Vintage fire engine WIP

[Joker]

What's the progress on the "Blue Men Group" ?

[Harry P.]

What's the progress on the "Blue Men Group" ?

I'm saving them for last... but they won't be forgotten.

Meanwhile, here's some progress on the main body. Decals still to come. Once again, no decals for the gauge faces, so I had to hand paint the detail on them, and add clear 5-minute epoxy "glass." The loose lines in the back will ultimately be hooked up to the pump. The kit supplies black vinyl tube for these lines, but I thought that "hard lines" might seem more appropriate, so I scratchbuilt them out of brass rod to extend down to the rear deck, where the flexible lines will continue on (to the pump):

[Danno]

Beautiful.

[Harry P.]

The main reason the seller offered this kit at such a bargain-basement price was because two of the three ladders were missing. Not a problem, as I was planning on rebuilding them anyway, using real wood (nothing looks more like real wood than real wood!). By looking at the instruction book's illustrations I was able to determine that the ladder I had was the top ladder–the narrowest of the three (the ladders nest into each other; the top ladder is the narrowest, the middle ladder wider, the bottom ladder the widest).. First step was to take the plastic ladder (which is molded in a brown "wood color" plastic) and snip off a part of it, so I could take that piece with me to the store and get some basswood strips to exactly match the dimensions of the ladder's rails and the rungs. Taking a small part of the kit ladder with me to the store was easier than taking the whole thing!

Basswood is the ideal material to use when creating a wooden part in almost any scale. The wood is very light colored, so it's easy to stain to represent just about any species, the grain pattern is very tight and even, so the grain looks correct in scale, and it's soft enough to easily cut and sand, yet strong... much stronger than balsa. I cut the larger strips to length for the ladder rails, but left the rung strips alone for now. I stained the wood a "honey oak" color to match reference photos. Staining the wood couldn't be easier: Dip a bit of paper towel or a small rag in the stain, and wipe it onto the wood, working it into the piece. After the pieces sat for a few minutes, I took a clean paper towel and rubbed them down to remove excess stain. In the photo below you can see how light natural basswood is (the piece in the foreground):

The reason I stained the rung parts as one long strip is that it's much easier to stain the wood as whole strips, then cut the individual rungs. The rails, though, were cut to length first and then stained.

[Harry P.]

Time to cut the rungs to length. I made this super simple jig out of scrap pieces of wood (leftovers from a stagecoach kit) to make sure each rung was the exact same length. The two clamps on the left hold the jig to my work table, and the black clamp holds the stop block. These are the rungs for the narrowest (top) ladder. To make the wider rungs for the middle and bottom ladders, all I have to do is move the stop block back a bit. This jig took me all of two or three minutes to make.

[Harry P.]

The first ladder is done. Real wood (front) vs. molded plastic (rear).

[Danno]

Looking great, Harry!

Just a tip: In the days of wooden ladders, Firefighters kept them highly lacquered to preserve their integrity and protect them from dirt, grime and moisture. Thus, they would have a very high gloss finish.

{If you weren't finished with the ladder yet, forgive me for climbing on you at this point.}

[Bennyg]

I've learnt so much from watching this thread. Great to see.

Ben

[David G.]

Harry- I always enjoy watching your builds.

Aside from your excellent craftsmanship, I usually pick up a useful tip or two.

David G.

[Harry P.]

Looking great, Harry!

Just a tip: In the days of wooden ladders, Firefighters kept them highly lacquered to preserve their integrity and protect them from dirt, grime and moisture. Thus, they would have a very high gloss finish.

{If you weren't finished with the ladder yet, forgive me for climbing on you at this point.}

Interesting. From all the reference photos I could find, the ladders look to be pretty much "natural" wood, no gloss. But what you say makes sense. I can always give them a clear coat once all the little brackets and guides are attached. This is the photo I've been using as my main reference. It's a slightly later model truck, but the ladder carriage looks just about the same as what's in the kit:

[Harry P.]

The bottom ladder has guides that the middle ladder rides inside of, and the middle ladder has guides that the top ladder rides inside of. The top ladder has no guides, because it's the top ladder... nothing else rides on it. The kit only has the top ladder–the middle and bottom ladders were missing. The plastic kit ladders would have had all of the attachment "pockets" for the ladder guides molded in, so attaching the guides would be a snap. But obviously, when I scratchbuilt the missing ladders, those pockets had to be created. The guides have to be the exact right distance apart... enough space for the next ladder to slide between, but not so much space that the next ladder wobbles in the space between them. I used a sharp X-acto to carve out the guide pockets on the middle and bottom ladders. Woodworking in 1/16 scale!

[sjordan2]

It gets better and better.

Just saw this kit listed on eBay for $175 or best offer.

[Harry P.]

I paid $40.

[Danno]

Interesting. From all the reference photos I could find, the ladders look to be pretty much "natural" wood, no gloss. But what you say makes sense. I can always give them a clear coat once all the little brackets and guides are attached. This is the photo I've been using as my main reference. It's a slightly later model truck, but the ladder carriage looks just about the same as what's in the kit:

Well, three caveats may apply:

1) The pictures may depict privately-owned collector pieces; don't know if the owners maintain to 'in-service' standards.

2) Even various departments may have differing maintenance standards.

3) This is an English rig; perhaps they view ladder maintenance differently. Come to think of it, we received a 60's model ELF fire engine with escape ladder from an English donation. I do not remember how long it had been out of service, but the ladders were rough, dry, and poorly maintained.

Who knows.

I just know most American Firefighters don't like splinters. {Besides, splinters are work comp.}

[Harry P.]

It all depends on who restored the truck, I guess. But what you say about keeping the ladders protected with a high-gloss varnish makes sense.

[uncle potts]

Harry, how did you fasten the rungs to the side rails on the ladder? And what kind of jig did you use, if any? I'm building a fire truck, in a much smaller scale, but any tips you have I could use. I'm building a two section ladder and could use some ideas. Thanks,

Paul

P.S. Love this build, I've always admired your work.

Edited November 11, 2013 by uncle potts

[Harry P.]

Here are the three ladders with all the miscellaneous brackets, pulleys, and guides attached. Lower ladder in the back, upper (narrowest) ladder in the front. I also added a black wash (naturally! ) where the rungs meet the rails.

Paul... the one ladder that was in the kit (the narrowest one) was used as a template to build the replacement in wood. Then looking at the instruction book illustrations, I saw how the three ladders nested into each other, so I measured the width of the narrow ladder to get the needed width of the middle ladder and cut the rungs to the required length... then after building the middle ladder I measured the width to get the needed width of the lower ladder, etc.

The way I built the ladders was like this: I laid the one existing plastic kit ladder down right at the edge of my work surface, then laid a wooden ladder rail against it, laid 2-3 rungs down to get the correct spacing between the rails, then the other ladder rail. I made sure the wooden rails and the ends of the kit ladder all lined up, then I laid a couple of thin flat pieces of scrap wood down on each end, on top of the kit ladder and my wooden rails, and used a couple of large spring clamps to lock everything down tight. I laid down two thin strips of styrene between my wooden rails, to keep the rungs properly centered within the rails, then just glued each rung in place between the wooden rails with a drop of super glue at each rung end, using the kit ladder as the guide to space my rungs. I used a small piece of wood with a perfect 90 degree angle that fits between the rails as a small square to square up each rung before I glued it into place. Once I had all of the center rungs glued in, I removed the clamps and finished gluing the rest of the rungs onto each end of the ladder, still using the existing kit ladder as my spacer guide.

[Harry P.]

Here is the bottom ladder with all the bells and whistles attached:

[GeeBee]

Stunning work Harry, I remember building the 1/32nd scale Airfix one many year ago ....... Dennis is still going over here, now trading under the name of John Dennis Coachbuilders.

[Agent G]

Superb work Harry!

Are you spraying the paint from the can or decanting it in an AB?

Gorgeous either way.

G

[Harry P.]

Superb work Harry!

Are you spraying the paint from the can or decanting it in an AB?

Gorgeous either way.

G

Right out of the can.

[Harry P.]

One of my basic modeling philosophies is to scratchbuild instead of relying on aftermarket parts. In some cases, you can't avoid using aftermarket parts... for example, on my Pocher Mercedes that I have posted in the past, I used aftermarket headlights, (among other things), because I have no way of scratchbuilding chrome-plated headlight buckets. But if I can scratchbuild a part, I do. Here is a perfect example. There are no sources of 1/16 scale turnbuckles that I know of, but looking at what a turnbuckle is, I figured I could scratchbuild one pretty easily.

The kit supplies a length of chain for this application, but my reference photos all show that these braces were actually steel cable, not chain. The turnbuckles are made of various bits and pieces of styrene, sheet aluminum, and aluminum tubing and rod. The "steel" cable is plain old heavy-duty gray sewing thread. Once I had the turnbuckles built, I sprayed them silver, then transparent window tint (my favorite detailing "secret weapon!") to darken and define them. Then I attached the cables and turnbuckles, painted the thread with a metallic steel color acrylic craft paint, and finally added a black wash (my "secret formula" of water, Future and black acrylic craft paint). Here's the result:

[Danno]

Nice!

[cobraman]

Looks great !

[Bennyg]

Nice.

Ben