Italeri’s 1/24th Scale L.A. Fire Department Recovery Truck By Gerry Nilles

History

Los Angeles is one of the largest cities in the United States, not only population wise but geographically speaking. As such it has a Fire Department that is equally as large. Also, it is a well accepted fact that L.A. probably has the greatest amount of roads, highways and freeways that need to be traveled in order to provide emergency services for all its residents. Needless to say, as a result of this, the L.A. Fire Department’s emergency equipment is subject to significantly more wear and tear than that of most other big city fire departments. Therefore, it is no surprise that a heavy duty rescue/recovery truck would be included in its list of emergency vehicles. Not only would this mobile repair shop and heavy duty tow truck be used for the L.A. Fire Department’s own equipment but it would come in handy on those occasions when heavy duty commercial vehicles are involved in a road emergency. The Kit

The Kit

As with Italeri’s other big rig road services tow truck kits, this is fashioned after one of their previously released and nicely done semi-truck offerings. Mounted on a modified Western Star ten-wheeled tractor, this custom-built heavy rescue and towing vehicle, should make both collectors of city owned emergency vehicles and heavy duty commercial trucks happy. However, before I get into the kit description, I should note that this is a highly detailed model with an extensive part count, and as such is recommended for more experienced builders.

To begin, the kit is cast in multiple colored styrene plastic with engraved storage door panels. The body and cab are red, and the chassis and interior are black. The wheels, grill, fuel tanks and exhaust pipes, along with a number of other detail parts are chrome plated. Last but not least, there are several trees of clear parts for the windows, windscreen, headlights, emergency lights, etc. In total, there are thirteen parts trees. As far as the instructions go, there is an eleven page booklet that is well illustrated and looks easy to follow. However, I highly recommend that it is read and understood thoroughly before starting the kit. For example, and right off the bat in section one, the main frame rails need to be slightly modified by being both cut and drilled. Needless to say this is not a step that should be missed or discovered later on in the assembly.

Of special note is that this kit comes with a complete and well detailed engine, and cab interior. As an interesting, touch the driver's side window is half way down to aid visibility of the detailed inside. However, Italeri has chosen to go with a flat surface and decal for the massive instrument panel. This is only a minor nit, but considering the high level of the detail in the cab, I would have thought that at this scale an embossed instrument panel with raised instrument bezels and switches, as well as the decal, would have been included. Again, other than this negligible exception, the rest of the kit looks to be extremely well done. I was especially impressed with the detail of the towing boom assembly.

Markings

Appropriately, the kit comes with markings for the L.A. Fire Department. I attempted to find an actual photo of this vehicle but was unsuccessful, so I cannot verify the accuracy of the markings. However, I’ll take it on faith that Italeri got it right and from a strictly comparison standpoint, with other L.A. emergency vehicles, they look to be correct. As always, Italeri’s decals are of good quality and registration.

Conclusion

Overall, from a first-look standpoint, this appears to be an excellent kit. It is certainly an interesting subject that will have appeal to both emergency vehicle and heavy commercial truck model builders.

My sincere thanks to Italeri for the review sample.