Vintage fire engine WIP

[Danno]

Aw, shucks. T'weren't nothing, really.

Seriously, yours will be done a whole lot sooner than mine will! Wear it in good health.

I consider it well invested. Besides, now I have a good excuse for not getting that thing onto my bench for awhile!

[Danno]

Now I gotta get off this forum for awhile . . . it's time to go scare the bejeezus out of any hapless kiddies that come to the door!

[PappyD340]

Looking superb Harry, that's one of the more intriguing things about this forum, is that there are always guys who are willing to share things that they have in spite of needing them themselves!!

[Bennyg]

Great progress.

Ben

[jaydar]

Harry, nice job to say the least. May I ask for the brand of red paint you are using? It has an enamel look to it. That is a look i am hoping to recreate on a 1/12 Gunze BSA Goldstar which i am working on.

Thanks,

joe.

[Harry P.]

The paint is Rustoleum "Gloss Protective Enamel" #7762 Sunrise Red. Got it at the local home center.

[Harry P.]

Here's how that part of the ladder carriage assembly I showed you in post #71 is looking. Not finished yet, but coming along nicely...

[Harry P.]

I assembled and painted the main body, and it's in the dehydrator. Photos to come. But in the meantime...

The kit comes with a four man crew. Not little green men... ... but in this case little blue men. Here are three of them with their front and back halves glued together. I first clamped the halves together, then ran liquid cement all along the seams.

Tip: Those little alligator clamps you see are perfect for clamping irregular parts like these. The sharp little teeth will grab tightly in places were regular spring clamps like the colored plastic ones you see here would slip right off. I found a pack of them in the electrical aisle of the local home center. I don't remember what the bagful of them cost, but they were literally pennies a piece... something like 10-12 cents each. You can never have too many clamps!

[Harry P.]

The fourth figure had been started... the only part of this kit that had actually been touched at all before I bought it. As you can see, the paint job on this guy is "less than professional"... ... so once I glue his broken arms back on, I'll repaint him (and paint the rest of my little blue man group).

[MoparWoman Jamie]

I assembled and painted the main body, and it's in the dehydrator. Photos to come. But in the meantime...

The kit comes with a four man crew. Not little green men... ... but in this case little blue men. Here are three of them with their front and back halves glued together. I first clamped the halves together, then ran liquid cement all along the seams.

Tip: Those little alligator clamps you see are perfect for clamping irregular parts like these. The sharp little teeth will grab tightly in places were regular spring clamps like the colored plastic ones you see here would slip right off. I found a pack of them in the electrical aisle of the local home center. I don't remember what the bagful of them cost, but they were literally pennies a piece... something like 10-12 cents each. You can never have too many clamps!

The clamps reminds me of prona fish. LOL

[Harry P.]

The floor where I build is ceramic tile. Great for finding dropped parts (no "carpet monster" to deal with), but sometimes a problem.

I dropped my bottle of liquid cement. The glass bottle is pretty thick and would most likely have survived the fall. But just my luck... the bottle hit the floor cap first. The hard plastic cap shattered and the liquid cement went all over the floor.

Not a total catastrophe, though... the cement was about 80% used up anyway, so I didn't lose all that much. But still, I had to stop building and it forced a trip to Hobbytown to get another bottle.

[cobraman]

Nice to know I am not the only one that kind of stuff happens to. : )

[jaydar]

Harry:

Thanks for rhe response regarding the paint. It really has an old oil paint look.

Joe.

[Harry P.]

The hood was painted a "gunmetal" color to match reference photos, the hinges have had a black wash added, and the louvers are brass plated kit parts that have been sprayed with transparent window tint. The hinges are just for show, they don't really work... the hood is a "lift off" type thing. If I was crazier than I already am I could have found tiny piano hinges online and theoretically made the hood panels actually hinge... but I won't go to that length here. Maybe if this was a 1/8 scale model...

[Harry P.]

The finished hood after foiling...

[Harry P.]

And here is the hood in place. I love the color contrast between the gunmetal hood, the brass, and the red. This was one good looking truck!

[Ramfins59]

That is looking really great Harry. The color contrasts are super.

[cobraman]

Wow ! Me thinks were getting in musuem territory. Very nice.

[Danno]

That's one good-looking model!

[peekay]

Very fine work throughout. I specially love how you achieve depth and definition with subtle washes - really adds to the realism. (Subtle seems to be the operative word here).

[Harry P.]

Thanks, Peter. Yes, I find that a subtle wash adds a lot of realism and seems to take away the "model" look somewhat. If done right, you don't necessarily seeing the black wash jumping out at you, but things just seem to look "right" somehow.

[Harry P.]

The main body is coming along. I got it painted, added my usual wash where needed (the lines on the top and the brass baseplates for the brass rails to come later), and foiled the trim on the storage door edges on the sides. Trying to get the foil to conform to the molded-in "hinges" at the tops of the storage doors without wrinkling and/or tearing was a real pain. Still much to do on this part of the model, but this is where I'm at as of now:

[Danno]

Mom! {Standing on my head.}

[freakshow12]

This is just amazing work. I would have never even thought of building something like this before! But now you have got me, and I am sure others to think outside the box. Great work sir.

[Harry P.]

Let's skip around again... just like I do in "real life" when I build a model. Let's talk about the driver's seat cushion, and how I do diamond-tufted "leather" upholstery. My technique only works in certain applications... like if the upholstered cushion is flat (not curved like in a bucket seat), and only in large scale. I couldn't imagine trying this technique in 1/25 scale!

Here's how I do it. In the photo below you can see the molded kit piece on the left, looking very much not like an upholstered leather cushion! In the center is a piece of 1/8" balsa sheet cut to a size slightly smaller than the finished cushion will be, with the corners rounded by sanding. And on the right is the cushioning material that I cut from a larger piece of foam padding found in the sewing department of Hobby Lobby. I used ordinary scissors to cut a piece to the same size as the balsa backer board, and about 3/8 inch thick. It's not necessary to be super precise with the foam piece... it'll be compressed under the "leather" upholstery: