1/76 Airfix K2 Ambulance, Pt.2

It's been aeons since I watched Ice Cold In Alex, and decided on buying and building an Austin K2 ambulance. I no longer wanted to build a diorama based on the film (too much hassle, and nowhere to put it!). Instead it'll become part of my fledgling Allied forces, for future combat with my German stuff.

This was more or less how the K2 was last time I posted.

So, I got stuck back into this one recently. First off I decided to detail the interior, using reference from several visit to museums, such as the Duxford IWM Land Warfare Hall, and the Muckleburgh Collection. It was mostly from the former that I derived the rear interior, and the latter that I worked up the cab and outside colouring.

The interior of the Duxford K2

A closer view (note: nurse has leprosy, first finger and pinky missing!)

My interior is perhaps a shade darker than the creamy colour of the K2 at Duxford, but it's near enough for me (the paler interior pic, directly above, was in fact lightened by me in Photoshop, so as to better see the floor colour/detail). As well as cutting out the very thick chunk of plastic where the communicating doorway window is, I also scratch built two stretchers - one stowed, rolled up, and one deployed - some blankets, and modified some stowage from another kit for a medics satchel and a further blanket roll.

Cutting out that communication window was a beach!

Oops, forgot to paint rear inner doors: colour-match looks close enough to me.

Building plastic-card stowage cupboards...

... in situ and painted.

Inside the rear body roof area, there's a fair bit of new detail: two scratch built overhead stowage boxes, the fan vents, four lamps, and two handle like fixtures, perhaps for hanging drips? Once I'd painted that lot up, and added them to the model, I decide to also add a bit of spare photo-etch detail from some other kit to the floor (there's a lift-up lid on the floor, for accessing a further stowage area), and some kind of dingus on the wall by the door, poss some kind of intercom?

Rear body roof detailing.

Starting to paint internal detail.

Green Stuff for blankets, stretchers, etc.

Extras painted and...

... added to the interior.

front cab/dashboard, windows masked, and glued in place.

At this juncture I noticed it was beer o'clock, and grabbed myself an evolutionary tipple...

And so it came to the time for stripping and cleaning the airbrush again, and checking all the windows were properly masked, so I could spray the exterior body work. Next, a coat or two of gloss varnish, and then the decals. The British armed forces clearly liked their Red Cross roundels, preferring to add as many as they could; including the tiny ones fore and aft on the roof, there are eight on the vehicle in all!

Crap photo of Muckleburgh K2. Very dark green!

Looking quite dark, especially with hi-contrast roundels.

Doors in place (but not glued!).

After the decals went on, it was time for another coat or two of gloss varnish, to seal them in position, and then I could add the two air vent thingies on the rooftop. Pictured below you can compare our Austin K2 with our cousins across the ponds' Dodge WC54.

One minor irritation is that the two rear door roundels are refusing to conform properly to the surface of the model - they lay over the door-handle detail - despite the use of various decal solutions that are supposed to make them adhere more closely to such contours. Can anyone advise on how I might remedy this?

The Dodge WC54, and the Austin K2, side by side.

This was my ref for the tow-rope and these little yellow signs.

'Tie me kangaroo down sport, tie me...' er...

I decided to use some real cotton thread as a tow-rope. I soaked it in a PVA and water solution, to tame the loose fibres, and then repeatedly broke off the tow-bar trying to attach it. I used cyano-acrylite glue to attach the rope. Eventually, after much fiddling and re-gluing, I got it in position, and then painted it. It looks a bit clunky after all that effort. Still, hey-ho, and ne'er mind.

I've also added a scratch-built yellow roundel-plate, with a stencilled no. four on it. What were these markings all about, eh? Anyone care to enlighten me?

The Airfix drivers supplied in this set (I've not built the RAF fuel tanker yet!) are amputees, missing the lower parts of their legs. I popped one in the cab, and could clearly see his missing pedal extremities. So I amputated some from a German 1/72 PSC figure, and performed a graft onto this 1/76 Brit. I'm pleased to say he has not rejected his new ankles and feet. Once he's painted, I'll see if I can slip him in to the cab.

Tow rope painted; driver post-op, with new (German!) feet.

Driver painted. Ooh, I do love this mini-military stuff!

Although I've added a fair bit to this kit, I haven't put any divisional markings on as yet. I think I'll wait to come up with something uniformly suitable on that front, so as to have consistency across my putative Allied forces. 

And, finally (perhaps?), an oil wash with Van Dyke Brown, for the K2, my PST/AER ZIS-5-BS - a WIP I'll be posting on soon - and the Clarktor 6 tractor, as pictured above. When this lot has dried, I'll give them all a once over for some final fine detailing, pop the driver in the K2, and she'll be done. 

Academy 1:72 Dodge WC54, etc.

The real thing. Colours in this pic are a bit odd.

Teresa and I are enjoying a brief break, before I resume my teaching work. We're at this fabulously beautiful and secluded self-catering place, in Suffolk. There are black swans, peacocks, and all manner of critters wandering about outside, and although the weather could be nicer, it's still an idyllic slice of heaven on Earth. 

The only pic of the early stages of the build that wasn't unusably blurry.

All the constituent parts constructed, and base-coated in grey primer.

We come here quite often. And once or twice I've even bought a model with me. No, not Cindy Crawford, alas. Last time it was a WWII fighter; can't recall offhand if 'twas a Spitfire or Me109? This time I brought an Academy models set, containing a Dodge WC54 ambulance, a Clarktor 6 tractor, and a munitions trailer.

Freshly sprayed Olive Drab almost looks beige!?

Looking darker as it dries.

I'm gradually getting better at taking a portable but useful set of paints and tools as well. Although on this occasion, as on all previous occasions, I've always found I'm missing something essential to finishing! So as per usual, this post is of an unfinished set of models. Not as per usual, however, is the rather more spartan coverage of the build itself.

Damn! Knocked off the wing-mirror.

Gloomy image, shot in poor light; painting the tyres, etc.

Rear bodywork in place.

I recall reading instructions in some kits suggesting that one should paint parts on the sprues, before assembly. I don't think I've ever actually done that. What I did do this time, which is a first as far as I can remember, is build three major components of the primary vehicle - the Dodge ambulance - and then paint them all separately, before assembling the full kit. 

I've painted cockpits, or cabin interiors and the like before. But this was different. As a process, it has plus and minus points: one major positive is gaining access to areas that later on become impossible to reach; one negative is that paintwork can be damaged when gluing sub-assemblies together.

And the cab, plus tractor et al.

Dang-nab it! Decal disaster...

Not having brought any varnish or PVA glue with me, decals and glass are an issue. I've decided to leave the glass. But I wanted to get the transfers on. Mostly this proved to be okay, despite putting them onto matt acrylics. I used Vallejo decal-fix solution. I've left the rear door decals, as they require the glass being in position. Sadly the two part Red Cross for the roof didn't work out, as you can see above. I'll have to airbrush that one.

And that was where I had to stop. So, what remains to be done? Well, there's fixing some stuff: the wing mirror snapped off, so I'll prob replace it with a stronger metal wire part; and the aerial view red-cross, on the roof, simply fell to bits as I tried to apply it. The rear door decals and all the glass also need doing. And there's a gloss coat, weathering, and a final matt coat as well. Plenty!

This is how they stand at present.

I really like these Academy sets, with a couple of vehicles plus oddments. This one is a break from my usual German fixation as well. Actually Teresa bought these for me, at a recent 1940s event. Bless 'er! I like the clean moulding of the parts, the level of detail - engines are included! - and the quality of fit. Plus these ancillary vehicles are just fab. And, best/most of all, they're fun and satisfying to build.