Mack/Pierce Fire Tanker

[hooknladderno1]

Did you ever have one of those projects that takes a FEW turns along the way and ends up totally different from your original vision? This was one such project... It began with an idea I had seen on one of the Pierce brochures:

This was several years before the Plaskit FL series cab was available, so I had to consider a suitable substitute... I had in my stash a Plaskit Mack RD600 hood, and thought that I would do a little mock-up to see how it would look...

It seemed like a good choice, so I went with it.

After building some other components, it was clear that the scratchbuilt tanker body was a bit out of proportion and too wide:

After being stalled for a few years, several discussions with fellow modelers, etc. - I decided to start with a new Mack R chassis. This was extended, and chrome wheels were added.

To be continued...

[hooknladderno1]

Part 2:

The thought of cutting up the tanker body to narrow and adjust the proportions just kept knawing at me. The project was again "shelved" for a period of time. While following the build thread of a friend who was working on an elliptical tanker, he suggested that "sometimes things don't turn out as we had intended"... The lightbulb in my head suddenly went off, and with his guidance,I decided to change gears and make this an elliptical tanker instead!

A base plate was fashioned, and an elliptical tank requisitioned from a 1/32 New Ray tanker.

This is where she stands today. Additional modifications included removing some material from the front of the tanker body and adding angled pieces to the rear to allow for a wider pump panel.

The final photo above shows the rear tank where it meets the body. It is not aligned at this time, as the tank is not yet secured to the base plate. I apologize that some of the latter photos are a little blurry. For the advantages of being able to upload photos from your phone, you sometimes give up a little quality for convenience... Thanks for looking. Let me know what you think!

[scale trucker]

very cool..

[cargostar]

It lives! Glad to see you back on this one!

[Danno]

Looking good!