Would anyone know what the rear section (rear cabin) interior of this vehicle looks like? I'm trying to build the parts for one and am stuck in gear.
Thank you-

Here's a few photos of the interior of the Mercedes Benz 1500 Ambulance. Same rear body as the Steyr 1500.

http://militarymodels.co.nz/2012/06/15/mini-walkaround-mercedes-benz-l1500e-ambulance/

Thanks a bunch. Still missing some needed details. Halfway through the master but got stuck on interior parts. It's back to the bench!

What scale are you doing it in?

You'd think it wouldn't be a hard thing to research but I had a hell of a job trying to find anything to work on for the interior of the Leadwarrior one.

If it helps at all the Phänomen Granit also used the same ambulance body.

I'm doing it in 48th scale for a future resin conversion along with the Radio Truck version. I know there are a couple out there but none with full interiors and they will sell for a slightly lower price. Also have a Mercedes 1500A underway in the same scale. Trying to find interior info on these is really rough. Of course I found plenty on Opel Blitz 3 ton Ambulances.

I found a bunch of interior shots when I was looking but the only one I was able to match up with the Steyr was this one which is rather poor quality ( it's enlarged from a smaller photo which shows the Steyr's distinctive pointed rear frame )



Shows the basic set-up of two stretchers on the left, bench seat on the right and small table down the end ( which appears to have a suitcase and a bunch of flowers on it ). It looks like under the bench seat is a third stretcher plus the rails to sit it into so I assume the bench seat can fold up to place a third stretcher on the floor on the right. Other than that it's not really much help.

You coud try asking on the Steyr forums, might be someone there who can help.

http://steyr1500.freeforums.org/index.php

Thank you Dean, looks like that's the one! Heck, there's more available on the radio truck version than the ambulances. Odd-

You're not wrong there. When I first went looking I thought it would be easy. I imagine all sorts of photos of the interiors showing smiling wounded but nope.

Somewhere out there is a photo album that belonged to a German medic with all those photos in it. I just need to wait for it to turn up on ebay.

Hopefully something will show up. If I find it first I will surely share it with you! In the meantime I think there's enough to make a decent rendering in 48th scale. Heck, I might have the Steyr Kfz. 31 in rubber by next week. With a fully detailed interior, that should make both the Armor and Aircraft guys happy. Now where are those Medics I started sculpting???

Well the advantage of not being able to confirm that you're 100% correct is that equally no-one can confirm that you're not.

If you're doing it in 1/48 don't forget the wounded aircrew.

Unfortunately my eyes and fat fingers limit me to 1/35 and bigger so when you upgrade a scale I'll be keen.

I'll be upgrading in scale but not with this stuff. Going to get cocky and try something totally off the wall in 35th. Should prove interesting.

I am going to jump in here guys on one point:

The Steyr ambulance came in two versions neither of which resembled the Mercades ambulance as seen in those Auburn Victory Museum photos.

Some steyr ambulances utilized the 1500 truck chassis and so they had the standard truck cab and a seperate box shelter on the back. (The same as the Steyr radio van body.) The box shelter is what you are seeing in the interior photo posted above.

Steyr also used their bus body for an ambulance and this was a one piece body where the cab area was completely open into the passenger portion of the vehicle body. This vehicle had the somewhat unusual trait that there was a fixed rear window in the back wall of the bus body however the lower 2/3rds of the rear opened with double doors like a reqular ambulance for loading/unloading of wounded.

the Chassis Man

Interestingly enough BOTH these Steyr conversions are available from Lead Warrior. Here is the bus body utilized as an ambulance.

And here is the shelter/radio body used as an ambulance. I REALLY like the two color treatment witth the shelter being white and the rest of the truck beng dark gray. The color combo alone may be enought to make me have to build this one!



The rear door treatment was different on the shelter body. When used as a radio body the shelter was built with a single rear door. (Same with the Blitz radio body vs. the ambulance body.)

I suspect the single rear tires shown in the photo directly above rather than duals, would be the more correct approach for a light weight vehicle such as an ambulance.

The mercades ambulance body if anything is similar to the Phanton-Ganit (please excuse my poor spelling) ambulance also on display at the Victory Museum.

I will post photos of that vehicle this evening when I get home.

the Chassis Man

I've yet to see a wartime reference to the omnibus used as Leadwarrior depicts it, only a few post war conversions where the rear wheel was doubled.

The standard two bodies were essentially the same, the box body mounted to the 1500A truck with the cab separate, and the box body mated with the cab open through into the rear, more often the later style wooden cab. The box body used for the 1.5 tonne ambulances was the same body on the Steyr, Mercedes and Phanomen Granit (the 1500, not the earlier 25H) and there's also photos of it mounted to Fords.

I admit I have always wondered why so many modelers "double up" the rear tires as the Germans rarely if ever did this. Also an ambulance by its' very nature is a low weight capacity vehicle and should have lighter springs and no need for double tires other then extra floation on muddy Russian roads.

I did however once scratch build a Steyr freight truck conversion and b/c the post war photos of the vehicle had double rear tires I added them to my model just to be on the safe side.

Keep going guys, I'm soaking all this in. Yes, I too have found that all rear box bodies on Mercedes, Steyrs, Phaenomen's and some Fords (all 1.5 tons) are exactly the same size. Radio bodies appear the same size as these, too. Of course the Omnibus is also interesting, especially in 48th scale!

Yeah the radio trucks look very similar. The main external differences are the right side door is further back, more toward the middle and the rear doors aren't doors but rather (at least in the case of the Steyr) the same as the personnel carrier with the lower half having two doors that open into a storage area rather than into the interior. There's also a telltale little door to a storage area above the spare wheel.

The Phanomen Granit seems to be by far the more common, at least if existing photos are anything to go by. The Mercedes 1500E seems really hard to find, even more so then the Steyr.

The Phanomen Granit 1500 A/S, Steyr 1500 and Mercedes 1500E built after about 1941 all seemed to have the same standalone box behind the cab whereas the earlier prewar Phamomen Granit 25H, Mercedes 1500E and Adler 61K all had the cab and body as one, although the actual layout seems to have stayed the same (doors and windows etc in the same places).

I've only seen one photo of a Steyr with integrated cab and that was a late war wooden cab version (which admittedly could also be a post war conversion).

The Phanomen Granit from the Victory Museum

A few more shots of the Mercedes from the Victory Museum (the first shot was pulled off the internet and does not represent the vehicle at the Victory)

This photo shows at least a little bit of the interior detail on the Blitz Ambulance.

Got plenty on the Blitz. heck, there's enough junk on and around my workbench to just make WW2 German Truck conversions for next few months. Of course, the older Mercedes and Phaenomen Granit sure do look like good full kit possibilities.

I actually have an old Vac-form conversion kit to transform the old Italeri Horch field car into the Phaenomen Granit. The Vac-form body is great but using the Horch as a chassis just requires too many compromises and ends up being neither fish nor fowl.

Somewhere in the lost reaches of my CD files I have detailed info on the Phaenomen Chassis and drivetrain and other shots. Just have to remember which CD they're on.