Chariots of Fire

That's all scratch built based on photos and a few measurements of the actual piece. And yes we are on the other side of the hump but not exactly coasting yet.

Italeri used to make a detailing kit with those sorts of things. Unfortunately they were not very good. For landscaping you need rakes, long handle pointed shovels, brooms, trimmers, a couple of baskets for trimmings, a small lawnmower, all kinds of goodies. Some can be scratch built. Others not so easy. Try the websites that cater to G Guage railroad equipment. They have a good supply you could look through. G Guage is the same as 1/24 so it wouldn't be far off for scale. Only about 4%.

Here we go with some detailing. With the body complete now it's on to the stuff that makes the truck work. This rig was updated a few years ago with a new poly tank, foam system and new pump. While these are certainly not in keeping with the age of the IH, it works. These rigs get heavy use from time to time and then sit idle for long periods of time, being taken out only to keep things working properly. So we have a Honda V-twin engine powering a Hale centrifugal pump. Class A foam is now a routine feature for fighting natural cover fires. It acts as a wetting agent, reducing the amount of water it takes to put the fire out. Poly tanks also are a great feature in that they reduce weight and don't rust out. So here is where we are today. Control Panel and water and foam covers on top of the tank Pump on the rear step with just the beginning of all of the plumbing done. The winch cable is now secure with a clasp and hook. New NFPA regulations require all firefighters to be seated with responding to an alarm. They obviously never rode a brushbreaker! But the crew can at least enjoy the ride getting there. The Honda engine and Hale pump. And the back side. The pipe ends will eventually have other plumbing attached. We are just not there yet.

I say AMEN to that! It all takes time!

Unless it's a real custom I'd go with a basic black body or maybe a dark gray. Lots of images of one ton dumps on line to choose from.

Now you're clickin'! It's good to see some Imagineering at work! I was checking out your hood and hinges. Can I make a suggestion??? Either you are going to have to sand down the edge of the hood at the cowl OR you are going to have to take a wedge out of each side at the hinges to bring the hood in a bit. It looks to me like there is a bit of overhang at the cowl. Is there some overhang or is it just the way I'm looking at it?

That's by far the best weathering job I have ever seen! Not bad scratch building either! By chance did you omit the steps on the back of the fenders for cab entry? Just wondering how the driver gets in.

Good lookin', Jake!!

That's some nice work, Casey! I have made brass springs before and it time consuming but very rewarding in the end.

I use 90 degree bends from Plastruct. The larger ones had to be sanded down to fit the tubing I used. The 1/8" diameter tubing has bends of the same size. Some sections that were less than 90 had to be trimmed by hand.

Thanks, Vince. It will be a while longer. There's a pump and plumbing still for the back, some additional decals, a siren and a hose load still to be done.

I agree. That looks good and in the right proportions for the cab. Add some small pieces of sheet stock to the front and rear top of the sides leaving space for the side boards and it will be complete!

That's a nice "old" build! Thanks for sharing your progress. I got some tips along the way!

Sort of like this one? This one has a resin hood and fenders blended to two Ertl Cabs. The most difficult part of the match was getting rid of the dip in the top of the cab so that it was flat from front to rear.

What sort of details did you add that you were not sure of the purpose of? Maybe I can help with that. I was a firefighter/Station Captain for 44 years.

That is outstanding work! The subtle way you have done the faded paint on the trailers is really great. A job well done!

By all means shorten it up, lower the sides and the piece over the cab. If you indent the sides of the body and use some stiffeners along the sides it won't look quite as boxy or wide. I have some photos of one I built if they would be of any help. In the meantime here are a couple of pix on squaring up the sheet stock. In the first one I've used a large machinists block on a glass plate. Just run some superglue along the joint and let it set up. The main thing is to have square pieces to start with and then make sure that both sit flush on the glass place otherwise you will have to add some putty to clean up the edge. Just another way of doing it. I placed two machinist blocks at right angles to each other so you can glue up the joint the same way. You can imagine the bottom of a dump body sitting on the glass plate with a side and rear vertical pieces to be glued up this way.

Today the upper bar work was finished up and painted. I made up some rear view mirrors of brass wire, sheet stock and polished aluminum flashing. I bent the wire in a long rectangle, soldered it to the brass sheet and then cut it free. The edges were filed smooth. The aluminum has pretty good reflectiveness and fits just inside the wire perimeter of each mirror. I added some wire to the back of the mirrors just to enhance the look a bit. Just under the cab protection I added some scene lights to the front and sides. I found some clear IH fender lights and painted the backs white and the outside black. I left the front clear. The strobe lights are just printed on some glossy paper and clear coated. Thanks to another fire apparatus modeler for that tip! He made up a bunch and sent them to me to try. They look pretty nice.

That is a huge rig! A lot of truck to drive around! Very nice work. Hope your back gets better. No fun, is it?

Work continues. The braces between the top bar and bumper have been completed and painted. With that done I went to work on building the upper braces that protect the hood, windshield and cab top. They are made of 3/64 brass rod. The ends of the rods were turned down to form a projecting pin that I could insert into pre-drilled holes in the bars. The main pieces were done first making the bend and then connecting each piece with the brace that is between them above the windshield. I put a piece of paper towel over the cab and hood to prevent solder from dropping on the paint. Using a minimum of solder on the iron tip helped prevent any mishaps. After the main braces were in place the smaller side pieces and additional inside pieces were soldered in position. Last was to solder a piece of 0.010 brass sheet stock to the upper windshield brace. With all of this done I could lift the entire assembly away in order to clean up the joints and get rid of the flux paste. It is nearly ready to be spray painted and then it can be glued back into position. If you look closely you can see where the ends of the brass rods were ground down to a pin sized projection to fit the holes in the bars. With the brass cleaned up this is what it looks like in place. Don Mills Models "D" door latches have been added to the side compartment doors and additional ones were added to the rear. They were drilled out and clear lenses were inserted and glued. The upper ones are backup lights left clear but with a piece of clear white plastic sheet glued in behind. The tail lights were painted with Tamiya clear red.

For those interested in how to make square corners when gluing two pieces of flat sheet together there are some neat tools out there for doing that. Micro-Mark carries a special jig/frame for making square corners and they also have a set of machinist's blocks that you can lay pieces up against for gluing. That's what I use and will show some pix of how it's done.

Mill City Replicas does the 38-39 Ford COE. Only problem is with the grill which was real bad. So I made a new one out of brass for the cab at right. To the left is a similar one with the grill partially made so you can see how it was done. The headlights on the finished cab came from a Yat Ming '38 Ford open cab fire truck.

To get a straight cut use a straightedge and the back side of an Xacto blade. Draw the Xacto blade across the line to be cut with several even strokes that will scribe a little of the plastic away a bit at a time. Once you are most of the way through you should be able to snap the pieces apart easily. Then just touch up the edge with a sanding stick (not just sandpaper). The sanding stick will help keep the cut edge straight. I'll post some pics on how to glue up pieces squarely and with very little glue.

Get your measurements of the length x width of the body floor. Square that up. Do you know how to use a couple of drafting triangles to get good right angles? Same technique for the back and sides. Photo 1 shows how to get right angles using a simple square. Photo 2 and 3 shows how to get parallel lines. First you place the bottom triangle on the line you have just drawn. Hold firm and place the second triangle up against it on an adjacent side. Next you hold the left triangle firm and slide the first triangle along it until you get to the point where you want to draw the parallel line. Want to make a line perpendicular to the two parallel lines? Choose a point like in the next photo and place the edge of the right hand triangle up against the line with the point on it. Now hold the left triangle firm and slice the right hand triangle down until the right edge is at the point in the next photo. Draw a line against the far right edge of the right hand triangle and it will be at 90 degrees to the two parallel lines. NOTE: The two edges of the triangle you are using are at right angles to each other so that is why it works. Use this technique to make the bottom, sides and back of the body. All you have to do is choose your dimensions. If you are working in 1/25 scale get a metric ruler that measures in millimeters. If you measure the real body in real inches there is no conversion necessary. For example a body length of 108" would be 4.32" in 1/25 scale. Since there are 25.4 mm in one inch there is an insignificant difference so that 108" would be 4.25". The difference is only 0.07"! Can't hardly mark that with a pencil! So just mark off 108 mm and there you have it!

The white stripes are actual reflective tape. I got some from a friend who worked at a municipal maintenance shop. I need to do the same thing across the bottom of the cab doors.