| For a subject so
much ignored by the modeling industry this kit is a sure eye catcher for
anyone wanting to build a fire truck. Even though it is no longer produced,
for now anyway since it has been re-released a few times, it can still be
had in a good many LHS and of coarse Ebay for any where from $30 to I have
seen $75.
First Impression:
Opening the box reveals a train wreck of a mess. A whole lot of sprues
that are literaly shoved into a whole lot less bags. Lots of pieces were
broke off the sprues and running wild. There are 4 seperate sheets of
instructions. Possibly the worst looking instructions I have ever seen.
More on that later. The kit has about 500 parts and a decal sheet allowing
several different cities to be represnted as well as generic letters to
put your own, as long as you don't need more than two of the same letter.
The Parts:
Flash, flash and then some flash. There is enough of it to make a whole
other kit from probally. The wheels looked like big flowers. The sprue
it's self is very thick but yet the point at which the parts connect is
rather thin allowing the parts to be easily knocked off. There is a whole
mess of chrome parts in which the chrome is about useless. Bubbles in
it , peeling here and there and just looks gawdy. Biggest let down was
the redlights were made as chrome parts. Who came up with that idea?
Oh and did I mention that the parts are not numbered?
The Instructions:
Might as well burn them or wrap a steak in them. In each step is some
confuseing deal in the bottom corner full of numbers and shapes that I
don't think even my high school math teacher could have come up with.
Numbers in circles ,squares and little symbols that since the printing
is so bad , you can't even tell what they are. Most of the time it is
about impossible to tell where the line is saying to put a piece, let
alone what piece its talking about. The final biggie with them is the
shadowed diagrams of the part sprues on the back that is numbered and
supposedly shows you where the parts are. For what parts are left on the
sprues any way. I spent more time trying to find the right sprue by matching
it to the shape of the shadow than anything.
The Build:
And not the point where it got bad. Lots of thick parts where they should
be thin, thin where they should be thick. Getting the huge pieces to line
up was impossible since they were warped from being shoved in the box.
One critical piece was melted right where a rear stabalizer was to mounted.
It has a pretty decent Detroit desiel engine in it that actually looks
great. To bad once the cab is on it is totally hidden.
Overall Impression:
The only good thing about this kit is that it is the only halfway modern
ladder truck available. For someone like me that has a thing for fire
trucks as some do Sherman tanks , it is worth putting up with the problems
just to have it. If nothing else , makes a great donor kit for scratch
built fire trucks.
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