Vintage fire engine WIP

[pharoah]

Harry,you should have been a surgeon. That is excellent.

[PappyD340]

That's FANTASTIC Harry!!

[Harry P.]

Even though I only had one ladder to work off of, careful measurement allowed me to build all three ladders with the accuracy necessary to allow them to nest and slide without binding. Here are the ladders in the retracted position (minus the cables to raise/lower them yet to be installed):

I'm very happy with how this assembly turned out. The fact that the ladders are made of real wood adds so much to the look of realism.

[Ramfins59]

Harry, you continue to dazzle us with your craftsmanship. Bravo sir!!!!

[peekay]

Wonderful scratch building, everything so perfectly scaled and realistic.

[Tony T]

Wow, awesome!

[Harry P.]

I'm waiting for some custom-made decals to come through the mail... should be any day now. Once they get here, I can decal the main body and put this one all together.

Edit: Just checked the mailbox (6 PM)... no decals came today. Looks like early next week, then, when this baby gets wrapped up and put "Under Glass."

[stump]

My goodness Harry, if I showed this to my nephew, I'm sure he would say they you're "sicker" than what he claims I am. (meant in a totally kool way BTW )

The level of detail you have garnered for, and succeeded to achieve is just mind blowing mate, GREAT work! That ladder is a working piece of Art alone....

[Harry P.]

A better look at the scratchbuilt turnbuckles:

And the finished ladder carriage...

[cobraman]

Ah, another Harry . Ladder assembly looks great !

[Danno]

Dynomite!!

[Joker]

[Danno]

Holeeeeeeeeeee Kowwwwwwwwwwww!

[Alyn]

great looking assembly. It's amazing how much the turn buckles add to the look of the overall part.

nicely done

[Harry P.]

Back in the early 1900s, firemen couldn't always rely on a pressurized fire hydrant being available nearby when called to fight a fire. Often they had to pump water from the closest available source, like a pond or stream, especially in rural or semi-rural locations. The end of the "suction hose" that was placed into the water source (to be sucked up by the truck's pump) had a strainer/sieve device on the end, to keep fish or other general gunk from being sucked into the hose. The kit provided this strainer, but the holes in it were not open, just vaguely molded in. I replaced the kit part by scratchbuilding my own by cutting off the the kit part's cap and end piece, and adding fine fiberglass screen and brass wire. Kit part on the left, my version on the right:

The kit hoses were a problem, because they were molded in halves lengthwise... which meant a seam all along the entire length that would have been very tedious to try and sand off. The seam would become even more visible after I blackwashed the hoses:

So I decided to scratchbuild new hoses. I took a wooden dowel and wrapped insulated speaker wire around it to create the new hoses. I pulled the wooden dowel out and added a little "sag" to parts of the hoses so they would look a little less stiff when placed on the racks:

[Harry P.]

Once I had enough length of hose made, I painted the hoses with a 50/50 mix of Future and Elmer's Glue. That was to seal the gaps between the spirals of wire and make the hose look as if it was all one piece. Then I painted the hoses with white acrylic craft paint and added a black wash to dirty them up a bit and make them look used. I also opened up the hose connectors (they are molded closed) and added my scratchbuilt strainer to the end of the longest hose:

[Alyn]

another killer detail !

wonder if using a light gray instead of white on the hose would tone it down a bit? To me, there seams to be too much contrast between the white and the black wash.

[Ramfins59]

More fantastic details Harry. I love it.

[Harry P.]

another killer detail !

wonder if using a light gray instead of white on the hose would tone it down a bit? To me, there seams to be too much contrast between the white and the black wash.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I might have to tone those down a bit. I might go over them with some thinned down white. The good thing is, they don't glue in place, they just lay there on the racks, so I can still work on them.

[cobraman]

Wow ! What an improvement over the kit parts.

[Danno]

Very nice! The extra work pays off huge!

[Harry P.]

I applied the custom decals today. Thanks, Charlie! Tomorrow, on to "Under Glass!"

[Joker]

Great build full of tutorials.

My favorite has to be the homemade wash.

Thanks for sharing..can't wait to see the "Mustachioed Crew" too.

[Harry P.]

Finished truck is "Under Glass."

Except for the crew... still have to do them.

[sjordan2]

I don't see it there.