Trumpeter American LaFrance ( New Pics 4/5 )

I tried out elastic on my current build and it works great and looks to scale and the texture is pretty close.

 

 Still working on the weathering of it. 

The way you have the doors open how did you go about doing that?

 

Thanks for the kind comments.   There is only one side compartment door that the kit has to open, so I had to cut the rest myself, to include the doors on the the cab. The hose connectors are all either spare parts or scratch built.  The maps, manuals and diagrams are all images I found on the internet and shrunk down to the right size. The air packs are all scratchbuilt.  Some of the tools are after market parts and some are scratchbuilt, like the fan. The hoses in the hose bed are different sizes of shoe laces, and the hose lines that are "in use" are made from small bungee cords. When the model was completed I had it rigged up so that most of the lights actually worked and I had a small speaker inside of the body for a working siren. Unfortunately somehow the lights shorted out about a month after the model was finished, but the siren still works.

Got some question reguarding this peice. Do the doors open on all or is that a special touch. Is hoses and hose fittings supplied or after market addition? Are the tools in the rig like extingushire,fans,couplings,nozzles and other aftermarket to? and how were the Air packs and maps and other accesories made? Also these are the best model jobs ive seen nice work.

Thanks guys. I thought I had posted the finished pics on here, maybe I did'nt though. Here's a link to them though.

Finished ALF 

As far as firehose goes I saw a tip tonite on the site there about useing strips of foam as well as elastic. I have used shoe string before with the tea and it worked pretty convincingly for 2 1/2" line but the pattern is a bit big for 1 3/4" attack lines.  

 If you are wanting to show charged lines, I got some wire insulation that looks like it will work pretty good. The scale is just right for 1 3/4 and other for 2 1/2 and it is naturally round like a chraged line. Does not work as well when trying to bend it in a hose bed as the weave expands. 

How about shoe laces? White shoe laces soaked in tea, or dipped in coffee to give them the dirty street worn look?!....I read thats how one fella made his folded hoses on top of his firetruck!

  Wow! Love the the new message center on here! Now how about spell check added on too? Please?!...            

                                "RC"

Wow you guys are building some sweet ALF's. I have 3 on my table at the present moment. I am doing 1 in particular for my father. Modeled with a similar scheme as Engine 11 of Belmont Fire Dept Johnstown Pa . the truck Im "updating" is a 1981.......presently owned and used by Richland Twp Fire also Johnstown Pa. I hinged all the cab and compartment doors and still in the process of filling it with the tools of the trade. Im taking it 1 step farther (testing my patience) I made a base out of some white pine..... gouged a channel in it and used a rubber hose as my hard suction tube, and will plant it in that realistic water from woodland scenics. I dont have a camera at this point but when I do....... pics will follow.

 

 if anyone can help me the only thing Im havin trouble on is what to use to make all the hose I need for the hosebed as well as hoses coming off the panel.

I have enjoyed watching the progress of this fire engine.

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your project with others.

 

Cheers

 

John Wilson

Spitfire 321 wrote:

Chris,  Another great one, as always.  As a favour to someone on this side of the pond, can you please explain what the hell a `dog house` is please?

 Hey Jim "RC" here We call the "Dog House" the part inside the over head cab that covers the engine.. That place between the two seats..Ive had a few naps on my dog house while waiting for a load or to be unloaded..

 Good seeing you!.."RC"

Well for one the level of detail is way better. Things such as the grab bars and mirrors are much closer to scale. The pump panel is very well done, but the AMT kits do have one up here with the seperate levers. The frusteration of build is less also. The frame goes right together with no fuss, I have problems with the AMT ones with them being warped and the way you put them together is a bit cumbersome. The instructions are much better done as well. That and the parts are actually numbered on the sprues which are put into seperate bags unlike the AMT ones. Those are a few things.  Don't get me wrong the AMT ones are pretty good kits for thier age. They are just tired kits as many times as they have been released and it is apparent the molds are getting wore out witht he amount of flash on them. I have had wheels that looked morelike flowers before. I still love the kits for parts, they are great for that.

lizardqing could you be more specific

the amt's aren't bad kits

Like compareing a Pinto to a Lamborgihni.

How does this model measure up with the old AMT LaFrance?

Here are some pics of my progress.   A few more touch ups and it will be done.   (I hope)

 

Been a bit slow with building this but here are some new pics.



Got to love Micro Sol.   



Starting to look like a fire truck now.

mjohnson

where in PA are you from?      I am guessing that "m-burg" is Mechanicsburg?

Looking good so far. Looking forward to seeing it complete.

Thanks for the information about the engine. A big thanks for providing all the photo's taken on what is turning out to be a fantastic  project.

I look forward to purchasing Trumpeters fire engine when it arives here in New Zealand,

Cheers

John Wilson

 

Ron Smith wrote:

I may actually have to pay attention to this thread.....the decals in the kit are for a local fire company. How are the tires and plating on the kit parts?

Sorry Ron, missed your question. The tires are nice. They have a different tread pattern for the front and rear as well as inserts to keep them from sagging.  The chrome is pretty good and best I can tell most of the attachment points are in places where they wont be seen easily which makes it a lot better to touch up and not stick out.


Dave, I will have to try that out myself. Adds a good bit of the missing touch in most cabs.

To make the ERG, maps, blueprints, floor plans, etc..  I looked for pictures of these items on yahoo or google image search. Then saved the images, shrunk them down to size, and printed them out. For the manuals I use a piece of plastic cut to size to give it some thickness, glue the paper to the plastic.      I am working on an Incident Command board right now with PAS Tags attached to it.

                                                      Dave

That is some pretty impressive detail work there. The SCBA's look pretty good. I like the ERG , that is a pretty nice touch. How did you do that?

The following were scratch built or spare parts and added to the basic kit

SCBA w/straps,  Maps,  Books/Manuals,  Floor Plans,  Clipboard,  Equipment Bag,  Radio,  Levers on pump panel.    I plan on adding plenty more items to include: Incident Command Board, Fire Helmets, Fire Boots, Large Flashlights, EMS Bag, Etc...     I will post more pictures as my work progresses.

                                             Dave                                                          

Hey Theranddav, how much of that detailing is included in the kit?

I just got this kit about 3 weeks ago. I am very impressed at the detail. I do not usually build car/truck models, as I am not that great with automobile modelling. Here are a few pics of my progress so far.

 

 

 

 

Thanks guys.

John, it does not have an engine except for what may be considered the oil pan. It does how ever have the transmission.


Here are some recent pics.

Layed down the base colors in the cab area. Still some detailing to do on the seats. Plus not sure they are quite the right color. may go a bit darker on them yet.The area on the back of the dog house where the paint is chipped is not a problem. Going to be putting on the metal plate that is supposed to be there anyway. Still trying to decide how far I want to go with the details in the cab area. There are some pretty big windows so it needs something besides the very basics that came in the kit.





Put together alot of the hose bed area to. Slapped some metalizers on it and buffed till my hand got wore out. Starting to wonder if I really like all the shiney stuff on fire trucks. Nah, love it.





Began the task of makeing the cab as accurate as I can. First I decided that the back of the dog house definatly needed the metal plate. Had to eyeball it on the kit but should be close enough. It's just stuck on with some tape for now.



Then I just got plain nuts. Added the radio holder.

And this is what I came up with, tiny to. Measures about 3mm by 5mm. Once again it is just eyeballed.


Also started to work on some notebooks after I took the pics.  Comments welcome as always and hopefully will more pics up soon.

I may actually have to pay attention to this thread.....the decals in the kit are for a local fire company. How are the tires and plating on the kit parts?

Just got my kit the other day and WOW! Looks to be a very detailed and high quality kit. Thanks for the look into the kit and the small issues to be dealt with.

 

Spitfire 321 wrote:

Chris,  Another great one, as always.  As a favour to someone on this side of the pond, can you please explain what the hell a `dog house` is please?

 

Dog house is a commonly used term to describe the cover over an engine that extends into the cab. So on the ALF the doghouse is the large hump in the middle of the cab between the front seats. 

 Chris,  Another great one, as always.  As a favour to someone on this side of the pond, can you please explain what the hell a `dog house` is please?