Chariots of Fire

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.

Interesting! Wonder what you would call it? Any chance you will remove the KW grill and reconfigure for an ALF Pioneer?

Sorry to be so late on the reply. The cab is a resin casting from Modelhaus. Don Holthaus is the caster and I believe he is in Indiana.

Dave: My two cents. Remove the front radiator guard and the railing on top of the bumper. Use the treadplate on top of the bumper for your Fed. Q2B! The rig is classy in its own way and doesn't need a lot of stuff out front. For those vertical corner markers you were thinking about; use some thin chrome wire and just dip the top end in some clear red or clear green. Keep dipping until the paint builds up into a small rounded blob. Drill a hole in the corners of the bumper and insert the wire. You are right! Lots of changes since the first go 'round.

Did you prime the plastic before applying the Krylon? I can see some swirls that sometimes occur when hot paint is applied directly to the plastic.

Not this time, Neil. I'm a bit tapped out for travelling. Need to recharge the batteries as well as get some outside work done before it gets too cold.

I agree with the guys who are suggesting you leave it alone and move on to another project. Use this one as a learning experience. Later on you will be glad you left it alone so you can compare results and see the progress you have made. We all wish we could do a project over but as has already been said, sometimes taking them apart does more harm than good. Just MHO!

Very nice combination of the blue and steel. Great paint job as well!

If this is your first attempt at painting a truck I think I would try a one color paint job first. You don't say whether you have an air brush or if you will use a spray can. In either case doing a paint job like you show is something you might try after you have had some experience with painting. Give us an idea of what you have done so far. Perhaps we can offer some advise that would better fit your situation.

David that is some great work! To those of you who might not build a lot of fire apparatus, what you are seeing is the work of someone who has an eye for the details that set off his model from run of the mill stuff. At the same time he has updated a rig that is now several years old. Trumpeter did a pretty decent job on the kit so that it can be built box stock with good results. But David has made the leap to the next level with his work. I love it!

Dunno what happened. Hope it stays there this time!

Recently I made a trip to New Hampshire to get some photos and measurements of this 1929 Coleman. Although it has not been confirmed, word has it that it saw service in Gorham, Maine as a snow plow rig. It's quite a piece of equipment and was one of the early rigs to have 4 wheel drive as did Oshkosh. So over the next few months I'll be posting some in progress stuff for your critique and comment on the build over in the Work in Progress section.

I agree with JT and the other posters regarding what you do for your son. Find a plastic toy that looks a little like yours and he will be happy. As far as the diecast is concerned, i'd strip it with a good stong paint stripper. When diecasts are painted they tend to lay on the paint pretty heavy. Overspraying will only hide that much more of the detail. Strip after you remove all of the plastic parts if there are any. Stripper will just melt them away if you don't. Prime with a good etching primer and then repaint.

Fill the hose bed. Try using sewing elastic for hose. Shoe laces are way to rough and out of scale. The sewing elastic comes in 2 flat sizes, 1/4" and 1/8". It also comes in 1/16" diameter round. Use it the way it is with aluminum tubing cut for couplings. Check out the tutorial I did on the Scale Firehouse site. Look for the Tutorials section. It will give you some pointers on how to fill the bed without using a lot of elastic. A great tribute.

This build from a New Hampshire modeler took best truck model in the Classic Plastic model show last week. AITM cab and tires and wheels I believe. He had to cut down the sanding rig to fit in the dump body. The truck was weathered to look like it had just finished plowing after a winter storm.

Nice job! A great job on the paint scheme. I agree with a comment about the outer ring on the front wheels being missing. They need to be added.

Yep! Spad XIII C-1

Your comments are very much appreciated, everybody! But we can't sit on our laurels now can we? Time to get on with the next project! Bought a 1/72 scale Revell Spad last nite. Good simple build for a change!

For example: Here is how I did the grill in brass. I heated a piece of strip brass until it was annealed and softened. Then I formed it by hand around the inside of the grill opening. The ends were soldered together and another straight strip was soldered down the center from top to bottom. Then the outside was filed to the shape of the outside of the opening. Then, beginning in the middle I soldered sections of brass rod to the edges of the brass oval and used the pieces of plastic as spacers. Once all the brass rod sections were soldered in place the ends were cut off and filed smooth with the outside oval. Then it was painted and inserted into the opening of the grill. The ring around the outside is also brass that was nickel plated. Note the curvature of the ring. This is the form the brass oval had to take as well.

Yes. An old Mill City Replicas resin casting. The grill was no good so I had to make one up. I used brass strip stock for the oval shape, a piece down the middle inside to set the individual brass rod pieces on and soldered it all together. The outside surround is brass rod that was nickel plated.

Hi, Mark. This build is 1/25 scale.