Fire trucks

First off what scale do you want to attempt,1/24 1/25 or as my son tells me on my scale 1/87 your a crazy old man,name your poison and Iwill be glad to help you in any way shape or form,I guess i'm very lucky,I was a firefighter for 28 years,and my love for the rigs is only second to the real love in my life my wife,of course.Hey let me know and I will help you any way I can.

hey crownover, glad to have you as well as crusher. love to see more of us getting around to doing some fire rigs. toss out some questions and we will all be glad to help.my main focus in modeling is emergency vehicles, i focus myself mainly on fire equipment, but i also have 15 or so police cars built and i have 6 ambulances built with one on the bench as we speak.crusher, i just sent you an email, glad to have you as well!gee working in 1/87 you have a much wider range of subjects to build than we do in 1/25, 1/32, i wish i still had all of my old HO scale train stuff, i had two really nice fire houses well stocked,but maybe oneday in the near future i can get back into that. hope to see some posts from you guys soon

Thanks guys for responding. I also want to thank you for being Firefighters . I should stay with the larger scale 1/25 or 1/32 sounds good. I,m a mechanic ( heavy equipment field service 30 years ). I can appreciate the mechanics and hydraulics of the rigs. My uncle was a fire fighter years ago. He was a fire fighter/mechanic and repaired the fire engines at his fire house. I remember going there as a kid while he was on duty. I was spoiled rotten by the fire fighters. Had a lot of fun back then. I'm certain thats why I have this interest in building fire engines. I,m just looking for a good starting point. Maybe a source for good quality models in the scales I have mentioned. Thanks again.

Well crownover:
I can think of a couple of mfgs
1.amt ertl is re-releasing the American LaFrance series
ie pumper,rear mount admiral,and the areo cheif snorkle.
Check out Revell Germany they have at least 3 kits you could do
if you are into European type rigs.
Thats all for now,back at you later..
Mike

Crownover, AMT is probaly going to be your best bet for a complete kit. The pickings are slim for fire apparatus. The only ones other than the AMT is a kit from Revell I think that has an engine and a police car that are snap tite. Looks like alot of scratchbuilding like firemodelmen does is the only way to really get knee deep in them. I would love to build to one of my trucks and it is going to be my first try at really scratch building something when I do. Good luck.

hi huys, been reading these posts of yours and like lizardqing said, slim pickings. i do have a revel of germany engine in my stable that i bought a few years back, i've seen it on ebay just a few weeks ago. its the peterbuilt pumper from the city of burnsville. i cant remember where this is actually, but i have a photograph of the real engine,so it is a good model to have or to go after.as for the scratchbuilding, if you dont want to jump into that at first, i've done alot of fire rigs just out of regular models, i've got a 66 chevy pickup i made into a support unit, extra axes,couplings ,a couple of ladders, just use your imagination.

Thanks guys I will check out Revell of Germany and. AMT. The scratch built ideas gave me some ideas for support units. Sounds like a real good place to start. I'll keep you posted on the progress and the project. And what I have decided to start with. Thanks again.