Trumpeter 1:25 scale American LaFrance 'College Park' Fire Truck

[ukmodeller]

Hi everyone.
It's been a little while since I posted anything and this is my latest offering, the Trumpeter 1:25 scale American LaFrance 'College Park' Fire Truck.
Those that follow my other builds will realise that I did not add any lights to this build as it would have been expensive to do it properly but I decided to have open doors on one side of the cab unit just to give it more of an 'in use' feeling. The cab unit is in one piece and I'm past the stage of wanting a fully enclosed cab without any choice of having open or closed doors, etc.
As for the kit, well I built this alongside an American friend who built his over there while I did mine here and we both came up with the same problems with the kit which was mainly streaking effects on the important surfaces so they had to be really rubbed down before painting. Next was a problem with the paint reacting to something within the plastic. Both had been washed thoroughly but when paint was added it created horrid splodges and bubbling and this even happened after the area had been rubbed down. The only way around it was to give it several thin coats of undercoat to build up layers and then the paint went on quite well. The one disappointment was that no hoses were included for the rear section but I found some great instructions online that showed you how to make them from scratch. I have seen many builds where trainer laces were used but they just seemed so out of scale that I went for making my own.
I hope you enjoy viewing the pics and feel inspired enough to give this kit a go as it really does look amazing when finished, with all that gleaming chrome (make sure you have a chrome pen handy as the chrome parts are attached to the sprue in places where cutting would show up).
More pictures can be found HERE.

 

 

 

[Ryedale Wolf]

Very smart that 👍🏻

[MRMRL]

Very nice, looks a good size as well. A great job following the challenges you describe. I would have struggled to resist the urge to make it dirty, even though the vast majority would have been imacculate.

[Natter]

That's a really shiny truck - sooo American! Great model.

[CliffB]

Lots of nice detail there Kevin.  The more you look, the more you see 

[Maginot]

Very nicely finished model. Particularly like the checker plate and the folded hoses in the back.

[phildagreek]

Looks good!

[ukmodeller]

On 2/9/2022 at 6:55 PM, Ryedale Wolf said:

Very smart that 👍🏻

Thanks, RW, Appreciate you kind comment.

[ukmodeller]

On 2/9/2022 at 7:41 PM, MRMRL said:

Very nice, looks a good size as well. A great job following the challenges you describe. I would have struggled to resist the urge to make it dirty, even though the vast majority would have been imacculate.

Thanks, MrMRL.

I know what you mean as I always like to add some weathering to my builds. Even if is just the wheels/tyres, but whatever picture you see online about these trucks they are always so immaculate and I didn't have the heart to have dirty tyres. 

[ukmodeller]

On 2/11/2022 at 10:37 PM, Natter said:

That's a really shiny truck - sooo American! Great model.

So true and I think it must be because they have so much spare time on their hands to be able keep polishing them.

[ukmodeller]

On 2/12/2022 at 9:53 AM, CliffB said:

Lots of nice detail there Kevin.  The more you look, the more you see 

Thanks, Cliff, appreciate your kind comment. 

[ukmodeller]

On 2/13/2022 at 9:40 AM, Maginot said:

Very nicely finished model. Particularly like the checker plate and the folded hoses in the back.

Thanks, Maginot, I'm glad you like the hoses as they were one of the things that I wasn't looking forward to doing.

[ukmodeller]

16 hours ago, phildagreek said:

Looks good!

Thanks, Phil, 

 

[Harrier/ViperFan]

Looks amazing I had this kit arrive this morning to go with my American theme Emergency services I have going on right now. I’m trying to find LAFD decals for it but coming up short. 
 

Anyway any chance you could share the Hose tip? I would be fascinated to see how you did it and maybe try it myself on my truck if I ever find the damn decals

Edited February 16, 2022 by Harrier/ViperFan

[Whitewolf]

A very nice model indeed! Its a pity they don't do more of this type of kit with options for major Fire Departments, including novelty trucks such as Truck 81 or Engine 51 from Chicago Fire etc

[ukmodeller]

16 hours ago, Harrier/ViperFan said:

Looks amazing I had this kit arrive this morning to go with my American theme Emergency services I have going on right now. I’m trying to find LAFD decals for it but coming up short. 
 

Anyway any chance you could share the Hose tip? I would be fascinated to see how you did it and maybe try it myself on my truck if I ever find the damn decals

Hi
I didn't manage to find much in the way of decals for this kit either and that's why I went for the original ones. Unless you have the knowledge or equipment to make your own or pay someone online for them, it may be hard to find anything. I know that when I often research my builds of American things you don't always get every piece of info due to censorship restrictions so that's when I use VPN software to bypass those restrictions. 
As for the hoses, I found this article and used the idea to create my ones. It can be found by clicking HERE

Good luck with the build and look forward to seeing what you do with yours.

 

Regards

 

Kevin

[ukmodeller]

4 hours ago, Whitewolf said:

A very nice model indeed! Its a pity they don't do more of this type of kit with options for major Fire Departments, including novelty trucks such as Truck 81 or Engine 51 from Chicago Fire etc

Hi

 

Thanks for your kind comment. I get annoyed that most fire fighting kits are either German, French or Japanese and just wish they'd look at some of the UK stuff as the designs are amazing and there are so many modern fire and equipment trucks from the US that they could reproduce as I know there is a great demand for them. My friend donated his to his local fire station in the US and they loved it. Another station saw my pictures and wanted mine for their station. As you said, there must be a market for those trucks often seen on TV shows.
Regards

Kevin

[Whitewolf]

7 hours ago, ukmodeller said:

Hi

 

Thanks for your kind comment. I get annoyed that most fire fighting kits are either German, French or Japanese and just wish they'd look at some of the UK stuff as the designs are amazing and there are so many modern fire and equipment trucks from the US that they could reproduce as I know there is a great demand for them. My friend donated his to his local fire station in the US and they loved it. Another station saw my pictures and wanted mine for their station. As you said, there must be a market for those trucks often seen on TV shows.
Regards

Kevin

The market is definitely there, but is strangely ignored by the model manufacturers of this world????

[ukmodeller]

On 2/17/2022 at 11:02 PM, Whitewolf said:

The market is definitely there, but is strangely ignored by the model manufacturers of this world????

I totally agree. When Revell brought out the Routemaster Bus and the London Taxi I thought it would be the start of great things to come. Alas, it seems that wasn't to be.

[dnl42]

Fabulous for and finish on that!

Bravo

[ukmodeller]

On 2/21/2022 at 2:05 PM, dnl42 said:

Fabulous for and finish on that!

Bravo

Thank you. Appreciate your kind comment.

[kapam]

Wow, that's a work of art for sure!

Impressive in every way! 👏😀

So exactly what material are those hoses made from?  They look very realistic.

[ukmodeller]

10 hours ago, kapam said:

Wow, that's a work of art for sure!

Impressive in every way! 👏😀

So exactly what material are those hoses made from?  They look very realistic.

Thank you for your kind comment and glad that you liked my build.
For the hoses I used just ordinary gift ribbon that. For this build I put double sided tape onto one side of the ribbon and then cut the ribbon into 18mm strips. Taking one of those strips I then removed the backing paper and turned one edge over by 6mm and pressed it down. Then I pulled over the other edge and pressed that down, creating a 6mm wide hose (which is about right for 1:35 scale).
They were easy to bend and looked realistic on the model. I did cheat a little as I scratch built some fill-in boxes and just stuck some of the hose on the top and for the ends that show I just used one length and folded it at about 2cm intervals to create the right height to meet the hoses on the top storage area. 
It was a bit of a squeeze fitting them all into the compartments but after some pushing and shoving I got them in. Hope this helps.

[desert falcon]

Thats a fantastic looking fire engine, very well done 👍 The homemade hoses looks ace too !! And I agree, there is an acute lack of cool fire trucks. 

[ukmodeller]

On 4/22/2022 at 7:46 PM, desert falcon said:

Thats a fantastic looking fire engine, very well done 👍 The homemade hoses looks ace too !! And I agree, there is an acute lack of cool fire trucks. 

Thanks, DF.
Really appreciate your kind comments and I'm pleased about how the hoses turned out. I saw that a lot of people used trainer laces but they just don't look right.