforts into a group project featuring police vehicles. The members decided to build various cars that would illistrate the changes New York police vehicles have undergone over the years.
The models shown here were built by eleven different members of the club. Before you say that no club could get eleven different guys to agree on the same kit - let alone build it in a coordinated way - think again. We did manage to work together on this project and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Now on with the story.
This was to be a project for fun, not for the scrupulous eye of a judge. Therefore the club members set out to build light commercial models that would be "light" in detail. In keeping with the light theme, the following descriptions of each model will also be on the "light" side. The occasional scratchbuilt part, custom decal or body modification may be apparent in the photos accompanying this article, but will not be highlighted in the text.
Simplicity itself aptly describes the appearance of the first three subjects. Ron Weissinger created these models to represent the early years of police vehicle use in New York City. The markings could have been for Yourtown, USA, but since the club is located near New York City, it was easiest to do some basic research in our own backyard. With the exception of one model in this article, all of the subjects are based on actual police vehicles used in New York city and state. Sources of information that served as the basis for particular models were plentiful and free. This information was taken from books, gathered from police archives and visits to police departments, gleaned from the club's collective memory and shared by a collector of police vehicle photographs. This collector was generous with his time and photos and without his help, many of the models could not have been built.
All of the models featured here were assembled with the "light" concept in mind. Therefore, you may notice that some of the colors, lettering, and details are not exact replicas of the originals. That's OK. It IS possible to do some research, build a model that is not an exact replica, admire it when completed and learn something in the process, without feeling guilty about overlooking something or leaving a specific detail off the car. By documenting the history of the New York police vehicle through the medium of model building, the Town of Newburgh Model Car Club proved just that.
