Harry P.

You can't have a poll to vote your favorite until all the entries are in... Then you set up the poll. I can set up the poll for you when the time comes. Set a cutoff date for entries, and on that day I'll make the poll and open it up to the voters.

Where are you located? What about the pizza and Chicago style hotdogs?

Now that the history lesson is over and you guys know what the heck it is I'm building here, let's dive in. As usual, I skip around in the building process and rarely, if ever, follow the directions step by step. In this case I started with the boiler tank and boiler cap/smokestack. The boiler cap is a chrome plated piece molded in halves. Two problems here: I don't want the "blinged out" look of the box cover model, and there is no seam in the boiler cap on the real thing. First step is to glue the boiler cap halves together using liquid cement. Liquid cement is the perfect glue in applications like this, where you're gluing a part molded in halves and there should not be a visible seam on the finished part. Liquid cement literally fuses the parts together into one, and the seam disappears, as you'll see in a sec... On the real thing, this cap is composed of several different parts, and on the reference photo I'm following, some parts are copper and some are brass. I suppose I could have smoothed the seam, then painted and masked and painted again to get the brass/copper/brass look, but rather than risking paint bleeding under my masking, I decided to cut the cap apart into sections with my razor saw. The cuts are straight and run right along angles in the cap, so it only took a few seconds to make the cuts. Once I had the three parts separated, I cleaned up the seams with various tools including a foam sanding block, sanding stick and small files to get into the tight radiuses. A foam sanding block is perfect for this, it forms itself to the contours of the shape, so you don't get any flat spots. As you can tell by the photo, my trusty sanding block has seen plenty of use. As you can see, once you have smoothed the surface, there is no seam. It's gone. The two halves are as one, and no putty or other work is required, other than sanding smooth. The same deal goes for the boiler... liquid glue, then sand the seam smooth: If you look at the photo of the boiler, you can see the seam across the top (which will be hidden by the boiler cap)... but you can't see the seam as it goes down along the sides of the boiler. Liquid cement is the secret.

Nice!

That's one good looking model! Very nice work.

Yep, I'm gonna say it right here on a family-friendly forum. SNOW! I just came in from shoveling our first "real" snowfall. We've had a dusting or two in the past week or so, but this time there was enough to be "shovel-able"... maybe 2-3". Not a big deal as far as snowfall goes, but it's just that first one of the season that hurts... because it's a reminder that we're in for another loooooong winter.

Looks like the grille could use a black wash.

BTW, Christie wasn't the only brand of conversion tractor sold. I don't know what make this one is, but it's a different take on Christie's idea. Here the old horse-drawn pumper was left intact. It even still has the driver's seat in place. The pumper was then bolted to the tractor. In this case it looks like the tractor was not propelled at all... the tractor's engine was connected via chain or belt to a large drive gear or wheel they installed on the old pumper's front axle. Same general idea as the Christie tractor, just a different way of going about it. This rig makes a Christie look almost normal!

Yes.

I had a lot of fun doing my 1914 Dennis WIP, and now that I've finished that model I have the itch to try another piece of period firefighting equipment. This time it will be a "Christie" steam pumper. This kit has been released under several brands, including MPC and AMT (and also Airfix, I believe). They are all the same kit, though, in 1/12 scale. This is the MPC release, the AMT box art is similar: You may look at that thing and wonder what the heck you're looking at. It's a strange item, for sure, and if it seems like the front and back end don't match, or even look like they belong together at all, you're right. A little history is in order… Prior to the introduction of internal combustion powered, self-propelled vehicles, fire trucks, like all other road-going vehicles, were horse drawn. The most common type of firefighting apparatus of the time was a coal fired, steam powered pumper rig. The boiler and steam driven water pump were mounted on a simple wagon-like frame, and drawn by generally two (or sometimes three) horses. The pumper would arrive on the scene, and firemen would draw water from whatever source they had… a cistern, a well, a nearby pond or creek… whatever. This was before fire hydrants were common. As the technology was refined, ultimately these rigs could take cold water to pressurized steam in under 10 minutes. That was cutting-edge technology in the late 1800s. Here is a photo of a typical late 1800s horse-drawn steam pumper (restored): As the 1800s gave way to the new century, horseless carriages were becoming more and more common. As the general public was making the change from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles, fire departments were likewise looking to upgrade to the new technology. But there weren't many self-powered fire trucks available in those days, and what was available was quite expensive. So how could a local fire department on a limited budget upgrade their horse-drawn rig to the new technology at a reasonable cost? Enter John Christie. Christie was an engineer, inventor, and auto racer, who created several automotive and/or transportation innovations. Among his creations was the Christie tractor, a two-wheeled, internal-combustion powered, front wheel drive tractor. Christie sold his tractors to fire departments around the country, most notably in New York City, as a way to allow the departments to upgrade their existing horse-drawn steam pumpers to self powered units. The pumper's front axle and front wheels were removed, and the pumper bolted onto a Christie tractor. This way the horses could be replaced without scrapping a perfectly good pumper unit. The Christie tractors were front wheel drive for obvious reasons (no need to re-engineer the horse-drawn pumper to a driven rear axle). The Christie tractors had their four-cylinder engines mounted transversly, with a chain drive off the crankshaft powering the wheels. The radiator was mounted in back of the engine, below the driver, so the Christie's grille was non-functional and just for show. Here is what a typical steam pumper looked like after a "Christie conversion" (yes, that's Jay Leno at the wheel )... And here is a period photo of a pumper converted to Christie power: As clever as Christie's solution was, it didn't last long. As more manufacturers began offering a wider array of purpose-built, self-propelled fire trucks, more fire departments simply scrapped their old horse-drawn rigs and bought new trucks. While some of the old steam-powered "Christies" were kept in service as late as the 1920s, the Christie tractor's era was basically over in a few years. This kit represents a model year 1911 Christie tractor mated to an 1899 Ahrens-Fox steam pumper. I think the model is based on a restored truck at the Nethercutt museum, in which the pumper is totally blinged out, with chrome plated everything, like the box art model. I guess that Ahrens-Fox offered options on their pumpers, like car manufacturers do, and I suppose the full-on chrome look may have been available, but I like a more subdued, down-to-earth workaday look, so that's how I will be building mine.

My experience tells me that most people ignore pinned topics.

Correct. Which is something to consider before buying an electric car. To assume that everyone else will be responsible for cheerfully keeping your eco-mobile charged up at their expense, which apparently is what this guy thinks, might turn out to be a bad assumption.

Depends on what he likes, but my guess is most kids would like any of the Monogram Tom Daniel designed kits. They were basically marketed to children, so assembly is very easy... plus lots of bling to catch a kid's eye.

This is probably a lot closer to reality...

I think Rich's photos may be a bit off as far as color balance. Actually a lot off.. Still not a factory color scheme, but in the spirit of one...

It's close to a factory combo...

And that is exactly why we have an "Off Topic" area... because all of us have a life beyond model cars, and sometimes it's nice to be able to talk about it.

Check out this video: http://www.americanmuscle.com/2015-mustang-news.html?utm_source=bm23&utm_medium=email&utm_term=A-Spot&utm_content=&utm_campaign=PROMO+2013-12-06+2015+Mustang&_bta_tid=3.LYg.A8zmfA.FUAy.AR9EZQ..AgF-LA.s.Re4.s.AcNb.b.UqI48g.UqI48g.KOzmdg&_bta_c=58fcug1ka6kjf2fwvzrhkzl9ppn6m

Also on that same Atlanta TV news website, I found that the guy readily admitted that he made a habit of recharging his car wherever and whenever he found an outlet he could plug into. Apparently who was actually paying for "his" power was of no concern to him.

And also harder to sand smooth. I guess it all depends on the specific circumstance. If you need the putty to also provide structural strength, then yes, an epoxy putty is a good choice. But if you're just filling gaps and not needing the filler to provide structural strength, Bondo is easier to deal with (it sands easier).

And now from the local Atlanta news website... the rest of the story: Wednesday evening, Chamblee City Manager and Police Chief Marc Johnson issued the following statement: We received a 911 call advising that someone was plugged into the power outlet behind the middle school. The responding officer located the vehicle in the rear of the building at the kitchen loading dock up against the wall with a cord run to an outlet. The officer spent some time trying to determine whose vehicle it was. It was unlocked and he eventually began looking through the interior after verifying it did not belong to the school system. The officer, his marked patrol vehicle and the electric vehicle were all in clear view of the tennis courts. Eventually, a man on the courts told the officer that the man playing tennis with him owned the vehicle. The officer went to the courts and interviewed the vehicle owner. The officer's initial incident report gives a good indication of how difficult and argumentative the individual was to deal with. He made no attempt to apologize or simply say oops and he wouldn't do it again. Instead he continued being argumentative, acknowledged he did not have permission and then accused the officer of having damaged his car door. The officer told him that was not true and that the vehicle and existing damage was already on his police vehicle's video camera from when he drove up. Given the uncooperative attitude and accusations of damage to his vehicle, the officer chose to document the incident on an incident report. The report was listed as misdemeanor theft by taking. The officer had no way of knowing how much power had been consumed, how much it cost nor how long it had been charging. The report made its way to Sgt Ford's desk for a follow up investigation. He contacted the middle school and inquired of several administrative personnel whether the individual had permission to use power. He was advised no. Sgt. Ford showed a photo to the school resource officer who recognized Mr. Kamooneh. Sgt Ford was further advised that Mr. Kamooneh had previously been advised he was not allowed on the school tennis courts without permission from the school . This was apparently due to his interfering with the use of the tennis courts previously during school hours. Based upon the totality of these circumstances and without any expert advice on the amount of electricity that may have been used, Sgt Ford signed a theft warrant. The warrant was turned over to the DeKalb Sheriffs Dept for service because the individual lived in Decatur, not Chamblee. This is why he was arrested at a later time.

Agreed, as far as the "crime" in this case goes. But there may be more to this story that we don't know.

It's ok as long as we don't get into his politics, because there is a lot of stuff there that could start up some real fires here (or in any public discussion, actually).

Yes.