This is the ambulance from Captain Scarlet episodes Winged Assassin and Treble Cross from 1967. When I saw it I thought it was a souped-up Dinky Stretcha Fetcha die-cast model or more likely the Corgi 700 Motorway Ambulance model pictured here.
Checking the beautiful Corgi Picture Index, the year of manufacture of the 700 series was 1974/5 and far too late to be the basis of the Captain Scarlet ambulance. I then consulted online research done by erstwhile SWORD supercontact and researcher Marc J. Frattasio for the definitive answer:
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 [ Marc Frattasio 1997].
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 [ Marc Frattasio 1997].
Wasn't the original model (or what was left of it) sold last year on eBay, along with the derelict Zero-X MEV?
ReplyDelete