Chariots of Fire

So the Moluminum tires are a better fit? Are the AITM rims ok? I got a set of AITM tires a while back but the rims need to be shimmed to get a good fit. Love the work. It's a real treat to be able to work off detailed information and photos. If I can find that Oshkosh again I will take some photos of it.

Got a great start, Jeff! A great piece of subject matter, too. There is an old Oshkosh not too far from me that I have been tempted to get info on to do a similar thing. Maybe after the Pierce is done. Will check in frequently to see how things are progressing.

Got the mirrors on using the Trumpeter kit pieces. Getting closer to making up the pump panel unit now. Just a few more little things to add to the cab such as the front discharge plumbing, tow hooks and some lights to go under the steps.

It can see where it's going now. Headlights are finally on after much fiddling and adjustment. I used Alclad over gloss black and then used 5 minute epoxy to set the lenses. Epoxy was also used to attach them to the cab. CA would not have allowed any adjustment and that was critical because of the two sets of lights. I took the rear view mirrors from the Trumpeter ALF but they are not ready for installation yet. The kit has nice chrome mirror backs but they included a piece of clear plastic for the mirror part. BAD idea. I have some polished heavy aluminum foil that has a sticky backing. So the clear plastic was replaced with a strip of Evergeen with the aluminum stuck to the front face. BIG difference! The Federal Q2B siren was mounted on the bumper. Trumpeter again only went half way so I made a "F" face for it as a decal and put it on an aluminum backing.

What everybody else has said. Nice detailing and great clean work.?

Well, here we are after a few hours of work. There has been a ton of stuff to add to just the cab. And there is more yet to do including the headlights, two grab bars for the right side of the cab, tow hooks, "chrome" bolt heads for the front bumper, step lights. The list just goes on and on. In the meantime this is where things stopped as of this afternoon. Pierce has used a Great Seal of the United States on its apparatus for a long time. Each piece gets one. This rig has one too.?

Fine piece of work! Glad you had some fun with it. That's what it's all about anyway! God bless!

Bob, that's a great piece of work. Weathering and wear in just the right places not to mention all of the scratch building that went into it. Thanks for sharing!!?

I agree with Mr. O. It's what looks right that counts. But keeping things in scale is really important generally. It is very surprising sometimes to make something to scale, or so you thought, and then went out and measured the real thing only to find what you did was 2-3 times bigger than it should have been. Don't forget; 1" in 1/25 scale is just about 1mm on the metric scale.

Just a thought on the basket at the end of the boom. On rigs of this era they sometimes used reflective aluminum something like a proximity suit for fighting aircraft fires that they would wrap around the frame. Helped keep the heat away from the crew operating in the basket. Some silver duct tape might work if done in sections.

The BMF method works well as has been noted above. I've used it successfully many times as well. Rather than use thinner of any kind I like to use a polish to remove the paint from the raised letters. One trick in using the BMF has not been mentioned. Trim it close to what you want to cover and burnish it well. Do not worry about cutting out around each letter. The paint will hide the foil edges. Only the highest part of the raised image will ultimately show through once the paint has been removed. Really worth a try. The outside edge of the grill and the fluted part below it were both done with BMF before painting on this '37 Seagrave.

Had to do some decaling in order to get the headlight buckets in place rather than cut around them which would have been a pain. There are also some small round amber turn signal lights at the corners of the cab that are right in the middle of the striping. The Jacksonville emblem came directly from an image found on line and it copied nicely into the graphics program for sizing. The vertical bar on the back of the cab is an LED water glass to show how full the tank is. They've got everything on this rig.

More progress. made up the windshield wipers, set the grill in place and did a light above the windshield. Also laid in the "chrome" piece around the center side windows.

For the glass try using 5 minute epoxy. Let the epoxy set for a bit until it gets real tacky. Then set the glass in it. No runs or smears that way.

What were the issues with the glass? Maybe I can help.

This was our side yard about 4:30 this afternoon. And it's not even November yet!!? But it gave me a good excuse to get some more work done on E-27. The front bumper is permanently mounted to the frame. I used some bright yellow tape instead of trying to mask off and paint the stripes. Still to go are the air horns, LED's and two speakers for the front. The light bar came from the Trumpeter ALF. Again they missed the boat. No insides to it at all. Just the two mounting brackets. I may end up casting a clear one of my own.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. In my case necessity is the mother of make your own. This rig has 18 LED marker or warning lights and the Trumpeter kit has only 10. Five on each side and eight in the rear. That doesn't include the warning lights on the front of the cab or the light bar on top! I took 3 of the Trumpeter light bezels and made a mold from them. (I could have used more to cut down on the number of times I had to cast them but three it was). Some two part resin did the rest. In my stash of molds from a long time ago I dug out one for folding steps. The Jacksonville rig has four; three on one side and one on the other. I had done the master for it when I was working on a previous IH/Pierce rig back around 1996. The mold is still good so resin copies were made. They can be folded using a common pin as the hinge. Engine 27 also has a different kind of door latch on the outside. A vertical pull handle surrounded by a chrome enclosure. I made the base of the enclosure from brass and then a mold of it for casting four like pieces. After casting, the bottom and top sections were drilled out so that a piece of plastic rod could be inserted for the pull handle. Now I have plenty of LED bases and door latch enclosures to paint with Alclad II. The steps will be given a coat of bright aluminum.

Hey! JT! What better logo than UT Volunteers for a piece of fire apparatus! Looking pretty good, my man! Mirrors are just right, too! Ok........no more foolin' around. On to the boom!!!?

It's been a while since I used that last technique but it did come in handy. Years ago I used it to form some fenders for a 1955 Maxim aerial. Wrapped the plastic fore and aft and to the side. That left holes in the corners but they were easy to fill in with some sheet stock and then sand them round. Today I'd opt for the Renshape but 30 years ago who ever heard of Renshape! Here's the '55 Maxim that was done back in 1985 using the boiling water technique for the fenders. Remembering back I did it with the grill also on this piece. That is a former KW grill that I wrapped around a broom handle to soften it.

HI, Ed. Don still does business out of East Boston. I'm still able to get the square and round door latches and some nozzles from him. I imported the city seal from images on line and then incorporated it into my graphics programs to develop the striping. ALPS does the printing.

More work completed. If you look at the photo above the windshield is trimmed in bright work. The real truck has a black trim along with the edge of the glass being black as well. I used a sharpie to make the transition. Just holding it steady around the perimeter of the trim gave me the look I was hoping for. Nice and smooth along the windshield and the red paint. Next up is work on the front bumper. It has a center depressed box for a front attack line, air horns and speakers in the front and warning lights on the sides and at the corners. I used some 0.030" sheet stock, Don Mills Models treadplate and some brass strip stock to complete the construction. In the photo below is a mockup of one of the decals that will go on the sides of the rig. The Jacksonville seal is for the center of the door. The part to the left wraps around the front and the other end goes to the wheel well trim. The black headlight bezels will be given a coat of Alclad II the same as the grill. The Federal Q2B siren came from the Trumpeter kit but it has no front detail. That is taken care of with a piece of bright aluminum and a Federal decal to imitate the Federal symbol and the mesh with round holes. Here's how I made the curved bezels for the headlights. Using a section of PVC pipe that was used to form the cab corners, I wrapped a piece of 0.030" sheet stock around it and clamped it tight. This gives the sheet stock the same inside radius as the outside radius as the PVC and in turn the same radius as the cab corners. The whole assembly was dropped in boiling water for a few minutes to soften the sheet stock. The heat does not affect the PVC so it maintains its shape but softens the sheet enough that it takes the shape of the PVC. When cooled it stays curved and can be cut to form the base of the headlight bezels like the ones in the photo. Once they are ready they will be attached to the cab with 5 minute epoxy. Placement is critical so as to keep the alignment straight from side to side and up and down. CA would not allow me to do the adjustment at all.

Now that's a great tip! And how did you determine the 67.5 deg for bending? I understand the math but how was it accomplished to make the jig?

Pull the frame in just a little or you won't be able to dump the load without interference.

What did you have to do to narrow the front axle?

Got a little painting done on the cab. Duplicolor #398 bright red. Since the photo was taken the windshield has been outlined in black. Working on the headlight bezels now. Got to get the compressor out to do them in Alclad II.