Well, Im working on the Academy M997 Maxi-ambulance. I know I promised these earlier, but my camera died for good and I had to go get a new one. But now I can show you what I have done so far, and will post more update photos in here as I get more work done.

Last Saturdays progress.



And last Sunday's progress


Everything still needs detail paint (instrument panels for example) and dullcote before I assemble the cab fully, plus I still have to cut the doors apart. For anyone who didn't know, the doors come as the front and rear side doors as one peice, so they have to be cut apart to fit the ambulance which only has front side doors. Also not shown in the pictures is the peice that seperates the cab from the ambulance compartment. It is painted and finished, its just outside the photo, still hanging where I left it for the paint to dry.

no way,that the one im going to do.if you have any tips please let me know.
thanks gareth

IM sure there will be a lot of repition. There are a lot of HMMWV variants, but also a lot fo people signed up for this one. No tips quite yet as everything is going together smoothly. Just make sure you test fit everything first. Not only tells you that it will go together (or why it wont) but gives you a good idea where future parts will go and how they fit together.

I have more done on the ambulance. There photos are all from yesterday. I will try to get today's progress up either late tonight or sometime tomorrow. As of yesterday, I have double walls up (inner and outer), and the area above the cab. Still have to do the roof, litter racks, and some inner details including the compartments floor.

Ok, today's progress as promised. Finished the double roof peices, added the antenna mount, the compartment floor is in, with support bars, and the liter supports are in, although I just noticed the left one is slanted. I'll go back and fix that before the doors go on. Anyway, here she is.

Your maxi-ambulance is looking pretty good, Kevin. I've always liked the look of this particular Humvee. I wonder if the ambulance parts could be grafted onto a Tamiya kit? In any case, I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Thanks for the kind comments.
As long as the measurements are accurate, I would imagine the ambulance specific parts could be transplanted onto just about any manufacturers Hummvee. Maybe a little trimming and filler needed, but thats no worse than a lot of kits need anyway.
I was actually thinking about that earlier. How it may have been easier with a base model of the Italeri Avenger HMMWV. Just because on that one, the front door is a single peice, instead of in this kit having to be correctly cut away from the rear door. Not a real problem, but I didn't find the instructions given for cutting too helpful, and I haven't had to do that before. Really the most cutting I have had to do is trimming, and cutting stuff off the sprue. One or my doors needs a little touchup, but I think I got the second one right.

Finished up the rear end of the ambulance, everything from the last bit of frame to the doors and lights and of course the steps. Still have to paint the lights in, and put decals on and then give it a final coat of dullcote, then she will be done and I'll post final pictures in the official thread.

This is looking pretty good. I got one of these in my stash partly built. I just wish I could use a Tamiya chassis and the Academy upper body.

Keep it up and keep us posted.

Jeff

Looks real nice Kevin, I like it Do you have any plans for the inside troop bay, something like Medic gear, strechers or backboards. So you say it went togather well, cool. I too have one and someday hope to start it. Can't wait to see the final photos.

Great Job,
Joe

You know, I bet you could use the Tamiya Chasis. I just did Academy's M998 IED truck with Tamiyas chasis, and everything pretty much fit right out of the box. The only mod I had to do was to shave down the rear half doors a bit. The dimensions on the rear of each kit are literally within milimeters of each other. I would be willing to bet you could easily adapt this to the Tamiya body. I like the Tamiya chasis better myself.

Even still, this one is looking great! good work and cant wait to see the finished pics!

Thanks for the kind words, and I should get a chance to finish it on the weekend. I did finally have a couple problems I forgot to mention, but nothing major. I couldnt get the rear part that holds the doors on to fit without sanding down some of the parts a bit, they stick out just a little too much. That was the worst of them though, so I would say its a pretty nice build.

Joe, I do have gear for it, but I forgot to move it into the photo (you may be able to see the end of a stretcher in the left top corner somewhere). I have the two stretchers that came with the kit, plus two medical boxes that came with it, and a couple of water cans that also came with it. I may leave it at that, or I may see what I can find in the limited spares box I kept at the temporary apartment Im in, see if there is any personal gear or bags or canisters that look like they would fit nicely.

Gary, thanks for confirming that too, I had wondered also. But it made sense that if they did their reseach and got dimensions right, they should be close enough to mix and match.

Hi Kewin,

I know this is a bit late, but I have a set of 1025 doors from the tamiya kit, and also some of the Tamiya armored doors from the 1046 kit if you need them. I also have the PE door hinges. Drop me a line if you want me to send em to ya. Ive got tons of leftover bits and pieces from the Hummer campaign.

Well, my doors are on and I don't have another humvee to use them on, so I'll let you keep them. Thanks for the offer though. Maybe somebody else will be able to put them to good use sooner. Im still waiting for some other kits to arrive, and some christmas money before I can get another hummer.

Finally got a chance to finish my build after exams and presentations.
Here it is. Decals are on, although I ripped the front one slightly .

Congrats! It turned out pretty nice, Kevin. Now I need to get me one of those...

Im not quite happy with how the upper litter racks settled, I took away their support a little too soon I guess. Other than that I like it. Also should mention it is a lot duller than the photo. I guess the flash makes my dullcote shine if you hit it right.

Looks good. I know what you mean about the flash, I think we all have that happen.

I'm working on this one for the A-Guard build, how did the Red Cross decals settle down? I'm always nervous about such large decals.

Dave S.

Surprisingly, the only one I ripped was the smaller one that goes above the front window, and that was only because I wasnt paying attention for a second and it folded onto itself. The others go on nicely, but made me a little nervous at first. Where they slide onto, there are little raised parts. If you look at the side photo, you can see 3 little bumps on each side. I was afraid to really push it dowen to try to get the detail, because I was worried about them ripping through. The central bar, as can be seen on the top of my model, will bend the decal as a whole, but I couldnt form the decal to get much of the detail from the body of the vehicle.

So I guess all I can say is, if you are paying attention, they go on and stay on really well. They aren't really that hard to work with. Just be careful around the raised areas. The decals wont allow you to show all the detail that a painted on cross should, but they will allow at least a bit to show thorugh.

Thanks for the info. From photos that I have the clips on the edges (bumps) should be body color, they hold the red cross placards open or closed as the case may be. So you could trim and remove the decal material from over them then resettle the edges with setting solutions.

Dave S.

Ahh, thank you! The box and instructions weren't really much help on that, and I found very few good pictures of this vehicle with the cross in place in a desert colour. I will cut and resettle it once I can get my setting solution out of storage.