Fire Apparatus Model Forums

Hi again,

after the NYPD ESU truck I show you the building steps to my FDNY unit

Given the rather simple shape and fewer details, compared to the ESU unit, i thought this would be an easier and faster build, ah.. well.. no

So this one also started by cutting the cab and chassis to the correct size.

followed by the cardboard mockup and the 1mm styrene version as the cardboard dimensions were were right

Next were the compartment doors with the slam locks + the tires got replaced as well.
and i started the construction of the rear bumper + some more details to the rear section

that concluded the main bodywork and painting followed.
That´s when the troubles with this build started

The next pictures you see, were allready the THIRD attempt of the paintcoat
The strange thing was that as long as the paint wasn´t dry it looked ok
Anyway so with the third coat on, i again noticed the unpretty surface and wanted to remove all the paint again.
I later figured out that my airbrush compressor didn´t work properly so i had to much pressure which resulted in a very poor, "sandish" paintcoat .
Since my thinner got emtpy meanwhile I went to my "storage" and surprisingly found a Tamiya spray can, that I obviously forgot.
Hm....waiting for the new parts for my airbrush, or simply sand the surface and paint over it with the can?? (both paints were Tamiya anyway).
I choosed the second option and apparently it worked out.

With this done i also changed the mirrors, like on the ESU truck.

As you´ve seen on the last picture I originally wanted to use the FRR Whelen Edge lightbars, but they were simply to small for the cab.
So I decided to make my own lightbar out of a clear, rectangular plastic tube, a 0,75 mm black PS piece as interior and a very small, corrugated PS siding as top of the lightbar.
...the dimensions look better now
With this done, I started to make the markings for this model. And there my problems continued...
All the small letters and the graphics were printed on clear and white waterslide sheets, exept for the big FDNY letters, which I wanted to cut out of reflective foil.
The, mostly straight, rear letters were easy to cut, but this time I had so much difficulties with the curved side letters that after the fifth unseccesfull attempt, I decided to print them out as well!!
Beeing easier said then done, for whatever reason now my printer drove me nuts
I used the same paper, same colour but after 6 wasted decal sheets I still hadn´t one useable printout???

At this point I took a step back, calmed down and left this build aside!
Since I also had the NYPD unit on my bench, I continued on that one

But this set back later turned out as a sort of "stroke of luck"
A few days later i noticed that the paintcoat had small little cracks all over
Obviously my genious idea with the spray can was a very very bad one
And if I would´ve allready all the graphics on, I for sure would´ve thrown the whole model in the bin!!!
So for the fourth time i removed the whole paint and painted this model only with the spray can

This time the paint was ok and I continued with the interior of the truck. Out of small styrene sheets and rods i created the inner door panels.

Next I created the rear position lights,

the traffic advisor lightbar

and the rear lights.

With this done,

I continued with the graphics

Then I built the scene lights,

painted the slam locks with the "molotow liquid chrome" pen,
and added the last decals....

and DONE . I hope you liked this quick walkthrough, whereas I had some mixed emotions going through it again

Awesome job!