Re: Ambulance painting question

What's wrong with this group? Not one German lawyer joke! LOL

This may be going into an "off-the-wall" direction...

...but in the past, I have read several modeling articles, on ambulances, where the builder painted the inside of the windows white...to simulate drawn curtains/shades (common practice on ambulances???). Being that this is a 1/72nd scale kit, perhaps this was what the company was also suggesting....

????

That's an interesting point. I know that WWII *American* ambulances had interior lights, but along with that had blackout curtains on all the windows. It seems, though, that dark-colored curtains would be more effective for this use than white curtains.

This had nothing to do with blackouts or whatever, it was done to prevent bypassers from peeking at what was going on inside the ambulance. It was common practice in most European countries for years. The windows were painted (from the inside, to prevent outsiders from scrapping the paint) because it was much cheaper than matte the glass.

All American tactical vehicles (including ambulances) had blackout lighting provisions. (That's the purpose of the "blackout headlight" and the blackout marker and stop lights.) Ambulances, though, had an additional problem, in that the medics needed light inside in order to work on the patients. The only way to solve this was by the use of blackout curtains.

You're thinking of *civilian* vehicles. I don't think the military, in a combat zone, would care if passersby peered inside. Actually, troops in a combat zone would have better things to do.

No, I'm thinking of the military ambulances of my youth. Mostly Eastern Block armies, blackout lights, but inside and windows overall white, or no windows. The only difference was that military ambulances were painted green, while the civilian ones were white.