Chariots of Fire

Unless the filler primer is heat resistent it would have a tendancy to soften and adhere to the clear plastic. I think my best bet is the Renshape. The Aero Gloss is a sealer of sorts and it felt really smooth but the alternating soft and hard growth rings in the wood still showed through.

Tried a wood buck to redo the windshield. Even after several coats of dope the wood grain still came out in the final piece. So will have to do the buck over again, this time using some Renshape that has no grain. It will be well sealed before trying to pull another one. Here's the results so far using the wood. I did polish out the clear plastic and it looks ok but the new one should be even better.

Lee: Have you had experience with vacuum forming the 0.010 stock over the buck? If you form plastic over it will the 0.010 stock bubble or buckle with the addition of the heated plastic over it? I just bought a new VF machine and am experimenting with the best way to do this.

Tried my first vacuum formed windshield tonite. The machine is very quick and easy to use. However it became quite obvious right away that the buck has to be perfectly smooth in order for the plastic to retain its nice clean surface. The material I used is quite porous and although I sealed and sanded it, the texture still showed through and the plastic that came out was not smooth either. Next time a little less heat and a nice smooth polished surface on the buck will give me a better result. Making the formed plastic fit was real easy after it was trimmed away from the buck. It popped right into position in the windshield frame which is what I was looking for. More to come!

Take two steps forward and one back! That seems to be what's happening with this project. The windshield area has been giving me fits. That and the part of the cab that is just above it. Studying the photos showed that the shape was wrong so little by little I've been adding filler putty to above the windshield to build it up.. I also had to redo the brass trim to bring the top out more. In the process of doing all that I wrecked the grill with so much handling. Good thing I had a mold of it so I could cast a replacement! This time I backed it up with some stiffeners that should keep it from getting damaged again. I did the same for the hood. With a separate mold, If the truck gets cast with the hood in place I can cut it away to make the hood open butterfly style. Now I'm working on a buck for doing the windshield by vacuum forming one. That's the buck in the foreground of the picture.

I don't often like to see fire apparatus used this way but this one is good! (Not saying I'd build a model of it though)

Terry! That is nice work! The heavy duty look is outstanding! How was the fit between rims and tires? Did you have to shim the rims to get them snug?

Just a thought. A 30's vintage dump body would be pretty basic and might not even have the protective shield over the cab. You should be able to find some examples on line that would help. I found this ad on line.

That's some really nice detailing, Tom. I do a bit of brass work myself when it calls for it. It's a good medium for lots of things that need strength and good looks. Thanks for sharing!

Today I got the brass angle stock windshield surround installed. It was a blessing in disguise as I noticed previously that the top front of the cab just did not look right. Studying the photos showed that the front was much more square than what I had sanded out. The brass sits out just a but from the top of the cab and it gave me a ledge to put in some Squadron putty to reshape the cab. Now the problem is going to be finding some clear stock that I can heat up just a bit and bend and the edges so it will form to the shape of the windshield trim. Some sheet stock has a tendency to craze when it is bent even a little bit. All in all, though it was a good choice to go with the brass angle. It is strong and hopefully will allow the windshield to pop in without gluing. We'll see. One of the local repair garages had several wreckers using Loadstar chassis. I had a diecast wrecker body sitting around so I put the two together just to see what they might look like. (Kinda like the look) But we are a long way away from deciding to do any kind of a finished truck model. Just getting the cab right is enough for now. The headlight bezels are now turned out of aluminum stock. I drilled out the center of each one and milled out a ledge around the inside for a lens to sit on. I used some lenses from the AMT Ford LN kit. Just about the right size. I don't have the lenses in the bezels in the photo but they look good when installed. I can remove the bezels and cast them as well. That way they can be painted. A couple of swipes with a Molotow pen around the inside would restore the bright area behind the lens.

Struggling with the windshield. Today I put a small piece of strip stock around the perimeter of the windshield to act as a trim piece and as something to force the clear plastic against to hold it in place. After much frustration I was able to get it in except for small pieces near the lower corners where the plastic has to bend. Curving the clear stock is not easy. Real hot water is best as it does not distort the plastic but it takes a while to do. Got all of this done only to find out that the top of the windshield is too low! So the trim has to come off and the top of the cab has to be modified some. As I'm sitting here the idea came to me to make the trim piece of out of small brass angle stock. It can be bent if softened by heating (annealing) to fit the contours of the windshield opening. Why didn't I think of that earlier! (*&)*^*$^$#^%#(?!!!!!!

That is going to be a bear trying to drill out all of those holes in the grill and have them all be evenly spaced. How about cutting them all out and replacing them with a piece of photoetch. I know I have seen some by Model Car Garage that would be just what you need.

Ok. Rampart, we are in service.

This has to have been one of the more time consuming and somewhat frustrating parts of the build so far. The hood is a complex piece with curves everywhere! Not a straight piece to be had except for the sculpture piece in the center. A lot of time sanding, testing, sanding testing just to get it this far. Still some tweaking to go along with some detail fitting along the cowl where the hood meets it. But we are getting there slow but sure.

A little something more on the cab. The rear window needed a rubber gasket to surround the glass. So some 0.020 sheet stock was used to create one first by making a solid piece and gluing it in place and then by cutting out the interior leaving just enough of a lip inside the opening of the window for the glass to sit against. A small amount of white glue will hold it in place without the danger of smearing the clear plastic sheet.

I'll see how it comes out first. No promises but it is a goal for sure.

That's nice work, Brad. I love seeing stuff like this come together! Don't dull the black too much! Gotta look good if you want to get pop corn customers!

Got the two headlight areas carved out and headlight surrounds inserted. They both need a bit of final cleanup. Did some trimming of the grill area and find that the sides aren't quite right. So two new ones will be done and then will get reattached to the grill. Anyway here is what has been done so far.

Photos of the carved Renshape fenders. Now the job is to get the right width from side to side and to get the proper slant on the radiator grill. It also has to sit at the correct height in order to match the height of the cab where the hood will go. PP

Well here we are. I primed the cab to check for flaws and found a few. It needed some corrections to the rescribed door lines and around the top. Still some tinkering left. In the photo is a first attempt at a fender made of porch railing stock. The two reddish pieces are Renshape, a great material for carving and shaping. It is also quite strong even when carved to a thin surface. Plenty of work to do to form the headlight areas and grind away the underside of each fender. In front is the grill that I initially made from plastic strip stock. It is glued to a piece of sheet stock where it was used a master for making the two part resin grill that is standing between the fenders. That way I can make additional ones if necessary. The pieces between the grill and fenders is sheet stock that was first scribed with those horizontal lines found on the real truck. Then they were clamped to a wood buck and dropped into some boiling water for a few minutes. That softened the plastic enough that it would curve without stress. The exact amount of curvature is still not known but with a few critical measurements we can lay it out so that the hood, fenders and grill all come together against the cab. Now to get those Renshape fenders to look a little like the mock up at the left!!

I don't know why the post below did not end up here! It should have.

Will be posting some pics shortly. I got the first pour out of the grill mold and it looks pretty good. Working on the right fender. Lots of picky contouring around the headlight.

Got the cab in primer just to pick out the flaws that will need fixing. The grill is made up of plastic strip stock and I just got through mixing up some mold rubber for it. The plastic is pretty flimsy with all of the little pieces so making it with two part resin will make it more uniform and hopefully a bit stronger. The sides of the grill were a bit of a challenge with the horizontal flutes that wrap around. I tried milling them after I had the side pieces mounted to the plastic grill but it was hard to keep them uniform. So I opted for an old tried and true method of scribing a piece of sheet stock with the correct spacing for the flutes. The 0.030" thick stock was then wrapped around a wood buck and clamped in place. Dropping the whole thing in a pot of almost boiling water for a couple of minutes softened the plastic enough so that it would take the form of the buck without stress. Immediately cooling it set the plastic to the curved line of the sides of the grill. Not quite sure I have the right angle yet but it will get worked out. One fender has been roughed out using some porch railing stock. So far it is beginning to look ok. I'll post some pics of all of this in a bit. I want to get the mold to set up for the grill first and make a pour to see how it comes out.

Hi, Terry. That is a goal but ultimately it will be based on the final product quality. I don't want to say it will be cast before getting the various parts done and checking on the accuracy.

As I mentioned there is now enough done to show some of the work done on the cab. The Revell 1953 Ford pickup kit was the donor for the cab. The front fenders were cut loose and reversed to form the front of the doors. The top and rear of the cab have been modified and the whole thing has been widened out 1/4". There is still some cleanup to do. The interior of the cab needs some cleanup as well to smooth out the seams. Some two part resin will be poured around the interior of the top and the inside of the doors to make good smooth surfaces. The goal is to make the cab with as few hard surfaces as possible so as to make casting easier.