Fire trucks where do you start?

[cliffhanger2355]

Love the San Francisco Tractor Seagrave Tractor aerial. Where do you start. Obviously custom built. I want to order a Tamiya kit and modify it. Is the body work in plastic or metal? Metal is a whole new ball game. Of course I love American LaFrance (I actually own a real one, a 1963). But that would be a dream. Any suggestions for a kit to get started with or how to fab the metal bodies and detail work. I assume there are not any fire apparatus RC kits in big scale. Cliffhanger in Pittsburgh