MOC: North American Style Ambulance

[Triborough]

One of the first MOCs I did when I got back into Lego was a sort of generic modern North American style ambulance. I sort of found it odd that there wasn't one currently on offer.

It uses elements from 7890 Ambulance (stretcher and other accessories along with the two side panels with the "star of life" emblem) and 7902 Doctors Car (the "star of life" emblem for the roof), but with 7942 Off Road Fire Rescue serving as the basic design for the cab, much in the way many ambulances, such as the majority of the FDNY EMS fleet, use pickup truck cabs. The two paramedic minifigures are custom kitbashes using the the paramedic from 4857 Doc Ock's Fusion Lab.

The result is something that seems a plausible Lego interpretation of a typical North American EMS rig. Of course Lego isn't selling any ambulances any more, so one has to make due!

This is the first go round:

Paramedics in Action by Triborough, on Flickr

Ambulance by Triborough, on Flickr

Ambulance by Triboroughhttp://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?app=forums&module=post&section=post&do=new_post&f=9, on Flickr

Below is the current revision, which I think works. Just one question - are there doors with windows that would work for the back?

Lego Ambulance by Triborough, on Flickr

Lego Ambulance by Triborough, on Flickr

[Fuzzylegobricks]

Very nice ambulance! Have you ever thought about getting a different

wheel connection piece so that the wheels don't stick out so much?

I have a few ambulances made from lego (all custom) on a shelf in my Lego room

I should post a topic on them so you can see if you want.

[meyerc13]

Fuzzylegobricks, did you look at all of the pictures? I think Triborough fixed the wheels in the current revision, which is shown in pictures 4-5.

Triborough, a very nice ambulance. I've been playing around in LDD trying to design an ambulance using the off-road fire truck cab as a starter. Like you, I'm struggling with the rear doors. I've seen some great brick-built rear doors, and that is what I'm trying to do, but the hinges are very tricky. I still haven't figured them out to my satisfaction, but last night I came up with an idea that I'll have to try.

Overall I like the looks of your ambulance, one thing besides the rear that I would suggest is using some headlight bricks along the top row of bricks to have some red/white lights. Many real world ambulances have lights along the top perimeter (few in front, few on the sides, few in back). Also, I don't know about your rear light bar, most ambulances avoid having any additional height on top of the box in back. Probably helps with clearance.

Overall good job, and I may have some questions as I design mine on how you did the frame and what axle piece you used.

[vgsprites]

Nice MOC Triborough!

I like the revision of the wheel sets.

The wheels look more realistic versus the TLG axles of their current pickup trucks.

I like the style of this moc and was planning on building one myself.

The colors are dead on for North American styling.

I'm building a yellow diesel dually pickup with simluar body frame and tucked in wheel sets.

Great job.

[Out of Sight]

Very nice. It does look like typical North American ambulance. Since you did a 4 wide cab with a 6 wide rear box, I would suggest a shorter nose so the truck doesn't look too 'elongated' at the front (combination of narrow width and long nose ). You could try to replicate the shorter nosed Ford E-series.

[Ralph_S]

It's always nice to see new city MOCs, Triborough, and this is a pretty neat ambulance with nice details.

I don't think sticking too closely to what LEGO themselves do will produce the best results. Tucking the wheels in a bit further already was a nice improvement. I hate it when they stick out as much as they do on many LEGO city sets. I agree with Out of Sight that the front does look a bit long -not just compared to an ambulance based on a van chassis, but also compared to those based on pickup trucks. It would look better if you'd use a slightly steeper windscreen part. That would allow you to still use the same roof piece you've used for the top of the cab and make the whole thing a stud shorter and get rid of the awkward gap in the chassis just behind the driver.

To me the difference in width between the front and rear looks a bit dramatic. However, unless you're feeling frivolous and want to do exciting and complicated stuff with half-stud offsets or with building things an odd number of studs wide, there is little you can do other than hide it a bit. For instance, adding a few 1x2 plates with doorrail to the bottom of the cab, to add running boards, will tie the front into the back a bit more. Perhaps you could also consider getting rid of the mudguard pieces on the rear wheels and move the wheels in a bit further. That way the difference in track width between the front and back becomes smaller, making the whole thing neater. I did something similar on my own US ambulance a few years ago.

As for doors with windows, there aren't any that are well-suited to this, so a brick-built option is probably best. Hinges don't have to be a problem as long as you build them in right at the bottom. You can see how solved this on my British ambulance.

Ambulance details (1) by Mad physicist, on Flickr

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited May 9, 2011 by Ralph_S

[lightningtiger]

Excellent ambulance 'Triborough', the front end is the right length but I feel a six wide front and a seven wide rear would be better and more realistic !

Keep up the great work and Brick On !

[The Yellow Brick]

Nice ambulance 'Triborough', The wheels look alot better without them sticking out.

The size is great. not to small and not to big.

Great work

[XimenaPaulina]

Well done Ambulance Triborough, I understand the intention of making a wider rear part design which is characteristic of the American-style Ambulances, though I have to agree with the others that a six-wide front/7-wide rear might be the most accurate looking proportion (though quite tricky to pull-off). Still, it's always nice to see these different variations in ambulances depicted in brickbuild. Nice work!

[Ralph_S]

Of course, what lightningtiger wrote really is that the nose is the perfect length if you make the rest of the vehicle bigger! Like many town builders, he likes his minifig scale big. I prefer the smaller end of the scale, which means that in my book a front that is four or five studs wide and a back that's six is fine. If I were to build one of these, the front would probably be five studs wide (6 including mudguards and running boards) and the back 6.

I actually have an ambulance that is 7 studs wide, but it is a rather different vehicle than Triborough had in mind. It's a heavy duty vehicle that is supposed to resemble vehicles built on commercial truck chassis (like the Freightliner M series) rather than based on a pickup truck.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Legoless]

I agree with the others re-the wheel arrangement- but looks good otherwise. Wonder why TLG doesn't currently have an ambulance or hospital set? Lots of play value there.

In my local area of the UK they don't seem to have made up their mind as to what kind of ambulances they want. First it was a Renault Master with an American-style body on the rear (wide coachbuilt body on a standard short-bonnet van chassis), then they went to Renault Master panel van conversions, and now we have full-sized American-style ambulances based on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis- all would make for good MOCs- as Ralph S shows with his excellent one (looks like an old style Mercedes T3 from the angle seen in the picture).

Edited May 11, 2011 by Legoless

[LEGO Guy Bri]

Neat ambulance 'Triborough' The colors look great, definitely has the U.S. look. Another great build, keep it up