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A 3 year old's request...Fire Engine.

Greg Kimsey

Greg Kimsey

Well-known member
My 3 year old grandson is absolutely insane about fire engines. I think he has 12 different ones, all different sizes; some even pump water. He came into the store and bee-lined for this model...
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"Papa, please?" I opened it to show him it wasn't a real toy, that is all in pieces. "Papa, please?" "Griffin, it is going to take a LONG time for me to build this. Are you sure you want to wait?"..."Yeah" he whispered. Papa closes his eyes and rubs his face, then sighs deaply and looks down..."Really?"..."Yeah" again. Papa looks at the ceiling, then looks at Grandmama, "Really?". "Hey, he is your grandson right now" she said. Well S@$#, I guess I am building a fire engine. It has lots of versions, all European like German, Italian, French, etc. Does anyone know where I can get "Emergency" decals in English?
 
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Instructions don't say what color to paint t this, but since it is molded in black, I am ggoing to paint it matte black once it sets.

I guess the seam lines were no more pronounced than any other kit, but it has taken over two hours to scrape and sand the seam lines and ejection pin spots away.
 
The chassis is well underway. This plastic is extremely soft. I am having to clamp and let the glue dry thoroughly or pieces with pins are breaking off, leaving the pin in the hole. I am having to butt glue those pieces back together, which happen to be movable pieces. It is unlikely they will withstand a 3 year old handling them more than a few minutes. I hope I am wrong. I clamped and let the pieces dry completely before moving on.
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This piece seemed odd that there was no pin to allow a better glue joint;so I drilled holes and inserted brass rod with superglue. The top hole does have a pin in it, it just isn't sticking out on this side.
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Moving along. I painted the chassis matte black but I didn't like it, so I switched to semi-gloss black and it looks much better.
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I started the motor. If my motor experts could chime in I would love to know what kind it is and where to look for reference photos. Entering "ladder truck engine motor" yielded the best results and I found these two images:
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I sort of liked the yellow paint scheme so this is what I have so far:
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The (I assume) oil pan is going to be steel color.
I will wait for some feedback before going much further on the engine.
 
The yellow engine looks like a 3406 Cat while the gray one is reminiscent of a Volvo.
 
Paulw said:
The yellow engine looks like a 3406 Cat while the gray one is reminiscent of a Volvo.
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So, would the yellow be OK? It is strange that there are so few photos of a fire engine motor on the internet. EVERYTHING is on the internet! Input the obvious into the search bar leaves a lot to be desired. I may need to visit our fire station tomorrow!
 
I hope you really aren't asking about making this accurate! :D Your 3 year old client will never know but I could overload you since both IVECO and Magirus produce military vehicles so my references do have some things. ;)

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Sharkmouth said:
I hope you really aren't asking about making this accurate! :D Your 3 year old client will never know but I could overload you since both IVECO and Magirus produce military vehicles so my references do have some things. ;)

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Awesome! You are the TMI king sir. Not sure about "really" accurate. But if I am going to do it I may as well do it semi right, even it he breaks it within 5 minutes. I seem to learn something new with each build to carry over later.
 
By the time my daughter was your grandson's age she was well aware that models were not toys and they would break very easily. Thus the only rule she had was if she wanted to touch a model all she had to do was ask. Thus it was never forbidden and she never felt like she had to sneak in to "look".
When she was about 3 1/2 I took her to a model contest that was mostly figures. The Hussar in Tulsa put it on and there were many high grade figures and dioramas there. I simply told her that these were models that were owned by other people and that we could not touch them. That I could not even touch them. I asker her if she understood and she said "we don't touch these at all". I was sure that she would behave appropriately. There was one point where she asked me to pick her up as she couldn't see what was on the table. As I held her up she kept her hands close to herself so she couldn't even accidently touch anything. Then put one hand to her chin and pointed and said "I like that one daddy."

It was so funny seeing the horrified looks of the other people as I took this little girl into a model show, but she made me so proud of her and the looks of amazement on their faces as to how well she behaved was priceless.
 
I'll be watching in on this one. You've got your work cut out for you but it'll be fun to watch all of this come together.
 
These are German Fire Trucks, I have seen one exactly like this in my town recently.

If your grandson is into Fire Trucks I will try and get some pictures of "live" German ones for him next time I see them.

Cheers

Alex
 
Gator said:
I can print decals on my laser printer. You will have to layer the white decals to get them truly opaque. I can't do metallic though.
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Thank you so much. I bought some decal sheets and will see if I can manage it. I may be calling on you yet, due to how it goes LOL.
 
Flyingbabydoc said:
These are German Fire Trucks, I have seen one exactly like this in my town recently.

If your grandson is into Fire Trucks I will try and get some pictures of "live" German ones for him next time I see them.

Cheers

Alex
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Hopefully you used this to put out ONLY German fires!
 
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