Sd.Kfz. 251/8 Ambulance Work-in-progress by Dave Blankenship

 Here are a couple "in-progress" shots of the new ICM Sd.Kfz. 251/8 Ambulance. Look for the completed model placed in a small vignette very soon.

VW Type 93 Ambulance by David Blankenship

This is the 1/35th scale Special Armour (CMK)  VW Type 93 Ambulance built out-of-the-box and painted with Tamiya acrylics.  It was a quick, simple build and is another entry in Dave's German medical evacuation vehicle collection.

Kubelwagen Ambulance by Dave Blankenship

Dave mated the Tamiya Kubelwagen with the Dragon ambulance conversion  (basically a stretcher, support for it, and several figures) to model this Afrika Korps vignette set in the latter part of the campaign.  The Kubelwagen was painted with a custom mix of Tamiya acrylics and weathered with oil filters and pigments. The chipping was done with Vallejo acrylics and the vehicle was given a final dusting of Tamiya buff.

The head of the walking wounded figure was replaced with a Warrior's resin sculpt. The base is a modified Monroe Perdue casting and was painted with several shades of Tamiya browns and tans, washed with oils, and lightly dry-brushed to complete.

All-in-all, a fairly quick and enjoyable build. It's not uncommon these days for models to have a parts count in excess of 1,000 pieces, so it's a treat to tackle something like this little guy.  Tamiya manages to keep the number of parts down without much sacrifice in detail and are so well engineered you can often build one without having to use any filler putty.

Ford V3000S Maultier Ambulance by Dave Blankenship

The 1/35th scale ICM Ford V3000S Maultier ambulance. The kit was built pretty much out-of-the-box--the only additions being a set of MV lenses for the headlights, rear mud guards fashioned from sheet aluminum, Bronco jerry cans and scratch stowage on the roof rack. The kit goes together well as long as care is taken in the assembly of the chassis. Any misalignment there could cause major problems when mounting the shelter. 


 Tamiya paints were used to finish the model: the Dunkelgelb was a 7:3 mix of XF-60 and XF-2. The red cross markings were airbrushed. Several applications of oil filters were applied by brush and airbrush followed by an airbrushing of thinned Tamiya buff and brushed-on pigments. A final "splattering" with AK Light Mud finished the weathering.  Detail on the kit is impressive but there is no interior so you'll have to scratch build one or, do as Dave plans to do, save the effort for the Dragon Opel Maultier ambulance kit that has a complete interior.

Note: This model took 2nd place in the "Softskins" category at the November 2019 Cleveland IPMS contest.

ESCI Horse-Drawn Medical Wagon Build by David Blankenship

 This kit was originally released in the mid-1970's by ESCI and reboxed in 1983 as part of the ESCI/ERTL "German Horse Drawn Convoy" set. It comes with two over-scale figures and a team of two horses. It was a quick and easy build that offered several hours of enjoyment painting, weathering and terrain building.

Eastern Express Zis-44 Ambulance Build by Chris Davies

The Eastern Express Zis-44 Ambulance is a kit you don't see built very often. And, according to Chris there's probably a good reason for that. Rudimentary detail and poor fit might have a lot to do with it. But if you want a WWII Red Army ambulance in your collection, there aren't too many other choices at this point in time.