Hi.
I am planning to make an animation with my Airfix kits and one of the scenes is a field ambulance and a military fire engine rush to the scene of a burning truck. Are there any kits out there of a second world war military fire engine or a conversion from another kit.  :?:

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here lies a great ....

Although you haven't specified, I'll assume you are modelling in 1:72 or 1:76 scale...

The only WW2 era fire engines I know of in those scales are the Airfix fire tender from the Airfield Emergency Set (kit# 03304), the PST Studebaker US6 fire engine (kit# 72049) and the PST ZiS-5 fire engine (kit# 72052).

I am planning to use the ZiS-5 (with a few minor modifications) as a generic/fictitious fire engine in a c.1950's diorama.

The Airfix Fire Engine in the emergency set is post -WW2.
Keilkraft do a 1930s fire engine which can be made to suit RAF use in the 1936-40 period.

Really? I never realised.

That was a huge stuff-up on behalf of Airfix then. The box art from the Emergency set shows it attending to a burning Spitfire and the blurb in the instructions says "The crash tender is based on an Austin K.6 chassis and ... was widely used ... (inferrence being WWII).

Yup, it came as a surprise to me too.
But those ATFers on here who know these things have discussed this.

In 1/76 scale, MMS does a metal kit of the Austin K2 fire tender of 1944 vintage. I don't know of an early war one though.

Great this looks just what i needed it will look fab Thanks for all your help.

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here lies a great ....

A late thought: I'd also suggest searching the Matador Models and the Tracks and Troops websites - they may have something useful too.

They did use the Airfix ambulances during world war II but with minor modifications and a grey or navy blue colour scheme, from what i have found out

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Ahhhhhh, the greatest smell of all, the smell of freshly moulded plastic!
Cheers, JD. "Is it a bird, is it a plane.... NO ITS A SPITFIRE!!"

From what i know,im expecting one of these  Airfix Emergency kit to arrive tomorow,then maybe i might be able to start first build.
The earlyest red colour for this would be humbrol siganal red,with brass fittings,and royal blue & white stripes across top of foam tank.All equipment was kept imaculate clean as the crew took great pride in there work.
The only other Airfix early fire kit would be the 1/32 scale 1914 Dennis & ommibus series 5I hope ive been of some help you are welcome to watc my build when it starts,good luck.

The Fire tender K6 is a post-war vehicle,  The ambulance is a wartime vehicle which continued in used in the immediate post-war period.  So you will have to think 1946 or later for your diorama.  Last year there was a long thread on this subject on this forum.  Worth checking down as dates and other details were init.

--- and of course that type of crash tender which is known as the 1945 monitor, was never used by the RAF on the K6 chassis.  The 1945 monitor type in RAF service were on the Fordson WOT1/1A chassis,   Airfix were told this before the kit went into full production back in the 1970s  and I expect have been tols a thousand times since !!!
TED

That's interesting, Ted. I'm guessing they were only told when they were pretty far down the line with this project. I bet they were gutted when they found out.
Similar thing with the Bedford QL refueller ?
Or did they intend to do a post war version of it and the box art should have reflected this ?

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Buffalo

I don't know how far down the line they were , but I recall rumblings in the model world as soon as the first pre release pictures became public.  Back in those days everything was snail mail & wet film  --  but they have had 40 years to put it right !  The type depicted even on the Fordson chassis was post war, and the Ministry of Civil Aviation version upon which the kit is based was a 1946 product.
Even the K2 ambulance was not  a standard UK RAF type until around mid 1944. There is evidence of one slightly earlier in Italy.  The standard RAF aerodrome ambulances in UK were the Albion and  Fordson.
Re the QL , The RAF had about a dozen versions of the QL bowser,  3 without booms for aviation Petrol plus a slightly different water carrier, then there were various 2 & 3 boom versions- but the first of these was very late in the war.
The colour schemes depicted on the BoB Airfield set for the bowsers is very misleading.  Now Airfix have a good pair of QL chassis's The Bowser could be revamped into something good !

TED

A quick search brought this back, have no idea what its like, or wether it is world war 2 for that matter... But hey, if it helps im happy!

http://www.wonderlandmodels.com/product ... re-tender/

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CT!

The Bedford QL tender was used by the British Army in Europe from 1944 until the end of the war.... i have a conversion for the QL in the refuelling set if you want it

Will

Sorry this is a bit late but one of the best WWII RAF Fire Tender models in 1/72, although expensive, is the Fankit Crossley.
Henk of Holland has a picture on his website at http://henk.fox3000.com/fankit.htm

My virus-checker won't let me access the Fankit models website so beware; however the models are imported into the UK. Although I can't recall the name of the importer   they are often to be seen at model shows.

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Life's too short not to....!

Looks good for 28 euro's

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"Well Chaps ... my watch says time to go ..."

I have been interested in war-time "airfi equipment" for ages and particularly in the BOB-aera.

Despite the - for my personal point of view - unlucky combination of 1/72 and 1/76-scale-models I rather recommend the Fankit-kit.

I have writrten a review in our German forum "modellboard" and if anyone is interested, please feel free to browse:

http://www.modellboard.net/index.php?topic=43096.0

I think this is the best airfield fire engine for the early war-period apart from Albion 6x4-chassis.

Apart from this I also have written some other reviews on Airfix models, just look for "mhase"-features

Yours

Michael

At the beginning of WW2 the RAF had 2 different Crossley 6x4 crash tenders, In addition it had many "mock-ups " carrying 3x 30 gal froth extinguishers on Fordson Sussex 6x4;  The Crossley 4x4 in the Fankit was introduced in 1940 but I have never seen any in photographs of the BoB period.
In 1942 began a succession of Fordson 6x4 types.  The RAF has never had crash tenders mounted on Albion 6x4.

regards TED