Chariots of Fire

The pulley belts came from a local source. A brown paper bag. I just cut strips, wrapped them around the appropriate pulleys and superglued them in place. Then a little weathered black paint and there you are! The engine was obtained from Ken Kitchen who lives in Colorado Springs. I did a small amount of re-working but the bulk of it is his resin casting.

There have been some changes made since the last post. I found after working up a part of the body that the tires and wheels are just too small. Some RTV is on order so I can cast up some new ones like what I have in these photos. I also changed the engine to one that is more like the one in the truck. The cab was raised to match the lines of the body. Sometimes things don't go exactly according to plan. Adapt and overcome, eh?

Cab and frame got a coat of primer. That sure does bring out the flaws! Got a bit of sanding to do. I did get the two hood side trim pieces plated yesterday and added some epoxy and a daub of red paint to the circle. Now for some F-7 and BIG JOB badges for each one and they will be ready to attach once the hood is painted.

With all of the snow on the ground there isn't much to be done outside (except shovel snow) so it has been a good time to get some more work done on the F7. Tires and wheels have been painted. The hood side trim has been made up from brass strip stock and some tubing. I'm hoping to nickel plate them and then finish off the circle part with some resin and an F7 decal. "BIG JOB" will also be on the center piece. The four brass crosses are the beginning of the universal joints for the driveshafts.

The 4 WD was added by Marmon Herrington when the chassis was delivered to Maxim for the fire body and bar work. The wheel base was short (147") so it made it easy to maneuver in a wooded envirionment. Will post some more pics in a little bit. The chassis is about done, tires and wheels have been painted. Been doing some tedious work to create the F7 badge and trim for the hood sides. One is complete and is made of 3 pieces of brass. Now the fun begins to try and make another one for the other side of the hood!

I DOUBT IT TOM BUT I WILL HAVE IT WITH ME ON THE PRIMER TABLE.

HI, TOM. THE TIRES ARE RESIN CASTINGS FROM A DIECAST DODGE POWER WAGON. THE WHEELS CAME FROM THE AMT AMERICAN LA FRANCE KIT BUT WERE MODIFIED FOR THE CORRECT NUMBER OF LUG NUTS.

Got a bit of modeling done on the Ford. The frame is from an AMT ALF kit; shortened and modified some. The light blue parts and engine are from the 1950 Ford F-1 kit. Wheels are from the same AMT kit but changed to 8 lugs. The front wheels can be posed now that I have made up some brass knuckles for the axle. Still some tweaking to go on that aspect of things but it's coming along.

Resin grill was with a resin Ford COE. It was a separate casting. Don't know about the frame yet. I may use one from the Ford LN kit. Right now my goal is to see if I can reproduce the tires with the tread pattern that is on the actual truck. Need a blank casing to start with.

After two false starts on projects I finally have settled on one that I have been wanting to do for some time. The truck in the photo is a 1952 Ford F-7 that was built into a brush truck by the Maxim Motor Company. The local fire department actually had two of these rigs; the other one having been built by the Farrar Company. The cab on the right was the same as the white 1950 F-1 on the left. With some plastic strips and a resin grill the cab on the right is the result. Wheel wells were also opened up for larger tires.

Will be interested in seeing how you do the grill

You been holdin' out! All I've ever seen from you is fire apparatus! Nice job, Greg!

Very interesting work on the front axle. What did you use for the round ball part of the steering knuckle?

Thanks also for this information! I have a cab of a 1952 F-700 that I want to build into a brush truck. We had two of them in our department and I have photos of them. For the first time I now have an idea of how to widen out the fenders!

Hessel that is wonderful work! What program are you using to produce the 3-D drawings? Wheels and tires are awesome!

What they all said! Nice clean work!

What they said! Very nicely done!

Here are just a few of the things I have been able to accomplish. Right now I'm waiting for some mold release to come in so I can prepare the new molds for the door and fender piece that you see set up on clay. In the back are the completed door and fender piece for the other side. The cab will be a challenge because the door and windshield openings are so big. We'll see how that goes!

I use the 2 part molding rubber from Micro-Mark. They have two kinds; one that sets up in about 4 hours and another (which I am currently using) that sets up in about 30 minutes. They both appear to pick up the details quite well. Biggest thing with both is to be sure to apply plenty of mold release if you are doing a two parter. Mixing ratios are 1:1 for both.

Thanks to the internet I have photos of the USFS emblem used on the doors. So I scanned them in to my graphics program and drew up a set of decals based on the photos. They are just about ready to go for when the truck gets painted.

I kept the wheel openings the same. The tires are somewhat larger diameter than the ones on the diecast original but they seem to fit inside ok. I used an Ertl frame but found that the Jada diecast is a wee bit narrow so I had to take in the front axle on both sides. Today I stripped the paint from the cab, doors and fender pieces. I'm in the process of making resin castings of each of these pieces so I can extend the cab to a 4 dr. The resin castings will also be much lighter than the metal masters which will make mounting them a little better. Will post some pics as soon as I am sure the mold will separate ok. The mold release solution lately has not worked well (it may be old) so I placed an order for some new release agent today.

If you can get your hands on some of the old Aurora California Fire Truck wheels they are pretty good. The snap kit tires I think would fit them.

The Coleman has been put aside until the spirit moves me to really get involved in it. In the meantime I have wanted to do a USFS rig for a while now and it has been started with this preliminary work. The DT466 is being built up from photos but with some help from the parts bin. The chassis came from an Ertl International kit but it has been modified. The rear springs came from a diecast and it is now a single axle truck rather than a tandem axle rig. The two hole Budd wheels I got a long time ago. Tires have been cast from a set of 3D resin cast tires I picked up from Gary Wallace. His stuff is top rate. In the foreground is a Boley truck in 1/72 scale (so the package says) but it is more like 1:87. The rig I'm building, though will be a crew cab and will have a pump panel and hose reels up top.

I'll bet one like that would be something to try and keep on the road with such a short wheelbase! Nice job!

Hi, Robert. That's coming along nicely. I notice the drip rails at the top of the door line look a bit thin. When I built my '38 COE I sanded them right off and after all of the cab work was done I glued on a strip of 020x030 stock in the same place and then scribed out the top to form a new gutter. It comes out very clean that way.