Chariots of Fire

Beautiful clean workmanship! Nicely done! 1100 hours is a lot of work time!!

I did one of those as well. Did yours come with the rear view mirrors? They were stamped steel with prongs that went into the holes in the cab.

That's what you call a shorty!

If you add the fender flairs, open the wheel wells and then extend the rear of the flairs down at the rear you will have the changes that are necessary. Most trucks of that era used the same cabs and simply modified the fenders accordingly. Compare the Danbury model to the heavy truck photo and you will see the similarities are quite remarkable.

The OB Special is the only one I know of. It was orange soft plastic; not the nice stuff that most kits are made of today.

Aaron: I have a Dodge Body Builders Book for 1970 that has a lot of info on frames etc. If that would help I can copy off the W500 frame and send it to you. Will save a lot of work because it has all of the dimensions, location of cross members and the like. Probably not a lot of difference from 1959 to '70. The W500 frame I did for mine I made from plastic strip stock. Came out fine.

Nice work, Jim. Color is just right for this old rig!

My personal preference is bass wood. A much finer grain that still is easy to cut with a sharp Xacto. A regular dark stain would work well but with one caution. Do not get glue on the upper surface or the stain will not take. Perhaps best to stain the individual strips first and then install. A darker stain in places where oil and grease might fall will add to its overall appearance. Some "distressing" would be in order also but don't forget to keep in scale. Track marks might actually go sideways to indicate adjustments in the location of the equipment as it is being loaded. (JMHO)

Do you have any weathering powders? That would be the best way. If not, MicroMark sells them as well as through Walthers.

I like to do some computer magic once in a while. Here's what the build would look like in black and white and as it might appear in one of the tech manuals.

This build is 1/25 scale.

Jim if I can be so bold: Scuff up the tread of the tires with some light sanding. It will cut down on the gloss look and give it an over the road look. Black tool box maybe with just a hint of weathering??

Very nicely done! Love the weathering and the Holmes 600! Great job!

Just had to add one more detail. The real rig has a couple of soft bags hanging about so I added a couple. I am told by one who was there that the fire fighting platoons never did this but kept things stored inside compartments. I think the bags are on the real rig as restoration accessories but are not prototypical. I made the bags using folded paper towel wrapped with duct tape. Then I added the D rings and straps, painted everything with flat OD and then weathered them when the paint was dry. Slightly different shade for contrast.

I hear ya, Warrren. But that's what they did back in the day. Nothing bright and shiny to stand out!