Ok....so I was excited to get my first order of Del Ps yesterday--until I opened the package. I only ordered 2 pieces--the FDNY Excursion and the E-one HP 75 Ladder. Both arrived damaged. The Excursion was damaged beyond repair--the body literally ripped off from the chassis and the roof lights snapped off. I never even took it out of the blister and am hoping I will get a refund.

The E-one also had damage--the ladder had come off it's mounting, but I just popped it back into place.

All in all, I highly doubt that I will buy anymore DPs--not for 19.95 anyway.

I am happy w/the ladder and it looks good in my station with the Boley Heavy Rescue, Readers Digest Mack Pumper, Matchbox KME, but I feel that they should have made the ladder workable--that really wouldn't have been too much of a stretch. The paint job isn't all that great either, but by no means sloppy or horrible.

For modern diecast scale trucks, they are ok. It's the quality that dissapoints me the most. That is why I want a refund for the Excursion vice just a replacement.

Anyway, my 2 cents.......

Phew, that HP75 ladder is probably the worst of the American releases, and maybe the worst DP of the entire 150 piece series.

I've had a handful damaged in delievery over the years. Broken beacons here, broken beacon stem there, etc. They were all blister packaged, versus the shrink-cased bubble packages. Those alway seemed to protect perfectly.

mjl

Location: Raleigh, NC, USA, Earth

John, apart from the damage, how does the Excursion look "in person?" I had been thinking about getting one for a police conversion. Are the wheels dull silver paint as in the photo or chrome? (I thought maybe the photo was a pre-production prototype.) Are the wheels the same style as in the photo (dish style with lug nuts, no holes)?

Here's a 400 pixel wide pic of the Excursion that I took:



mjl

Location: Raleigh, NC, USA, Earth

Dick,

Mike's picture is a good one. Looks just like that. Now granted mine is off the chassis (completely) but I did look at the body, graphics and all were fairly well done.

And in case you're wondering it is lettered (on the passenger side window) for "Haz Mat" Operations or maybe it's Support.

Nice and would look good near a Gearbox Explorer. But again, given the overall quality, I'm looking for a refund vice a replacement--not worth the 20.95 I paid.

JA

to mike

why do you think the delprado hp75 eone ladder is one of the worst releases to me it looks excellant

My opinion on the HP75 is derived from Jeff Webster's opinions on this thread: http://pub14.bravenet.com/forum/1136930767/show/585434.

mjl

Location: Raleigh, NC, USA, Earth

My 2 Del Prado models-the HP75 and the Pierce quint-arrived today. Mine arrived without any damage and, after the rant I pitched the other day after reading Jeff Webster's post, I am happy with these rigs.

First of all, to me, they are dead-on 1/87, unlike the Pierce Bronto and the Montreal E-One HP100, which are more like 1/80. My new ones look better next to my Boley and Athearn rigs, more in scale to them.

Yes, I'm still disappointed that the HP75 doesn't have a turntable and that the top extension of the aerial ladder doesn't line up all the way with the bottom section as it lays in its bed (and the other things I ranted about). The aerial nozzle, though attatched to the cab roof, appears (to me) like it's attatched to the aerial, the way that it's positioned. The HP75 does appear to be a little bit skinny, but all-in-all I'm actually pretty pleased with it. After adding decals to it to match the rest of my 1/87 rigs, doing some touch-up painting to the strobes on the outriggers, painting the rear steps leading up to the aerial entrance area, it looks decent.

The Pierce quint, IMHO, is the nicer of the two. The American flag on the grill looks great, and after taking off all of the Bohemia markings and adding my own decals to match the rest of my 1/87 rigs, it came out very nice. I even painted the booster tank level lights on the sides of the cab the way they're supposed to be, instead of leaving them black.

If Del Prado comes out with a solid red Pierce quint (a repaint), I'll definately buy it.

It's nice to be able to add 2 more modern U.S. custom cab aerial ladders to my fleet.

Too bad the line is over with, unless repaints are done next year to existing models.

I was able to correct one of my gripes about the E-One HP75, concerning the top section of the aerial ladder and how it sits back farther than it should. I was able to manipulate this section to where it comes forward and lines up with the other sections, as an aerial should, to where it hangs over the front of the cab. It now looks a lot better!