Opel Maultier Ambulance (WiP)

 

This is the resin test print I did yesterday of the Opel Maultier ambulance model. Now it's made its way on to the paint bench.

First it was primed white, and Vallejo VMA Red sprayed where I wanted the red crosses to be. I cut crosses from Tamiya masking tape, applied them in position, and then oversprayed the areas with VMA White.

You can see how much overspray there was from the red; the whole model looks quite pink. I could have been more targeted in my red spraying, but I wasn't 100% sure of where the crosses would extend, and better safe than sorry I thought.

More Tamiya masking tape, this time to protect the areas I wanted to stay white.

I like the Tamiya masking tape a lot, but it's not perfect with areas like this that have a bit of surface detail to accommodate. It will conform to a certain extent, but it's not as malleable as I would like. I haven't yet found a better alternative; blu-tak makes a useful conformable mask, but it's not great for geometric precision.

Next, I've oversprayed everything with VMA Grey-Violet, which is my favourite base colour for Panzer Grey. You can see the shortcomings of the masking tape here — I'll go back over the model before I proceed any further and tidy up various bits and pieces by brush.

Tyres and tracks are now painted in VMC German Grey; the tracks' colour will change quite considerably as weathering filth goes on, so this is just a general base coat at this stage.

All windows in black, highlighted with Prussian Blue. I'm not good at making solid windows look glassy.

First layer of filth goes on now.

Everything was lightly dry-brushed with a pale grey to accentuate the highlights, and then a general coat of Citadel Agrax Earthshade wash was sploshed all over everything. The upper white panels were sponged a bit while the wash was still a bit wet, and the side panels were brushed vertically with a largish ragged old brush to create vertical streaking.

There's nothing inside the back of the ambulance; it would be impossible to paint any printed-in detail.

I'm pondering creating some stretcher-rack modules that could be painted separately and then be glued in place, but I haven't made a start on anything yet. I have no pictorial reference for the interior layout of the ambulance body, so I'd really just be making it up.

At this stage, I've done a little more sponging with Nuln Oil wash, and added a bit of chipping about the cab and mudguards with a dark black-brown.

The bodies of these vehicles were made of plywood, not metal, so chipping and rusting isn't really appropriate there. I could do a bit on the metal fittings (door and window frames, lifting lugs) but it's not really worth the effort.

The red crosses and white discs were painted straight across the glass of the windows, and had a tendency to flake off, so I've chipped it quite a bit there.

Getting near to the end now, and I've airbrushed a bit of dust around the lower edges of the body and on to the running-boards and steps.

I used a medium earthy brown for this, but you can go quite a bit lighter: a well-thinned sand ochre can look pretty good.

And now it's about done. I've added some Vallejo European Dust wash over the wheels and running gear, which doesn't leap out but it does add another useful layer of dirt.