Who does not know this problem!? If you want to build an interesting fire truck as a 1:24 or 1:25 model, get one of the relatively rare kits, either from Revell, Italeri or the first Fire Truck from Trumpeter, and ? When these models are almost finished, you are, so to speak, on the hose. There are no tubes to buy and the often favored shoelaces are too coarse in terms of fabric structure and too thick when folded up.
So I tried and tinkered, cut, glued, tested a wide variety of materials and then I had a solution. Maybe it’s the solution at all, at least I had no other idea.
If you want to implement my idea, you need the following materials and equipment. A scalpel or other razor-sharp device, a metal ruler, double-sided carpet tape, superglue and most importantly, the tubular fabric. Here I used a decorative ribbon like those found in the gift wrap and greeting card sections of department stores.
First, cut off a piece of ribbon about 30 – 40 cm long and weigh it down at both ends. This must be otherwise the strip will roll up again inwards.
The double-sided carpet adhesive tape is then placed on this strip and, very importantly, smoothed out from the middle to both sides.
Bubbles and wrinkles should be avoided at all costs.
Then the strip of adhesive and decorative tape is turned over and ironed smooth again from the other side.
Since the double-sided tape is wider than the decorative ribbon, the excess areas on both sides must be cut off.
Because the Trumpeter model has four hoses next to each other in compartment 3 and each hose is 6 mm wide, several approx. 12.5 mm wide strips are now cut out of the adhesive and decorative tape connection.
Now the actual production of the hoses begins, of course as an imitation in the folded state.
In order to achieve this, a piece of the backing paper of the adhesive tape about 3 mm wide must be removed on one side of the strip. Attention: do not press too hard with the scalpel, the cut must not go through the adhesive tape, but only through the paper.
With a smooth object that is as heavy as possible, the 3 mm wide and paper-free area is folded inwards. Bend it with your finger, break it at the edge of the paper and then press it down hard with a metal block or iron it.
This process is repeated on the opposite side.
remove backing paper…
…. crease slightly with your finger and press down with a metal block. Always press on strips that have already been prepared, as the adhesive tape tends to stand up or detach from the paper.
Now the kinks appear, which will later represent the folded hose. Everyone can decide for themselves how big these should be or depends on the respective model and the storage of the hoses. A drop of superglue is enough, press together for about 10 – 15 seconds, done.
Not only kinked or folded, the hoses can of course also be shown rolled up.
Since you can’t see most of the hoses on the model, I built a hose box or dummy for my Trumpeter Engine 121. Only the ends and the top two layers are visible here.
Showing all the hoses would have been too much work for me, and it wasn’t necessary in this case. All hoses were then painted twice with Revell color 310 – Lufthansa yellow.
Finally, the box is pushed into the hose compartment and glued in place. It works, doesn’t it?
Have fun gluing hoses!