MOC - Fire Rescue Truck

[lightningtiger]

This took about 5 hours of scratch building - here it is.

FIRE RESCUE TRUCK

Sorry, about one of the photos - the camera was playing up on me and these are the best shots out of twenty.

A bit of detail on the truck, carries long extension ladder on top, double side access to rescue equipment and rear hose reel/pump controls.

Please note this is a WIP still - more equipment needs to be installed, breathing equipment as well and a water inlet valve too.

Post more pictures when these things are done and the camera fault has been corrected.

Comments welcome.

[Ralph_S]

Looks nice so far, but I do have a few suggestions.

I understand you want to add more equipment, but you have to be careful not to make it too messy. Fire engines may carry a lot of stuff, but they do tend to look reasonably organised from the outside. Simply slapping on more stuff in an attempt to make it more detailed can actually reduce the realism. The ladder looks a bit strange slid out the way it is. It would look better if the two parts were simply lying directly on top of each other. I think the truck would also look better if you were to move the rear axle forward by a few studs. I think it's common for fire engines to have a fairly large rear overhang. I realise you've probably used a standard vehicle base, which means you can't reduce the wheelbase without building a completely new chassis. Perhaps you can extend the length of the truck a bit instead. Would a double cab be an option?

Cheers,

Ralph

[Rick]

Indeed, the standard 6-wide vehicle base severely reduces the flexibility you have, so it may be best to get rid of it altogether. Besides the rear axle, I think you could also move the front axle one stud backward. And, as Ralph suggests, you might want to try to double the cab (although that depends on the look and type of vehicle you're aiming for) and to store as much equipment as possible within the compartments instead of 'clipped' onto the sides of the truck. Furthermore, whereas the 'cupboard' (the 2 x 2 x 3 piece) can be pretty well used as a compartment for a (fire) truck, I think the 'postbox' (the 2 x 2 x 2 piece) tends to break the lines on the truck too much because the 'lid' sticks out half a stud.

Finally, I'm surprised Ralph hasn't brought is up , you could try to 'separate' the back from the cab to make it look less bulky (this is particularly an issue when you decide to extend the truck). From what I learned from Ralph (among others) there are basically two ways to achieve that: separate the cab from the back by (half) a stud and/or make the back 7-wide. But this definitely would require you to drop the standard vehicle base.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks for the feedback 'Ralph_S'.

The extra equipment is going inside the two white swing up doors and the small boxes on the truck - there will be no real extra external parts to go on.

Oh, the ladder was an oversight - I've push it back a bit more together now.

Once again thank you for your advice.

[Milan]

I would make new chassis and reduce that wheelbase, it looks to much.

Use that advices from others and it will be even more great!