Chariots of Fire

Nice work, Tom! Will you be showing this anywhere?

Those swirls that were in your trunk lid look as if they were part of the plastic like maybe the primer was not thick enough and the plastic is showing through. I've used Duplicolor a lot and I only had it act up on me once and that was when I put the gray primer on a Jeep Grand Cherokee model. It had to be the plastic and not the primer. It was so bad there was no way to even sand it out or strip the primer. That is the one thing I found about Duplicolor for both primer and color. It does not like to soften up for stripping like other paints. Duplicolor primer works well for me and I have used it on kits, Evergreen stock and resin. In humid weather the gloss paint will frost over but that can be polished out. Let the primer dry well before trying the color coat. Also the first color coat ought to be just a misting so that it will hug sharp edges and not pull away. Sand that first coat down to take the edge off. Then apply successive coats until the full color comes out. That's been my experience and unless something drastic happens I'll stick with it.

Now that is scratch building! Tom: That is fantastic. Clean, well executed and the combination of the B Model Mack, the huge tires and that lowbed are just awesome! A fine piece of work!

Somewhere in my file I have a brochure that came from the Mack museum in Allentown, PA. In it are several of the colors that Mack used on their trucks back in the day. Give me some time to dig it out.

Love these kinds of rebuilds! It is as much fun as building a brand new one; Sometimes more fun when you can resurrect a piece of junk into something great!

Square up the sides and back first. Then fit the top. A little sanding here and there may do the trick. Sometimes it also pays to ignore the tabs and pins and cut them off to get the best fit.

You will have your work cut out for you! I'll be watching progress!

Work continues. The cab is done except for the interior details including steering wheel, shift lever, hand brake, hi/li range lever and pto lever. Then the seat will go in permanently. There are some instruction plates that go over the windshield also. Body has been started but not much to show yet.

You do very nice work! Impressive to say the least! You show that a lot can be done with very simple materials and by applying simple techniques. Great job!

Nope. Chevy BV-1001 engine as shown in one of the tech manuals that I have on these rigs. It had overhead valves. Exact same engine that is in the Revell '41 Chevy pickup kit. The oil pan is slightly different shape but that is the only difference that I see.

You're absolutely right. Lots of widgetry to do on this one!

I think the Hale pump in the AMT ALF kits might be a bit big for the front of the truck. At least I would chop off a couple of the discharge lines and go with just one or two which could be coupled to a spreader bar under the front bumper and at the back of the truck that would be used for dust control. It would also need a means of powering the pump for pump and roll operations or it would be useless for dust applications. JMHO!

OH MY!

Thanks for the compliment, Tom. Glad to share all that I can.

Water wagon for construction sites or is this one to be fire related?

The Monogram Mack engine is very nicely done with that Mack emblem and all. The only complaint I ever had was the fit of the hood. Never that great. It takes a bit of tweaking to have it sit down flush with the frame. If any of you went to NNL back in 2007 you might have seen this display. We did six AC Macks all in a theme.

These were post WW1. They came out in 1932 as the result of a conglomerate called Six Companies that asked Mack to come up with a heavy duty rig they could use in building Boulder (Hoover) Dam. It was the first true off-road truck of its time.

When Jeff Harper and I built out Mack AP's a few years back we substituted Delrin chains and sprockets for the plastic drive chains found in the kit. But we took a lot of parts from the kit to do our builds. That is a nice kit to work with and there are lots of possibilities to build things other than the dump truck, logger or tank truck. They were used for just about everything. Here's a photo of the AP so that you can see the resemblance to the AC.

This is the only school where tuition is free! There's no diploma or graduation exercises however. The learning never stops!

Got a bit more done the last few days. With the pump basically done I turned attention to hinging the doors using some small "H" hinges from MicroMark. They are temporarily held together using stainless steel wire. The wire is stiff enough to keep the hinges in alignment while they are being installed. After first securing them in place with superglue I then drilled out the holes in each half down into the plastic and inserted small brass pins. The pins are also superglued in place and then the heads are ground down nearly flat so that the hinge will close without binding. I used the back of an Xacto knife to scribe out the doors. This takes out the least amount of plastic and leaves a relatively clean edge between the door opening and the door itself. Very little shimming has to be done to keep the opening even all around.

Now that the initial Class 325 US Army pumper is done and delivered I've been working on a second one; this time it will be sent to Belgium to a WWII army vehicle collector. He has the real one in restored condition so this one will be a replica of that particular piece of apparatus. There will be slight differences between the original one and this one; mostly in the markings and some of the equipment that is carried. In fact some of the equipment may not have been original GI issue. But this is the way it is now so that is how the model will be built. Notice the blue ID numbers on the hood. Also the blue around the star on top of the hood. This is not unusual as the army did use blue paint on some of them. Supposedly the blue was harder to see in black and white photographs. The number on the hood and bumper are the ones to be used on the model. An early parts gathering. Lots of resin castings including the hood, fenders, axles, tires and wheels, Indian pump cans, stacked buckets and the main pump housing. The housing in the photo is the aluminum master. The completed truck frame and front wheel assemblies. The small screws go into the ends of each axle and hold the wheels in place. The screws will be covered at the end of the build. Cab and front mounted pump in position. The cab is held in place by two screws that attach to the floorboards and a frame crossmember and small screws that go through the top front corner of the hood sides into the sides of the radiator. The grill guard is all soldered brass strip and wire pieces. The pump with all of the various pieces that are attached to the main pump housing that was cast from the aluminum master. Elbows are made from solid plastic rods that were heated so that they would bend. Craft wire represents the flanges. HO scale brass freight car brake wheels are used for the discharge and intake line gate valves. Fusion beads are used in several places along with pieces of hex rod to represent bolt heads. The gage bezels will be given decal faces after painting is complete. The completed pump is mounted to the truck frame. Frame extensions were used on the real truck as well. Small screws hold the extensions in place and small pieces of brass angle were soldered between the main frame and pump frame to hold it rigid. The back side of the pump and the Chevy engine. I have to relocate the bottom radiator hose! A piece of heavy solder will do just fine.

Two things to consider. 1. If you are using C channel stock consider adding a piece of flat strip stock to the inside of the web. That will add thickness but you won't see it from the outside and it will help stiffen the long section to reduce bending. 2. You can also fishplate the beam to make it deeper in the middle. that is where most of the deflection will be and you can eliminate a lot of it by adding a deeper piece of sheet stock in the center. When you glue the two pieces together you will notice an immediate increase in stiffness with either method.

Yeah! That's a nice piece of work on the conversion. It all fits together so well! Bravo!

Looks like it would not be worth it to try. Rubber mold material and casting resin will give the best results, even for small parts. If MEK is nasty stuff to begin with I'd stay clear of it.