Heavy Duty Airport Fire Truck

So every now and then I get the chance to spend some time with one of my friends sons - sometimes more than one son.  The kids developed a fairly instant attachment to my Lego collection.  It's been kind of a long game holding on to the pieces through to use for the next generation.  Seems like I'm gonna make it now and that the boy will get to inherit the lot of it.  But in the mean time it's nice to see someone getting some use out of them.

Lego playdates take one of four forms so far.  Sometimes the kid or kids just play with pieces and any of the models we left together last time.  Sometimes we try to build an old set. I have a lot of the original instructions, but it's hard to make a set with all the pieces jumbled up.  Sometimes we build a new set.  This occasion has given me an excuse to buy a bunch of new kits.  I'm doing my best not to spend all my money I swear.  The fourth variation is where I build something new for them.

This is the latest iteration of the latter.  I present the "Heavy Duty Airport Fire Truck":

The truck is sort of minifig scale - sort of.  I'm still wrapping my head around the proportions there.  The idea here was just to build something based on these wheels.  So once I had the wheels and the fenders the rest of the truck came into scale.  From the side you can see the tanks for fire foam, the side entrance, side mounted ladders, and roof mounted mars lights.

Yes, I did pull out our P-Touch for some additional detailing.

The truck also has a hinged ladder.  It's really more of an arm than a ladder, with a hose and an operator position at the end.  The original version didn't have the flip up roof, but on the second look at the truck I added the top ladder extension, a flip roof and second layer of bricks to make the cab minifig scale, and the step bumper on the back for equipment and firefighters.

I have to say I think this is one of my more successful builds.  But regardless of what I think, my apprentice seemed to enjoy it and that really matters more than anything else.

We even got a chance to see if it really worked: