Academy USAAF Ambulance

Yesterday I finished Academy's 1/72nd scale USAAF ambulance. I'd already built the tow tractor a long time ago to pose with an MPM XF-85 Goblin. I don't have any photographs of it right now. I was going to photograph it today, but I became worn out from chemo and didn't feel like going through that cumbersome ritual. Maybe later.

The Academy kit is quite nice, and Academy's engineering solves a major problem I often have with small-scale trucks: how to deal with the windows. Unlike most small-scale trucks, which either feature no window glass at all, or which force you to install the windows prior to closing up the cab and painting, Academy's engineering allows one to install the windows from the outside, after painting. I quite like that feature - a few dabs of white glue to hold the glass in and I was done. (You may gather from this that I don't often spend a lot of time painting or detailing the interiors of small-scale trucks, and you would be right. Other people may see a painted instrument panel in a 1/72nd scale truck, but I certainly can't, and unlike a lot of modelers I don't derive any particular satisfaction from "knowing detail is there even though I can't see it.")

The decals were a little crispy and didn't react all that well to Micro-Sol, and I had to touch up the red with paint where the decal didn't conform to the rooftop vent and broke. But by and large the decals worked well enough to hold up their end of the kit. It's a nice addition to my collection of soft-skinned vehicles.

Italeri 1/72nd M-20 Armored Car

Here is Italeri's 1/72nd scale M-20 armored car. It's an interesting thing. It includes the normal (and somewhat spindly) undercarriage shown here, and a more robust one-piece wheel-tire-suspension package probably intended for wargaming. The one-piece assembly wasn't actually too bad, at least from the side. I used the spindly undercarriage and had trouble getting all six tires to touch the ground, and I found that the microscopic attachment points were easily obliterated with MEK. I found it difficult to assemble, especially the suspension, and every time I look at it, I think the rear axles are too far apart. There's also a very significant gap between the upper hull and the sponson; I glued the jerry cans in place to cover the gap. The jerry cans come with a rack, but I elected to not fiddle with it, my eyesight and patience not being what they once were.

I airbrushed everyone Model Master faded olive drab, then hit the vehicle with a heavy wash of burnt umber. The jerry cans and backpacks are native faded olive drab, which shows the difference between the washed and unwashed areas. The tires were painted with acrylic charcoal, and then I drybrushed the thing with - of all things - my wife's Bare Essentials makeup. She got on some automatic refill program and there's Bare Essentials all over the house, so I borrowed the light skin tone and the brush and did the old swirl-tap-buff, and I was amazed at how well Bare Essentials adapted to armored vehicles. Note the straps on the backpacks and the cleats on the tires in particular; all the highlighting is Bare Essentials.

The decals were pretty good. I thought the large star-and-circle would be a problem, with it went down pretty well. All in all, somewhat troublesome to assemble and marred by handle-less jerry cans and that problem with the rear axles, but still fun.

Tamiya 1/35th M48A3

Tamiya 1/35th scale M48A3 Patton, marked for some USMC unit in Vietnam.

The main story behind this model is that the unbuilt kit was blown off my carport by a terrible dust storm one summer. The box vanished entirely, as did the instructions, but after wandering around in the desert for a while I found the bagged parts wedged in a bush and the tracks scattered across the ground. So I built it without the box and without the instructions, so I'm pretty sure I didn't get the decals on right, and I'm not sure the pintle-mounted .50-cal machine gun is right either. But it's not bad for guessing, I suppose, and the paint isn't bad for having come out of a spray can.