Chariots of Fire

Nice work on this rig. AITM is a good company to do business with. I see Dave Natale at NNL East just about every year.

That looks nice! Love the scratch building and your attention to detail.

The latest wheel looks really great. Can I make a small suggestion? I'd sand off the lug nuts and then glue on some plastic hex rod. It will give you nice crisp edges. The other thing you can do after the hex rod is in place is to drill a hole in the center and glue in a piece of plastic rod the size that the lug would be. Just snip if off and sand leaving just a bit protruding like it would be on the real wheel.

I like the old stuff Harry. There is so much class in the way they were put together and it all hangs out in plain sight where you get to see the details. There is a good amount of study that goes into coming up with a build before it actually takes place. I know I've said it before but it bears repeating. If you are going to take photos take a lot of them. There are never enough of them. And for those pesky details, take photos of the same thing from different angles. It's surprising the info you pick up from just doing that.

Thank you all for your kind comments. Here is a pic of the parts so far. I didn't take the springs out of their mounts but you get the idea. Next could be the engine and then the drive train. Lots of things going on with those details. I just noticed! I forgot the front wheels and tires! So a quick trip back to the bench and a new photo!

Looks like a nice kit. Do things go together well?

I appreciate someone who is not afraid to start over! A nice job on the wheel Robert! What kind of molding materials are you using?

Well, it's up on all fours. But not to my liking. The back sits about 3mm higher than the front so I have to do some tweaking in the form of artistic license. I'll cut a notch in the rear springs enough to bring the back down close to level with the front. If I can get it dropped 2mm that will be enough. I can live with a 1mm "rake". The rear hubs are not made so that I can slip off the center part, slide it on the brass axle, secure it with a brass washer and then slip on the rest of the wheel and secure it with some two part resin. Securing it with superglue would not allow enough time to make sure it is even all around and doesn't wobble. Besides I need to do a lot of detailing and painting before the outer wheel can be set in place. And the rear coil shocks need to be secured with some small pieces of plastic rod. This has been kind of an engineering puzzle as well as a modeling one so it has been fun to do. In the third photo you can see the center part of the wheel that looks like a small gear. That is the part that slips out and is then put on the brass axle with a washer in front of it to secure it. Then the wheel slides back over it. To do that and get it centered I measured the inside diameter of the plastic tubing that it sits in. Then measured the outer diameter of the "gear" tubing. The difference is then divided in two and small strip stock is glued to the gear tubing that is half the difference. Doing that in several places insures that when the two pieces are brought together they will be centered. The same procedure was used to center the wheel's outer rim to the 8 spokes and center hub. It made it so simple to do and with practically no sanding. I don't know for sure if the rear wheels could be doubled up given the spacing of the wheel and brake drum but many of these old trucks used single wheels because it put more weight on a smaller surface for traction. The track of the rear wheels is only 80" outside to outside. Today I worked on getting the frame to sit level. Instead of notching the rear springs like I mentioned above I decided to modify the shackles themselves by raising the tubing that makes up the connecting points for the ends of the springs. The old ones had to be cut off, the face of the shackles ground down and new tubing was soldered in place. then the extra tubing was trimmed off leaving the small round openings in the shackles for the bolts to go through. The results were good. Now the frame is only a half millimeter or so out of being level from front to rear and I'm not going to try and improve on that.

Rear springs are in the can, so to speak. "U-bolts" that tie axle to springs are made up and coil shocks are in place temporarily. They need to be secured by gluing some bits of plastic tubing to the bracket and top of the spring plates to hold them in place. Front ones are done that way.

Kinda frustrating sometimes, eh? The second hood has a nice shape to it. Should work out well. Once in a while you just have to keep trying!

Finally got the brass stock for the rear springs. Got them done and now it's on to the shackes. Lots of iddy biddy pieces for each one. Will post pix soon.

I'll be watching this one. I've always liked old mixers. Local company had a lot of mixers on Autocar A64B chassis. Just might try one some day!

The '37 looks more like it should be whereas the '36 looks like the grill is so out of place. A first stab at designing and using what you have I guess. Still the oversized cab and small fenders on both rigs do look a bit odd. Like your work on this one. And there has been a lot of it! Don't fret the time it has taken. Took me 2-1/2 years to complete my '37 Seagrave.

Hi Tom. There is an actual truck in Bridgewater, NH so I went there, took some photos and some measurements. I used a simple CAD file to do the side view drawing. When doing this type of modeling, the more photos and measurements the merrier. But it never fails, there are always one or two measurements that you wish you had taken and didn't. Had to e-mail the owner and ask him to get me some rear wheel measurements that I missed. He was kind enough to reply so I was able to complete the wheel assemblies using what he gave me along with the photos.

I used a 1/4" diameter flat end dremel cutter to smooth out the initial surface and to then cut the area around the letters as close as I could. Then I used a 1/8" cutter to get closer in the tight spots. For the interior of certain letters I used the smallest round cutter that I could find, probably a third of a millimeter in diameter. Final cuts to clean up all the edges I just did with a nice sharp Xacto blade. The material I used was superb for both milling and just hand work. Wood sometimes is crushed even with the sharpest blade and plastic tends to be too difficult in tight areas. This stuff was almost like slicing butter but all of the edges remained crisp and clean. The spacing between letters I first cut with a fine Xacto saw blade. Then the spaces were opened up a little more with the knife blade. All this took 3 tries to get right and it took some time but I think the results speak for themselves. The final shape of the top of the radiator I left until last as it is always easier to work the material that way.

Just a little bit more work done. While waiting for some more brass stock to finish up some rear springs I decided to tackle the radiator shroud. With the measurements and a scaled drawing this is the result. The top of the radiator has raised letters that are carved in a piece of dense wood like plastic. It has no grain so no matter which way it is cut the surface remains smooth. It cut very neatly with cutters in my drill press and with a nice sharp Xacto blade.

That's a lot of work but very effective. I really like your approach to this. All in good time as they say.

It's been a while since posting any progress but it has taken some time to make up the various parts of the front springs and inner workings of the front wheels so that they can be posed. Soldering spring leaves together takes some time. And the steering knuckles have been a challenge. The front track is still too wide so I have to pull things together a bit. (That should be fun!). Anyway here is where we are so far.

That's looking nice, Terry! Love the scratch building!

I'm going to draw up a suggestion for you based on the rim you show. I think it would work for you. Here it is.

With one rear wheel made, the second one came along just fine. And they look alike!! I tried finding some small plastic cups at a craft store that would look like the moon shaped hubs for the front wheels but came up empty. But with some aluminum rod of the right diameter just happening to lie around, I turned out a hub and then made a mold. Now the front hubs are done sans dogs to hold them in place. A few pieces of small strip stock and plastic rod will finish them off. Then I can start work on the frame, springs and axles.

thanks, Jarda. You should hear the old Buda engine run! Quite a sound!

See? There is always an alternate use for some of this "useless stuff" they put in those kits. Glad to see you turned the hard suction couplings around and not like they show on the box cover. There is a "Filling the Hose Bed" tutorial on the Scale Firehouse Forum in case anyone is interested. Also one on making the hose like Jim did.

I made one wheel! No I have not made the whole truck yet. Just getting started!

This time it is a 1929 Coleman. You may recognize the name Howe-Coleman a well known manufacturer of 4wd drive axles. And they have made a number of trucks under the Coleman name since the 20's. This rig was originally fitted up with a big V plow and a wing plow setup but all of that is missing from the refurb. The biggest obstacle has been the rear wheels. Lots of different stuff needed to make up one that looks like the one in the photo. But with some castings and plastic stock the first one is done. It took 58 pieces to complete. Now to make the second one the same!!