Yat Ming 1938 Ford Fire Truck

Ford created this sturdy little pumper for the Georgetown Engine Company No. 1 using its one-ton truck chassis. The grille, fenders and headlights were redesigned for 1938, and behind that barrel-shaped, oval grille was Ford’s rugged flathead V-8. The 221-cubic inch, 85-horsepower, 24 stud-per-head (also new for ‘38) powerplant was up to the task of motivating the little workhorse. The introduction of the new chassis was popular with firefighters, for it allowed them to carry more gear, more conveniently—just the ticket for the heroic job they had to perform.

I've been continuously impressed with the level of quality and features on Yat Ming’s fire truck images. If I recall correctly, there have been three so far, with a another outstanding image on the way soon. For the more than reasonable price of around $45, (on sale for $39.99 at the Legacy Motors site!) you get an arm’s-length list of cool stuff—just the thing to warm the cockles of a firefighter buff’s heart on a cold winter’s night. While the flathead V-8 under the hood isn’t exactly a treasure trove of detail (there’s enough for you to get the idea though), in my humble opinion I feel the Yat Ming design crew chose to save the goodies for the rest of the truck. So—let’s begin our tour.

The paint job, along with the tampoed graphics and pinstripes, is splendidly applied and appropriately glossy. Starting at the front, you get a separate, chromed windshield wiper instead of a molded-in part. There’s a pivoting, swiveling searchlight on the left side of the windshield, and, on the right side, a rotating, emergency light assembly, with three red lights. A chromed, red light/siren unit is mounted on the hood. In the driver’s area you get a 3-D dash, and nicely scaled steering wheel, pedals (clutch, brake, and starter), shift, and brake levers. By the way, the steering works smoothly, with a good range of motion. The seat’s done in soft-touch plastic to add to the realism. Just behind the driver, there’s a hose reel with a length of hose that rolls off. Beneath the hose reel, is a section of metal screen, just like on the 1:1 truck (to drain off water from the hose). On the left side, there are two sections of hose (non-removable) in mounting brackets. There’s also a rear-mounted hose reel, with nozzle, but this one doesn’t allow you to un-reel its hose. The rest of the hoses, located above this reel, are of the molded-in variety, made to look as if yards of it have been folded there for ready access. There’s a separate, chromed nozzle on one end of this hose assembly to provide a touch more realism. In the rear, you’ll also find two, chromed work lights, mounted on either side of the handrails, above the hose deck.

Aside from the various gauges, and levers, and tools (non-removable) mounted on this truck, Yat Ming provides several, separate add-ons—three nozzles, two lanterns, and two fire extinguishers. There’s also a long, chromed bar (its function is unknown to me), with fittings on either end, that mounts on the right side running board. Thankfully, appropriately shaped mounting holes in both running boards help you to figure out where to mount the stuff, since there are no instructions. Why didn’t Yat Ming simply glue these parts on? I’d like to say it’s to provide more fun for the collector, but don’t you go gluing them on if you ever intend to repackage the truck. You see, Yat Ming uses removable brackets that clamp on the running boards, thus, the removable parts. This avoids the screws that usually go into the bottom of models packaged in a similar manner. As if all of the above weren’t enough, there’s a separate, two-section ladder and a firemen’s pike to install on brackets on the right side of the truck. Finally, to add the cherry to the top of the sundae, the undercarriage has a wealth of detail, right down to a rotating, two-section driveshaft! Heck, I've yet to see this feature applied to images well over $100 (with the exception of a few FM did in the past). Bravo, Yat Ming, for giving us this feature on a less-than-$50 image!

Yat Ming is definitely the champion in the “most bang for the buck” category of precision, 1:24 scale images. All of their fire trucks bristle with fine detail and nifty little extras. You’ll note I didn’t make much of the few shortcomings I found. That’s because Yat Ming puts its effort where it counts the most, and gives the collector of vintage rolling stock an amazing amount of mouth-watering detail and features. Every one of their 1:24 fire truck images is sharp looking and crisply rendered, thereby keeping the realism factor up there with the best. I've not been disappointed with any of them. If you’re inclined to build a village diorama, any of the Yat Ming fire trucks would look great down at the local, 1:24 scale firehouse.

-Tom Pine