After a quick swing down Coney Mall we were able to capture more exclusive photos of Kings Island's New for 2007 Attraction Firehawk!

Currently, the retaining wall continues to grow and concrete is being poured into the molds. Footings are begging to take shape as well. Vertical construction starts in about a week and a half!!

Click here to see the photos!

Regards,

Ryan

PKICentral.com - Oh my gosh! I locked my car in the garage!!

So....why exactly is there going to be a retaining wall? what is it that we are trying to......retain??

anyone know?

The terrain they're working with is very unlevel. Essentially Firehawk will be built into a notch in the ground, not unlike a step.

control room?

ahh, so will pedestrians be able to look down on top of some of the ride from the "top step" then?

Wow, its taken forever to get to my 200th post, lol

Wow i am amazed that they can actually make progress in that bad weather. Does anyone know how far along they are on the track painting scene of the ride?

I believe that the "step" will cause the station track to be more or less level with the Flight of Fear midway. essentially, the high portion of the Firehawk site was by the FoF queue with the site dropping off towards the north side of the site, where they had to fill in some of the site with the dirt they removed from the "cut." Hence they used cut and fill to reduce the amount of soil that they had to truck in. I can`t wait to see vertical construction! Yes, the weather lately has been rather bad, but they still can move forward.

Another great update!

Wow i am amazed that they can actually make progress in that bad weather. Does anyone know how far along they are on the track painting scene of the ride?

No idea how far in the painting process, but I am surprised with their progress too. Cedar Point had to start clear back in March for Maverick. Sure "Firehawk" has been put together before, but still should take a lot of work.

I know I may seem a little impatient but I can't wait for vertical construction to start. But i am enjoying the pictures of the footings being poured.

The track is all still green. It will be painted once it is constructed.

Like Boddah said "The track is all still green." The only painted track we are going to see for now is the small section that is painted in the parking lot.

Seeing how the track is still a Firehawk Icecicle, I dont see painting anytime soon anyways!

Is it just me... or wouldnt it seem harder to paint once the track is up?

I wonder if any of the Ernst drivers got lost trying to find the job site...we had problems with them losing their way when we needed material for pool construction.

IT'S RIGHT DOWN THE STREET. JUST KEEP DRIVING TOWARDS THE Eiffel Tower.

It probably would be harder to paint once the ride is up but KI repainted Drop Zone last off season, and look at how tall it is. But I honestly have no idea as to which order things will happen. Will it be painted first or will Firehawk be assembled first.

I think the weater is supose to warm up aver the next week. They should be able to get more done once the ground thaws out. Cant wait to see it all painted.

They also rode the catch car up and down the tower when they painted it. The catch car and ring were the last 2 things to get painted.

But I honestly have no idea as to which order things will happen. Will it be painted first or will Firehawk be assembled first.

You should hopefully have an idea...your question was just answered a couple posts up.

They're going to be painting it once it is assembled. They're professionals...I think they'll be able to handle it.

It makes sense to paint it after the ride is assembled. There will be scratches in the paint between moving it from the parking lot, to its final position on the site. If they paint it once its in place, they can cover up these scratches. Granted, when they relocated Stealth, they did paint it before they reassembled it. But with Ohio`s cold weather, it is still too cold to paint the ride right now, unless they were to put up a tent and bring in heaters. They did that when they were repainting some of the NU attractions.

One of the benefits I would think of painting it when it is assembled is that you shouldnt have to "turn pieces over"! If you think about it, once all of the track is assembled it will be off the ground, and you can get every nook and cranny.

Also, when you paint a house you dont take it apart. But, to equate Firehawk to a model you paint all the pieces then put the model together, but you have to wait for one side of each piece to dry before painting the other side, if the model isnt complex than you just put it together and paint what you have to!

CoastersRZ is right, the track and supports always get nicks and scratches during assembly. I believe that after a new coaster is installed they typically go back and do touch up painting to cover the scratches and such. It would be counter productive to paint the track a new color before assembling it and then going back again and doing touch ups.

Yep. That is why Face Off, before it was repainted, became full of pink polka dots. The touch up paint they used faded quicker than the factory applied paint. Also, back in the early `80`s, Arrow would build their rides before painting them. The Bat was built as raw steel and then painted once it was built.

Yep...Medusa at Great Adventure also has the problem of patched paint that doesn't match the original!

WoW. Looks like the 2007 season is really shapping up well. I honestly think Firehawk will make a great addition to Kings Island.

I cant wait to get the top of the tower for a birdeye view of Firehawk

I just found out today that I am going to be apart of the first Firehawk crew!!! I'm very excited to be able to work on the new attraction.

Congrats, UCcatguy, I thought about applying to be on the first Firehawk crew, but decided I would just stick with The Beast.

Congrats ITS so fun to work good luck

yay tony!

I think the best crew would have to is face/off that way you dont have to keep bending down all day long.