I thought sice there were not very many firetrucks done around here that I would put my progress up as I build one. This is AMT's American LaFrance ladder chief kit. It is the older issue in the white box. Planning on doing the matching pumper as well. So far the only positive thing I can say about this kit is well it's a firetruck. Since this is about the only kit around for one, that is a given. After that it pretty much goes down hill. The parts came crammed several trees to a bag which in turn caused a whole lot of parts to get tangled up and broken off but since there is no numbering scheme to the parts them selves should not make to much of a difference to find the right piece. The instructions are another hit. It shows one side of the truck and does not give very detailed locations for alot of the parts. So put all this together and what a challenge this should be indeed. I'll post progress pics here for those that are interested to follow along and maybe someone else can pull together the courage to tackle this kit too one day on here.
This first picture shows the disaster I encountered when I opened the box. I don't think AMT would have gone bust had they put each part tree in its own bag.
4 hours into the kit this is what I have. Most of that time was spent figureing out where the parts were. As you can see this is going to be a big boy of a kit. I am probally going to leave the engine the primer color after looking around on the Detroit Desiel web site, thats about what they look like after they leave the factory. Probally will just paint up the filters,belts and fan. And of coarse give it the mandatory oil leak.
Hope there is some interest in this build, I look forward to it even with the problems for some sick reason.