I need the help of the FSM web community. I have been building aircraft for the last 2 1/2 years after a very long absence. I do airbrush painting and use alot of the tips for masking and weathering and general building from this web site. I received a fire truck model for my birthday. It is "AMT /ERTL Code Red American LaFrance Aero cheif fire truck in 1/25 scale. I have a few questions about the kit and building techenic. I have never built a fire truck so I did not break the seal on the wrapping yet.
Is this a decent kit. By that I mean are the seams easy to sand, are the fits reasonable. Do I need to get after market Detailing and do they even make after market resin kits or photo etching for such models.
Are the instruction pretty accurate for color, and can or do you weather such a model and how.
Please give me some help. If I fine out it is not what I expect, I have the receipt so I can get the new Trumpter P40-B. Thanks in adnace for any help.
I have not yet built the kits yet but I know Firemodelman has and I’ll try to talk him into stopping by to answer the build questions for you. As far as aftermarket stuff if you are wanting to spruce it up some you can get resin and cast metal accesories such as hand tools, jaws of life turn out gear and such and I have some links for that stuff if you want.
As far as weathering goes, you could do some. Allthough we like to keep our trucks shiney and clean, they do tend to get a bit dirty after a night at a structure fire. Plus I don’t think we have a truck one that does not have a battle scar or two from trees and such since we get in some tight places not designed for big trucks. Plus with the year model of that truck you could have it looking like it has seen some good long years of service. I think it could be a nice change up from the a/c and plus don’t get to see many fire trucks around here.
hi chrysler jerry, i got chris’s email . let me try to help you out. pack the kit up and mail it to me. no just kidding,i have built this kit many times, check out my link at 50 megs for some pics. it’s a basic kit not to hard to assemble. it does not come with alot of detail parts, just the basic stuff, ladders, pike poles,axes, if you want real detail try some after market items, give www.mtfaco.com a look at, (hope the link worked)also try freds custom models, he does not have a web site but here is his address, catalog is a buck,FRED’S CUSTOM MODELS 404 CLIFF AVE. SAN ANTONIOTX 78214, he has alot of good stuff. over all , i like the kit, just wish they would update them to newer versions. well good luck , and if you have any more questions i’ll be glad to help out, btw, i hang out alot at the scale auto forum, swing on by some day.
thanks to all of you who responed. The other reason I wanted to make sure I could do this the right way is my late father was a fireman for 28 years before his passing in 1985. I want to build this one and give it to my mother in his memory. So thanks to all of you