How to apply the stickers of New York fire engines

Published on 19.02.2019

Our US fire trucks include a large sticker sheet that can be used on all models. Here we explain how to use it. This is what the sheet looks like:

On the sheet you will find the signal stripes for the sides of the vehicle and many symbols with which you can decorate the model. Only a portion of the side stripes is used per vehicle: Each model has a cab ("cab right" and "cab left", top left on the sticker sheet). For the rear of the vehicle either the short stripes in the middle of the sheet or the long stripes on the bottom of the sheet are needed, depending on the model.

First, look at the name of the purchased model, for example "Pierce Quantum Pumper". The car manufacturer "Pierce" gets the number 3 on the sticker sheet. That’s important for the markings of the side strips of the cab. The vehicle type "Pumper" means that you use the short stripes just below the cab stripes for the stern.

How do you cut out the side stripes and stick them on? We’ll demonstrate this for the Pierce Quantum Pumper’s cab:

First, we roughly cut one of the stripes, here shown for the right side of the cab. We leave the sticker sheet on the backing paper. Important: We still need the markings above the stripe, so we cut around them!

As a second step, we divide the side stripe along all markings with the number 3 – 3 for Pierce, the vehicle brand.

For the cab we only need three parts of the stripe: the two ends and the long part with the recess for the wheel arch. We now cut these three stripes along the horizontal edges. The two other stripes are set aside.

At the front end of the cab, the side stripe tapers because of a headlamp, so we cut out that corner.

Likewise, for the middle part, we also clear the opening of the wheel arch.

Now we can carefully loosen the three cut out pieces one after the other from the backing paper and stick them on the model. This works best with small tweezers and a little patience, so that the result looks optimal. Our recommendation is to start with the middle stripe around the wheel arch so you can align the height of the other two stripes on this part.

We cut out the side stripe of the rear in the same way. Our example model is a Pierce Quantum Pumper and this vehicle type is marked with an A. We do not have to cut through the side stripe this time, because the A appears only at the left and right end of the stripe.

Finally, we can decorate the vehicle with a number and national insignia. Here you can be inspired by our product photos. Alternatively, you can search the internet for photos of US fire trucks. The finished model could look like this: