M5 Halftrack Ambulance - PSC conversion - Finished!

I managed to get a few pics up last night of my finished halftracks that will be the tractor units for my 17 Pounder platoon. Alongside these I managed to finish off my halftrack ambulance (seen above). This is really a unit for Battlegroup Overlord rather than anything to do with Flames of War. It's one of several units I have planned. At the moment those plans include a ambulance jeep, a lorry loaded with supplies and a MP jeep.

Ok, so some details. The kit itself was from The Plastic Soldier Company and was one model from a pack of five M5 Halftracks. I already had a M5 halftrack from Battlefront which had been part of my Pioneer platoon - prior to the 'Overlord' book changing the platoon HQ vehicle to a truck. As this model was painted I decided to decal it as one of the halftracks of 61st Anti Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery, add it to the plastic Halftracks and convert one of them to an ambulance. Mainly as they were all unpainted.

Details of how I converted this model can be found here. Just to bore everyone again:

I removed the MG cupola and used some standard plasticard to build up the shape I needed for the canvas top. I figured this would be easier to build up the green stuff on. As you can see, the shapes are all pretty simple. The only bit that caused me an issue at this point was the front section - but a bit of time and shaping with a craft knife got me both the shape I needed and the little slices required to prop it up.

Then on to the green stuff:

This was just layered up. I rolled the mixed green stuff into sausages, laid them along from side to side, layering where the canvas was higher and just used a modelling tool to shape it. I tried to make it look 'canvassy' but not too sure that worked very well. Still, from a distance it looks fine!

The model then went through various stages of painting - Black primer, Base coat with Vallejo Model Color Russian Uniform (70924), Black for the tracks and wheels then Model Color Black Grey (70.862) highlighted by Vallejo Panzer Aces Dark Rubber (306). Model Color Mahogany Brown (70.846) for the tools highlighted by Model Color Beige Brown (70.875). The canvas I had gone for reflective green, but I think through drybrushing etc it ended up back at more the Russian Uniform color. Very hard to tell from what few period pics I could find what the tarp should have been painted.

Decal wise the British Red Crosses are from Skytrex (CD DEC26) along with my usual selection from Doms Decals. for the WD number (the number along the side of the front hull) I decided to go with a 'A' number. Mainly as I had ran out of 'Z' numbers which is normally what a halftrack is classified as. 'A', of course, stands for Ambulance.

The AoS markings I searched high and low for. Eventually I figured out that as a Ambulance of 154th Field Ambulance (the 154 Brigades ambulance unit) the AoS seems like is should be a white '77' on a black square.

I used one of my Doms Decals black '64' AoS decals (for the Divisions support battalion's MMG and 4.2" units) and just painted black over the 64 and reapplied the 77 in white.

I was a bit unsure about where to put the red cross markings but in the end went for a mix of the various markings I had seen during my research.

So that's it, one ambulance ready to support my PBI!

This model was also the first one I went for the flowers on as well, and I think they look brill. All in all really pleased with how it turned out.