Chariots of Fire

One point on the ALPS printer. The colors have to have an opaque background first. So a layer of white is put down first and then the colors go on top. That is probably why the decals sort of disappeared when they were put on. No background. Solid colors like white, black. gold, or silver do not need a background coating first. I use an ALPS all the time and use clear decal film to print them. A good pair of scissors will do the job just fine and you can get really close. It is ok to leave the barest of the clear film around the decal because the clear will disappear once the decal is coated. Testors clear is good for coating but it needs to be applied in either a spray or one stroke of the brush. Any more than that and the decal color will soften and streak leaving a mess.

Little things getting done while I wait for the temperature to get a bit warmer. Hood latches added and a light bar is added to the roof. I found this one in the stash and it's a bit smaller than the old one that came from the old Dodge van kit. The hard suction hose trays are painted and are ready to install. Brackets will be made of some strip aluminum and common pins to hold the suction pieces in place. I dug out the ladders from the AMT kit and cleaned them up. Be sure if you use them to scrape away the parting lines from both the outside and inside edges of the rails. I also added some small strips to the base of the main ladder. These pieces are intended to dig in when the ladder is set to keep it from slipping. The roof ladder has two hooks at the top. They are intended to swing out 90 degrees to the plane of the ladder. When it is used, it is slid upside down up a roof and then turned over to allow the hooks to dig into the opposite site of the roof. This keeps the ladder in place and provides a stable place for a firefighter to work. The hose reel is done and ready for mounting once the body is painted. The hose was positioned so that the nozzle will match the location of a simple clip on the face of the pump panel. The guide roller is done but needs to be painted. Fire apparatus of this era would have used either wood or aluminum ground ladders. I will choose wood in this case. Many times equipment was simply transferred from one piece of apparatus to another. And some departments simply like wood ladders. San Francisco, CA is one of those even today and still has its own ladder making facility in house. Wood ladders don't conduct electricity; aluminum ladders do! The ladders represented are a 24' single extension and a 14' roof ladder. The extension ladder will need a halyard and pulley after they are painted. The top of each ladder will be painted white and the base of each will be black.

A few things done to the list that will conclude the project. Grab handles were added to the cab. Soft wire was used and bent to form the handles. The ends were drilled through for common pin mounts. The pin heads were ground slightly smaller. The guide roller was added to the top of the body next to the hose reel. The base will be body color. The upright rollers will be chrome painted with a Zoet pen. Drive shafts were made of 3D printed U-joints and some aluminum tubing. The U-joints come in two pieces with one open so that it fits into the center slot of its other half. They can be positioned independently and the shafts slide so that the U-joints are secure. Then a drop of CA is put at the end of the larger tubing to secure the smaller one and keep it from sliding after the U-joints are in position. All will be painted in good time.

Here's a Saulsbury rig that was built on a Simon Duplex chassis for the City of Miami, FL. Built for Bob Milnes.

Depends on what was necessary to repair it, Brian. If packings needed tightening, they could crawl under the truck to get at it. More sophisticated repairs would mean removing all of the intake and discharge caps, and other small things and then unbolting the entire panel from either the right or the left. They are typically designed to be removable. The officer's side of the truck has a much simpler panel and could be removed much more easily. Also the operator's panel was made in two pieces so that the upper half which contains all of the gages could be left in place.

The hose reel has been painted and the frame and supply piping has been added. There is a small valve and lever just before the elbow in the plumbing that will turn the reel off and on for water. The frame work for the hose reel was made from sections of the ALF frame and some strip stock. Pretty much the way a Hannay hose reel would be made. The pump is also painted and mounted on the frame, located so that the suction can be extended through the pump panel sides. I used 18 gage electrical wire for the booster hose. The wire surface was rubbed with steel wool to eliminate the writing on it. At the end is a combination nozzle that was supplied by Don Mills Models. The end was painted flat black. The connection to the "hose" is a piece of aluminum tubing. This is another area where the AMT kit is in error. Black booster hose went out with horses and steamers. Nearly all booster hose is made of a reddish rubber and can be had in either 3/4" or 1" sizes. The size of this hose would be 1". The second error is that they placed the 2-1/2" nozzles on the end of the lines. The kit supplied nozzles are for larger hand lines and are shown with handles. They should not be used on a booster line. After the body is painted and the booster reel is set in place the line will be formed to look like it is draped over the roller guides. The latter have not been made up yet. The "V" shaped opening on the right side of the pump panel is for a step. Note also that the two vertical slots and the two slanted slots are for the handles of the discharge gates. They will be opened up some before the panel is finished and mounted.

That's looking nice. I see the decals at the door lines got trimmed ok. New Xacto blade?

FWIW take a look at some of the real stuff. Just my opinion but I think the step on the back would look better if it was not real shiny bright. In any event it would not take long to look that way because of foot traffic. Like what you did to the back of the body. The stripes look great.

The last posts showed the hard suction hose sans paint. Here is the result of painting the hard suctions with Tamiya rubber black (TS-82) and then chroming the couplings with a Zoet pen. The last thing I will do is run my dremel with a small cutter around the inner portions of each coupling to thin them out. Also in the pic is the hose reel made from the two ends supplied in the AMT ALF kit but with one difference. I used my Dremel with a sanding disc to thin them way down. The kit pieces would be about two scale inches in thickness which is all wrong. Thinning them down to less than half that makes the reel look more like it should. The last new addition is the lighting unit . I took one of the better ones from a 1/32 scale Monogram Mack kit to use. Some of these did not get chromed well in the inside but that was taken care of easily with the Zoet pen again. Not sure exactly where this will get mounted, if at all. We'll see! There will be more to come. And in this view there is one more little detail that will make all the difference in how the model will look. One end of the hose reel has a circular gear pattern. The reels were would in two different ways. The first was with a hand crank that operated a bevel gear against the circular gear. The second way was with the use of a small electric motor that has the same bevel gear. An extra brake can will fit the bill for this. Just snip off the long rod and set it against the reel. A small piece of wire would run from the motor to the switch that would be on the pump panel. Below is a look at what a finished one would look like. One missing part of this one, however is the manual crank portion that would be located above the centerline of the reel. Each reel has a motor and a piece of wire run toward the pump panel.

Well, it does have a variable speed control as well as an electronic board in the corner at the switch. The motor is entirely encased which leads me to believe if there is anything wrong with the motor it might be the brushes (assuming there are some).

You're right, Bob. The shears would never cut the thicker brass at all. I do use aircraft shears for cutting thin brass and aluminum flashing.

Any of you use a mini table saw for your modeling work? I bought a Microlux table saw years ago and it has served me well but the other day it decided to stop running. No amount of cleaning has made a difference. Taking it apart is a real chore and I'm not even sure if taking it apart will tell me why it quit. M-M still sells them although they are listed as not in stock and it's not known when they will restock. Besides that, the $$ is nearly 3x what I paid. I'm looking at options seeing as it is one of the more active pieces of machinery I use on my workbench. If you use one or know of one that is good for what we do I'd appreciate your comments.

Making a bit more progress, the front bumper has been given a coating of BMF and is mounted. I used the same common pins as bolts as I used in making the windshield wipers. Just the heads and about 1/4" in length. Here are some other things that are in process. The body has been primed for painting and work has begun on the Hale pump. This came from the AMT ALF kit. Hale and Waterous provided most of the in-line pumps for fire apparatus over the years and still do. The AMT pump represents 1000 GPM piece as noted by the four discharge points on the top of the pump. For smaller capacities lots of times all the manufacturer did was cap the discharge and not provide an outlet at the pump panel or on the opposite side of the truck. Each discharge point is equivalent to 250 GPM so using 3 discharges would amount to a 750 pumper. Also in the photo are the two hard suction tubes that will be mounted on the left side of the body. Note!! The AMT and Ertl box art for the ALF has the male and female couplings glued on backwards. My good friend Greg knows all about this and once in a while we will get a laugh about it. Also I have wrapped the tubes in masking tape. Why? Hard suctions of the era, and before, that I am modeling used hard suction tubes of rubber and were also wrapped in metal bands for strength and to keep them from collapse. A hard suction tube is not supposed to collapse seeing as they are most generally used in drafting situations. A collapsed suction hose means no water gets to the pump. So simulating the wrap with tape will give them the look of banded hose when the tubes are painted. The ends will be coated with chrome. The tape also rends the final result with a rough finish look which is what the real stuff would have. The hard suction hose trays need to be added to the body but only after the body is painted. Here's another look but with some other things in view. A friend of mine builds 1/50 scale apparatus and asked me to come up with some pike poles and axes in that scale. As you can see they are half the size of the 1/25 pike pole and axe shown above them. I made printouts of the axe profile and taped them to a piece of 3/64 brass strip and cut them free using a Dremel with a cutting wheel. Two of them were painted. The other two were used for a mold so more can be cast. The pike poles are made from the same old common pins, a piece of small brass tube and a length of plastic rod. (Hope he likes them!)

That is BIG water for sure! They will need industrial size mains and in line pumpers to supply those behemoths!😵

I was going to ask about the double pump panels. Just MHO but I think the single one looks better and is more prototypical. Nice job putting the two bodies together to form the tandem axle version. Most difficult part of that is hiding the joint between the two pieces!

I got the windshield wipers done today. Here are a couple of photos that show the finished wipers and how they were made. Here is the beginning. Four long common pins are used to make two wipers. First cut each of the heads off the four pins. Then bend the ends of two of the pins slightly and grind a flat surface on the outside of the bend. Lay them flat like you see above. Then, with a torch and a very small piece of fine solder connect the straight and bent pieces together. They should like this when you are finished. The angled piece is bent to form the part that will be inserted into the cowl. You have to be sure and bend them in opposite directions because one is for the left side and one is for the right side. Note that the wiper on the right has a slight curve to it. This one would be for a curved windshield. The straight one will work fine on a flat windshield. At this point it sort of becomes a trial and error project of deciding how long you want the blades and at what angle the bend has to be made. That part is left to the particular project and how the wipers fit against the windshield. You want them to lay flat and at the same time they have to fit the angle of the holes that are drilled in the cowl. Nothing like a bit of practice. The finished product looks like this. For each wiper I added a small hex bead to hold the wiper arm up slightly from the cowl and to add a bit of detail. Some modern wipers are black and not chromed like these. The blacking can be done with a magic marker before the wipers are mounted. Paint tends to rub off whereas the magic marker is more permanent. The blade length can be adjusted to some extent depending on the individual application. I think they are superior to the kit blades that tend to be very clunky looking or that are molded into the plastic.

Got a bit more done on the cab. Little things have cropped up to show that I need to pay attention to the process. The vent windows of the cab were a bit of a chore since I had to install the windshield and dashboard before the interior tub could be set. I should have done those vents first as it would have been easier to get my clumsy fingers inside the cab. Plan ahead, as they say! Other things have been completed as well. I used a Zoet liquid chrome pen to do the turn signals, siren and door handles. Same type of thing as Molotow but I think the results are better. The engine has been started from the castings of the IH Scout 345 V-8. The rear view mirrors came from the parts box. In the photo the drivers side mirror looks cockeyed but it really isn't. Must be the camera angle. Looks like I need to ckean up the paint line on the running board too! Whew! I'm getting rusty! The paint has polished out nicely, however. It dried quickly and with some Novus 2 it shines. Next is to get the windshield wipers done. I'll do a quick how-to on them since I use common pins and some hex nuts on the installation.

Hmmm! Interesting. I will post again. I made a few additions since the past post. I was able to see the former pic but these show progress to date. I've painted the cab, hood and inner tub. Color is Ford light blue and is engine paint. But I like the color. I used Molotow chrome on the hood ornament and the headlight buckets. The blue stripes on the seats are decals printed on the ALPS. I used a chisel point magic marker for the windshield gasket. Nice straight lines. The windshield fits tight against this gasket thanks to the way Dave Natale was able to cast the cab from the master. Wheels and axles are mounted on the frame. A look from the side. The international decal on the hood side was also printed on the ALPS. Previously for two other IH builds I found some nice images on line and had also photographed one closeup that I could copy into a graphics program for printing. The door handles will also be chromed but not until close to the end of the build just to keep my fingers from messing them up. The body will be painted the same color blue. Planning on a light bar for the top of the cab and a combo red light/siren for the top of the left front fender.

The wheels and tires are now set. They just need the center caps but will wait until the last to put them on in case the wheels have to come off for any reason. The cab and body are about the right stance. Will be taking a short break on this build while the temperatures are in the 20's here. The basement area where my workbench is located cools off enough to make it uncomfortable. On to armchair modeling for a bit!🥶

Here's hoping that the orange of the Ford cab does not bleed through the yellow you are proposing. Be sure to use a good barrier first. Perhaps it is not as much a possibility as it is with red bleed through. Keep up posted!

No need to do that. You could coat the mold but then each of the castings would have to be well washed before painting.

Warren: I'm using Mann Ease Release 200. You can purchase it through Amazon. A bit less than at M-M. It works well for me, either rubber to resin or rubber to rubber. It's recommended to spray once, let it set and then spray again before pouring the last rubber.

Welcome to the MC Forum! Lots to see here that will be of interest and informative for you.

No holes, but I do pour resin on the top part so completely cover it. Once in a while I will get a small bubble of trapped air but if it is not in an important or incomplete cast I usually ignore it. The casting resin I use is also from Micro-mark and is the CR-300 rapid cure resin. They also make a 600 resin but it takes much longer to cure.

The mold results are in. Now it will be back to the frame, get some springs and set the location of the cab on the frame. The tire mold is complete and the wheel mold is setting up. I use communion cups for the casting resin. You only need small amounts for most parts so they are ideal. You can see in the photo below that very little flash is around the tire. Here's the mold for the engine from the IH Scout. It fits well with the Loadstar. Tires and wheels are now done. Here's a look at what I'm after. The ALF body is about the right height but the Loadstar cab needs to drop down. IT's not 4WH drive so it should sit lower on the frame. Right now there are just temporary pieces of plastic holding it up. The tires that were cast are painted with Tamiya TS-82 rubber black. Best stuff yet that I have found for getting that rubbery look. Thinking of a companion piece for this Reo Gold Comet color wise.