Chariots of Fire

Glad to help.

Pre-building will work up to a point but as sooner or later during the build, permanent bond is going to be required. I do a lot of scratch building so I guess pre-building is part of the process I use but I never think of it that way. Thinking ahead about what will be coming next is a good way to keep things moving in the right direction. Many times during the building process I have had to make adjustments. It's just part of the process. Sometimes what I thought would work actually doesn't so an alternative has to be used. In the fire service it's called pre-planning, that is, doing all you can before the s.... hits the fan and you have to fly by the seat of your pants!?

I found Rustoleum paints to be no good for model building. Paint is too thick, whereas paints like the new Testors go on in a nice fine spray. I don't use an air brush for the most part. Last cans of Rustoleum I bought for other purposes was junk. Large nozzle just would not work after the first spray, even though I cleaned it out. No more R-eum for me.

That's what I use also. Good stuff, even though it does take a little time to fully cure. But that's not an issue at all.

Thanks, Peter. Will check it out. Never knew the group existed!

I'm with you, Peter. Very small decals are hard to reproduce even with the ALPS due to the pixelization methods the printer uses to create the various colors. I'm glad to have mine though and it works for just about all the decals I would want to produce.

A chance that the material would crawl up the sides and not leave the surface fully flat. (fancy name is meniscus)

Here's what I did. I had a 1960 Ford PU to rebuild. I separated the grill from the front bumper first. Then laid the grill down face up and built a dam around it. Poured in 2 part RTV and let it sit. When the mold was set the grill was in reverse including the headlights. Using some 2 part clear 50/50 resin I dropped just a tiny bit into the headlight depressions. It took a couple of days for the clear resin to cure but when It did I had 4 nice clear lenses with all of the striations and linework of the original chrome ones. That can be done with any size lens whether the smaller ones like dual headlights or the slightly larger ones for single light. A bit hard to see but the clear lenses took the place of the original chrome ones in this resin cast duplicate grill.

You might give a second thought to the clear. If the coat of red has any luster at all let it be. JMHO!?

If it's not too late I'd cut down on the size of the booster hose. Most booster hose is either 3/4" ID or 1" ID with garden thread for couplings. If you can remove the current hose load try substituting some red electrical wire about 1/16 diameter. That will put it more in scale for what you are doing. Got a good start on the red paint. What brand are you using? Here's a look at some of the electical wire I've used on rigs that I have built. This happens to be a 1961 Maxim. The hose reels are the same as yours, only thinned down so you can see the relative size of the hose is smaller. Same wire again and on this one I slipped on pieces of aluminum tubing to look like couplings. The hose may appear larger but it really isn't. There is just more of it on the reels.

Nice piece of work. Great tribute to FDNY!

Looking to see some of your work, Karl.

Welcome, Neighbor! Been here a while myself. Hope to see some of your work!

Fine piece of work! Love the color!

Now it is done for sure. Palette full of K rations in the front behind the gas for Patton's tanks.

I know what you mean. I've slept in command tents, 16x16 wall tents and a small 4x6 canvas tent. They all smell the same!!

This project can now take its place on the shelf. Work is completed with the final details on the tailboard and tarp. The M1 next to the MP is in its scabbard. The load for the back will be a separate project by itself. Willard battery next to the gas tank. Engine is complete and wired. The barrel in the back is a piece of 1" PVC pipe with 0.060 half round for the ribs. The truck is assigned to the Red Ball Express for hauling supplies to Patton's front lines.

Happens to all of us. I noticed tonite that I have the forward mud flaps on backwards on the CCKW. Vertical bracing should be outside the wheels, not inside. Read the photo wrong when I did it. NOT CHANGING IT NOW!!?

And the eyelet above the ladder is the pike pole holder. The front holder is an upright U shape. They drop the end of the pike pole in the U and secure it with a cotter pin.

Some updates with decals done and the tarp tied down. Still a few body details left to do.

That last photo is interesting. There was a giveaway hint on the closeup of the pump panel as well. The main pump is a centrifugal pump meaning it cannot pump air. In order to prime the pump and get water into it the main pump needs some assistance from another small rotary gear pump to expel the air so that water can enter. Once primed, the centrifugal pump will do ok. The priming pump is lubricated with oil and each time it is used a certain amount of oil would be discharged to the ground. That is the reason for the oil reservoir shown on the photo. An alert crew would check it from time to time to be sure that the reservoir was full. The other interesting feature is that the crosslay was only accessible from the pump panel side of the truck. Most can be reached from either side but would need each side to be open and not hindered by the ladder.

The tarp is very fragile but does allow for some careful handling. Once all is said and done it won't be played with any.?

Here's where we are to date. The tarp is done and ready to tie down. Still lots of detailing left to do on the body before it can be glued permanently to the frame. Then there are the final decals to make it part of the Red Ball Express. I'm thinking a mixed load going to supply Patton and the 3rd Army will be added to the bed. Got a GI to dress up to look like the MP in the photo supplied by Greg above. Maybe make a copy of the poster as well.

Number of discharges determine the size of the pump generally; 250 gpm for each discharge. Two per side would make it a 1000 gpm pump, a standard size for most Hale pumps of the day. With regard to the main pump suction (that big cap thingy in the middle of the pump): The AMT caps are way too big. Consider making a round cap about 7 mm in diameter, cut off the ears from the AMT cap and glue them on the smaller cap. Much more in scale as most intakes would be 5" inside diameter. Smaller pumps had 4-1/2" suctions. You should be able to get an acceptable chrome finish on the cap using the 2mm Molotow chrome pen or Alclad. For some nice grab rails try some 1/16" diameter aluminum tubing. Polish it up ahead of time. Use some common pins for stanchions and drill small holes for the stanchions to fit into. Check out the E-One pumper with the extended cab above. It has aluminum tubing grab bars.

One little detail that sometimes gets overlooked and that is that on the AMT kits the wheels sometimes extend beyond the body sides. It can be fixed by snipping off a piece of the steel wire they include for the axle.