Blogger have had lots of problems this week and the whole site has been down. It's just come back up and I can see that the Pleasure Cruiser post I did mid-week has been lost. Whilst I try to recover it from cyberspace here's a bloglet I did whilst doing a shift at Bradford Sub-Base, which continues the ambulance thread with a picture and observations from my erstwhile SWORD supercontact Marc J. Frattasio regarding the cool Captain Scarlet TV ambulance shown above.
This unusually aerodynamic looking eight-wheeled ambulance made brief guest appearances in Winged Assassin and Treble Cross. The Captain Scarlet ambulance appears to have been a one-shot, hand-made deal which was primarily fabricated from wood. Clear acetate plastic sheet was used for the windows. The wheels are the kind of thing used with radio controlled model airplanes. The cab interior was fitted with the bust of a driver made from sculpted and painted plasticine clay.
The model was fitted with operating lighting consisting of interior lights and flashing blue lights mounted over the cab. These lights were battery operated model railroad grain of wheat lamps. The Captain Scarlet ambulance was actually rebuilt from the yellow Crablogger control vehicle seen in the Thunderbirds episode Path of Destruction. Most of the wooden or fiberglass models used in the Supermarionation programs were finished using cellulose automotive paints. Such paints are easy to sand down and repaint. Thus, models finished with cellulose automotive paints were easier for the special effects technicians and modelmakers to repair or rework.
It's a great design. Unfortunately there are no photos of it in any of my ITC mecha books. Not even my Japanese books.
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