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ALF Fire Chief Updated 9/21


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1 hour ago, Chariots of Fire said:

Just curious.  What is the purpose of the added supports under the first bank of compartments?  I can understand fishplating the frame but you would not see that typically.

Oh, that's purely aesthetic... Not for support...I just don't like the way the outriggers are so much lower than the rest of the truck.... It will be painted black or the body color... I haven't decided, yet... It's meant to represent side skirts like you'd find on the undersides of the fairings on trucks.... And, no, you wouldn't see that, either... LOL!!! ?

Edited by kilrathy10
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Well, I got a lot more done, today... With a tropical storm out in the Gulf, we've gotten some pretty good rain down here, so painting will have to wait... Although, here, in Houston, that may just be this weekend...? 

I had to get creative with the suspension on this one... ? Reason being is two fold... I needed to make it to where the Moebius wheels and tires would fit (and roll), AND I just didn't feel like carving up a perfectly good kit, just to snag the suspension pieces out of it...I think it came out pretty good as these babies will roll nice and easy and take up all the extra stress this thing will have on it with me "playing" with it all the time when I get done.... Man those floats look pretty cool... One of the reasons Moebius is high on my list for model company of the year....? And, Oh, and I guess, one more thing is I'll probably never turn this thing upside down, so it's basically a curbside, anyway... So, three reasons... 

Got it mocked up, and this thing is pretty long....

##########20200922_135607.jpg

My very rudimentary front suspension

##########20200922_135544.jpg

My tag axle assembly... Again, very basic...

##########20200922_135454.jpg

And, the mock-up....

##########20200922_135415.jpg

I can't wait to paint this thing!!!!

##########20200922_135338.jpg

##########20200922_135117.jpg

 

 

 

Edited by kilrathy10
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Whew!   LOOOONNNNNGG it is!  Local FD has been looking at a new tower built on a Pierce chassis.  It's actually a platform that sits inside the length of the body and it is not that long.  They accomplished it by making the aerial portion a 5 section unit.  The bed portion is about 5 feet wide just to contain the other 4 sections.  But what a difference it makes in overall length!  It's a mid mount rather than a rear mount and the bucket sits in a lower section than the rest of the body.  I'll try and post some pix.

PS.  Lookin' good, JT!  BTW you going to look in on "The Return" on Saturday?

Edited by Chariots of Fire
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1 minute ago, Chariots of Fire said:

Whew!   LOOOONNNNNGG it is!  Local FD has been looking at a new tower built on a Pierce chassis.  It's actually a platform that sits inside the length of the body and it is not that long.  They accomplished it by making the aerial portion a 5 section unit.  The bed portion is about 5 feet wide just to contain the other 4 sections.  But what a difference it makes in overall length!  It's a mid mount rather than a rear mount and the bucket sits in a lower section than the rest of the body.  I'll try and post some pix.

Yeah, I'd like to see that....

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2 hours ago, Chariots of Fire said:

This is an example of the tower that our local FD is looking at.  Very impressive.  It will also be a quint, as this one is.

 

Oh, yeah... We have some of these at a lot of our VFD's... I'll have to take a couple of shots of one when they're out cleaning them up...These things are MASSIVE!!! I mean... Who comes up with all this stuff? And not only come up with it, but to actually implement it... Totally amazing... Of course, at $1,000.000 a pop, there's lots of incentive to do so...

Edited by kilrathy10
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Looking good. Please do not use the kit rearview mirrors as they are too big in the tube brackets. If you follow the instructions the upper bracket is attached to the roof and the lower to the door. How does that work?  When you get to the boom, I drilled out the holes in the elbow and placed an aluminum tube inside that the plastic pin on the water pipe to ride in giving it more stability.

greg

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17 minutes ago, GLMFAA1 said:

Looking good. Please do not use the kit rearview mirrors as they are too big in the tube brackets. If you follow the instructions the upper bracket is attached to the roof and the lower to the door. How does that work?  When you get to the boom, I drilled out the holes in the elbow and placed an aluminum tube inside that the plastic pin on the water pipe to ride in giving it more stability.

greg

I'm all about stability, for sure... I was wondering if the boom would support its own weight... I only just got to that part, so thank you for the heads up...

As far as the mirrors, I wasn't exactly diggin' 'em... I will be examining what I can do, as most AMT mirrors are kind of thick... I'm thinking some paper clips and such may be in order... I'm open for a few suggestions... Good thing is, there are a variety of mirror options for this truck per the site...

I already had to retrieve the instructions from the current issue, because the old ones were just too vague... They caused me to make a couple of modifications to parts, because they weren't very clear... (I had already attached them and removing them would have caused too much damage) They're not much better, but they did make a couple of corrections that would have kept me from making those mistakes in the first place...

 

Edited by kilrathy10
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8 hours ago, GLMFAA1 said:

Looking good. Please do not use the kit rearview mirrors as they are too big in the tube brackets. If you follow the instructions the upper bracket is attached to the roof and the lower to the door. How does that work?  When you get to the boom, I drilled out the holes in the elbow and placed an aluminum tube inside that the plastic pin on the water pipe to ride in giving it more stability.

greg

I agree on the mirrors. That is one of the things that always bothered me on the old Monogram  now Revell W900 KW snap kit. One part of the mirror attaches to the door the other half to the cab. I guess the driver just crawls through the window.

 

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Here's what I did for the IH R190 a while back.  While the mirrors are obviously different, the basic idea is still applicable to the style that the ALF needs.  I did some research on the cabs to see where the mirrors were attached.  The kit cab does not have a frame around the door windows where the bracket would be attached to.  So the choice is to either have the bracket fully mounted under the window or, as they did with open cab rigs, mount the bracket in front of the window using the A post and the cab for mounting points.  The bracket below is made of straight pins bent as shown.  I drilled three holes in the wood block to mount the bent pins in.  Then I soldered the place where the two pieces meet to get the bracket shown in the bottom right.  Hope this gives some ideas that might work to get rid of those ugly mounting brackets in the kit. 

Here's how it looks on the IH R190.

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This particular type was also done with common pins.

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and still another.

093.JPG.3c626a10d621e39b2b784bda5b80fe06.JPG

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Oh, Man... That wood block jig you made just sealed the deal... I was wondering how I'd get it all put together, and that will enable me to get them done... Thank you for that amazing tip... Definitely going to use that...

Those mirrors on the R190 are the ones I was going to do... I was either going to source them from an old Ford  or Chevy truck kit, but I don't really like kit bashing, much... If I take one part out of the box, it instantly makes it an incomplete, used kit... I like this idea, better...

Or, I might try to replicate this option...

##############ALF141805.jpg

Or even this one....

##############ALF719940.jpg

Edited by kilrathy10
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4 hours ago, DRIPTROIT 71 said:

I like the fly swatter mirrors! It gives it that old school look!

I like that look, too... But I also like the modern ones...Hmmm...

2 hours ago, GLMFAA1 said:

A nice set of mirrors to use are the AMT 54 Ford pick up but need some extension. Some others are from the Mobius Ford pick up kits

greg

Both are great suggestions... I'm torn...

 

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You know what? I think I have the solution... I'm going to combine the two into something I think will work with this project... I can install these directly into the doors, and add a bit more of the retro mod theme I'm going for to it...

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I'm also going to use these light bars from a Trumpeter model I got that someone stole the chrome and the wheels and tires from... Got it pretty cheap from Hobby Lobby, back when they were selling them there... Since it's already missing parts, I don't mind taking from this one....

###########20200924_164138.jpg

Edited by kilrathy10
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