fire truck scratch build

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

fire truck scratch build

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 9, 2004 6:54 PM

ok this is the deal.i am a firefighter on a department in southern il.im getting ready to start scratch building a 1999 Quality Spartan on a gladiator chasis ladder truck.anyway i'm wondering if anyone knows of any manufacturers that make current fire truck models.i've got excellent references for the truck seeing as i got ahold of the original blue prints for the specific truck.i need to find some scale diamond plate as well as any chasis that i can kit bash.this is going to be a retirement present for one of our captians that has been on the department for 30 yrs.so i want to make this as accurate as possible.so any comments or advice is welcome.i will try to post pics as i progess with the the work for anyone interested.thanx in advance for any and all help.

J Ketchie FFEMT-B
Mt. Vernon,Il

Reply
Edit

lizardqing

Member since
July 2003
From: Dahlonega, Georgia

Posted by lizardqing on Wednesday, June 9, 2004 7:34 PM

Well you are more than welcome to join in with the emergency vehicle build that is starting this month. There is a thread for it that has been started. As far an some answers. I found 1/24 scale diamond plate , it is made by plastruct . I got 2 sheets of it for about $10. They have it on thier site or you can check your lhs. You could probally use about any large truck chasis by doing what ever modifcation needed. I am not aware of any modern kits for firetrucks but there are some sites that offer resin ones of certain cabs, something may be close enough. Please post pics. I am a FF as well and love seeing rigs real or plastic. Think about the build though, about everyone in it is scratchbuilding something.

Chris The Scale Firehouse The Lizard's Workshop

Reply

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 9, 2004 8:26 PM

thanx for the info chris.i think ive got everyone on my shift willing to help with the different phases.especially all the sanding.whats this about an emergency vehicle build?sounds interesting.is there a link for this build?let me know.once again thanx.

Reply
Edit

lizardqing

Member since
July 2003
From: Dahlonega, Georgia

Posted by lizardqing on Wednesday, June 9, 2004 10:41 PM

So it could be a group build with in a group build. Sounds like something that your capt. is going to real proud to recieve. The group build thread is here http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=18447

It's a pretty wide open build, just something for everyone to do some scratch building and learn some new stuff from each other. Be glad to have you on board.

Chris The Scale Firehouse The Lizard's Workshop

Reply

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, June 12, 2004 1:44 AM

YEA JJ, COME ON IN, sounds like a cool project, hope it comes out ok for ya, check out some of my builds, i do a little scratchbuilding myself, let me know if i can be any help.

Reply
Edit

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, June 12, 2004 7:50 AM

well somewhat of an update on my spartan.no pics yet that i can post.i found an italeri kit for a peterbuilt 1/24.the chasis needed to be chopped and stretched but ive got that done.the tires are almost a perfect match.ive got 4 out of 6 side rails done for the ladder.the real truck has got three flies so im almost done with that.its looking like the hard part is going to be building the cab.any suggestions would be welcome.i was thinking about building some sort of a skeleton then building on that with sheet styrene.we'll see.hope to have some pics up soon.

Reply
Edit

lizardqing

Member since
July 2003
From: Dahlonega, Georgia

Posted by lizardqing on Saturday, June 12, 2004 3:56 PM

Sheet styrene would probally be the best route. iam sure Dave can give you some tips on that part, he is the scratch build extrodiare!

Chris The Scale Firehouse The Lizard's Workshop

Reply

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, June 12, 2004 7:57 PM

Dave any thoughts on this?

Reply
Edit

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, June 13, 2004 1:24 AM

well, i have read on some post's about using sheet styrene, and in the inside corners, using 'square' styrene rod, this way you can sand the corners down just like the real cab, slide over to the scale auot mag forums, there is a thread on this in the 'truck/commercial' catagory by a guy called " zoli " , check his stuff out, he's the main man at this type of building... good luck go here, www.scaleautomag.com

Reply
Edit

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 3:02 PM

that 10-8 hobbies site is awesome.i can see now i'll be spending alot of money there.

Reply
Edit

lizardqing

Member since
July 2003
From: Dahlonega, Georgia

Posted by lizardqing on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 9:17 PM

I have thought the same my self. Of coarse looking at the .50 and the $1 parts don't look that bad, up until you realize how many of them you want.

Chris The Scale Firehouse The Lizard's Workshop

Reply

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, June 18, 2004 5:49 PM

yea exactly.i'm going to be getting the pierce dash cab and use that for my cab on the spartan.i think it should work.

Reply
Edit

lizardqing

Member since
July 2003
From: Dahlonega, Georgia

Posted by lizardqing on Friday, June 18, 2004 6:49 PM

I tyhought the same thing about one of the Pierce cabs they had at one point that it could make a close enough version of our Sutfen, then of coarse when I went back to try and get it, it was gone.

Chris The Scale Firehouse The Lizard's Workshop

Reply

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, June 24, 2004 9:43 PM

so i had this chasis all done from an italeri peterbuilt kit and my dog got ahold of it.so back to square one.anyone know if those kits from 10-8 come complete with chasis' and all?

Reply
Edit

lizardqing

Member since
July 2003
From: Dahlonega, Georgia

Posted by lizardqing on Thursday, June 24, 2004 10:44 PM

Ouch, got to hate it when dogs, cats or toddlers get ahold of a build. As far as I have seen on 10-8 , the resin kits only come with the cab, dash and seats. You have to provide the body, chasis, wheels and such. That is kind of the bummer of them.

Chris The Scale Firehouse The Lizard's Workshop

Reply

Anonymous

Member since
November 2005

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, June 25, 2004 7:30 AM

stupid f#@%in dog! oh well.maybe i'll scratch one from stuff from plastruct.

Reply
Edit

lizardqing

Member since
July 2003
From: Dahlonega, Georgia

Posted by lizardqing on Friday, June 25, 2004 3:54 PM

Something else you might try is looking around on ebay for some built models , alot of the times you can pick them up real cheap and then just snatch the chasis out from under it.

Chris The Scale Firehouse The Lizard's Workshop

Reply

THE MAGAZINE

CONTACT US

RECENT ARTICLES

POPULAR TOPICS

RECENT REVIEWS

POPULAR TOPICS

RECENT REVIEWS

POPULAR TOPICS

RECENT VIDEOS

POPULAR TOPICS

RECENT THREADS

CATEGORIES

NEW PRODUCTS

OUR STORE

CURRENT ISSUE

SEARCH FINESCALE.COM