As you can see, the real aerial ladder doesn´t have as many bracing ribs on the ladder rails. To make my model aerial ladder look authentic, I must first remove many vertical, horizontal and diagonal ribs. Additionally, the solid advertising plates must also be removed.

I had originally planned to use my Dremel® tool to remove excess material, but later decided on using an electric soldering gun, Exacto® knife and small file. The Dremel® tool was too large to fit inside spaces between the ribs. The operation was tedious and time consuming, but the final product looks almost authentic. There is still more work to be done such as fabricating the large boom, the anchoring spindle and ladder mounting rungs. But, those will be another day - soon to come.

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Last Updated Wednesday, December 31, 2003 4:44:11 AM