Valerons ICM 1 35 Model T 1917 Ambulance

[Valeron]

I'll be building this for Dave's Emergency Services GB. I'll post sprue shots when the build starts.

I bought this earlier this year as I fancied the look of it but haven't had the courage to build it yet, but as I'm currently building another ICM softskin, I thought this GB was a good time to get started on it.

Never have painted a figure at all apart from a few 1/72 pilots recently and box loads of airfix 1/72 soliders back in the 1970s (3 colours of Humbrol max per figure back in the day - uniform , flesh and black,) I probably won't do any of the figures in this model. But then again, I might give it a go if time allows.

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[Dave Ward]

Mike,
lovely model! - I did it as the French version a few years ago. One thing I do remember was getting all four wheels on the ground was tricky!
Dave

 

[Valeron]

I'll probably make a start on this in a few days.

I won't be making the figures as part of this GB but will give them a go separately as some point. Figures are completely new to me.

I also haven't decided on the colour scheme yet. There are a few to choose from.

 

[Valeron]

Chassis fully assembled and painted. I'll paint more detail later.

It was a bit tricky in parts as there are lots of small detailed parts under the chassis. Also it took a but of time to get the wheels fully level.

 

[Dave Ward]

Mike,
with all ICM softskins, once you've got all four wheels touching the ground, then the rest is plain sailing!
Dave

 

[scottie3158]

Mike,
I will pull up a chair. Your off to a great start. I'm glad I didn't have to go in the back, because as well as your injuries you would have been gassed by the exhaust stopping under the body work.

 

[The Smythe Meister]

Just found this Mike,
Looks good, I'll follow along with the other chaps

 

[Valeron]

Mike,
I will pull up a chair. Your off to a great start. I'm glad I didn't have to go in the back, because as well as your injuries you would have been gassed by the exhaust stopping under the body work.

Yeah you're right. That's definitely not a good exhaust system

 

[Gern]

I'd also be worried about that rear overhang tipping and throwing me out the back!

 

[Valeron]

Starting to work on the back cabin now. I've mocked up a rough fit of it to see how much of the inside you'll be able to see. I'll be going with the back door open, it the bottom part hanging down.

The whole cabin is made of wood and painted white inside. I've see a few online blogs of this model and some people have just painted it white whilst others have done a whole wood effect, then over painted it in white. I need to decide which method I'll use. I'm just not sure what difference the wood underneath would do as I've never done this before. The bloggers were airbrushing and I'll be hand painting and I'm not sure if that will make a difference. Any thoughts?

In the meantime whilst I think about that there are quite a few ejector marks which I'm going to deal with.

 

[stillp]

At least those ejector marks are all somewhere that can be sanded after filling.
Pete

 

[Dave Ward]

Mike,
I'd go with just white paint on the interior, if it looks too bright, you can always tone it down. If you're going to have stretchers inside, you won't see much anyway.
Dave

 

[Allen Dewire]

A little late to the party Mike. This looks like a cool kit and you're off to a great start Sir!!! I'm with Dave (Gern) with the overhang. With 3 casualties in the back, this puppy would do wheelies going down the street........

Prost
Allen

 

[Valeron]

A little late to the party Mike. This looks like a cool kit and you're off to a great start Sir!!! I'm with Dave (Gern) with the overhang. With 3 casualties in the back, this puppy would do wheelies going down the street........

Prost
Allen

As a few people have mentioned I've been looking into whether there were balance problems with this ambulance. I can't find anything on-line regarding this but it doesn't look particularly safe with the overhang does it? I'm sure it was though as they made loads of them.

All pictures of the real thing look similar to the model from what I can see.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Looking very good Mike. I think Allen has been watching Jersey boys again though
I’m with Dave regarding painting the interior. Doing a wood effect then painting over it seems a bit pointless. The only time that seems worthwhile is if you are adding wear effects to the top layer, so exposing the wood.

 

[stillp]

That photo of the real thing doesn't seem to show any wood grain, and I expect the interior would be even smoother, so I'd just paint it white.
Pete

 

[scottie3158]

Mike,
Those injector marks will keep you busy for a while. As to the interior you could give it a spray of wood. then using the hairspray technique just wash the white back just where there would be signs if wear, ie the entrance into the back and wear points. Or paint it white then chip it back using a sponge.

 

[papa 695]

Cracking start.

 

[Jim R]

You're off to a good start Mike. The chassis on these softskins is often fiddly. Scottie' idea for the interior is quite a good one. If your chipping/wear and tear isn't to your liking you can simply go over it with white. If it works then you've added another string to your modelling bow.

 

[Valeron]

5,000 coats of white later, the inside is to look white.

Not quite 5,000 actually but you get the drift. It's taken alot of brush coats so far
It wasn't helped that I ran out of my normal rattle can primer and have been priming this model with my only other Primer, a Vallejo brown and covering this with white is probably difficult.