SpacySmoke

MOC: Type III Ambulance

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Updated May 31, 2012!

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Original post below:

Yes, it's another ambulance to add to the numerous ambulance MOCs on this forum. I chose to do this because ambulances are one of those vehicles that every city ought to have, but the official Lego versions don't look like the typical American ambulance.

I've also seen some great ambulance MOCs here, but they weren't quite what I had in mind in terms of scale and proportions so hopefully mine will bring something new to the table.

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The first thing I started on was the 6-wide cab. I specifically wanted to be able to fit 2 minifigs in there. That wasn't too hard, but I did have to remove the seats in order for the roof of the cab to fit properly, otherwise I would have had to raise the roof by one plate in height. At first I used a 6x5x1 wall panel as the back of the cab to allow space for the seat backs. Once the seats were gone, I decided to use regular bricks. This allowed there to be an opening to the patient section in the back like on a real ambulance.

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The outside of a real ambulance has a lot of storage areas that can open up. For my model, I decided to focus more on the inside detail, which meant that outside storage had to be sacrificed since there isn't enough space. I do have a container on the driver side, but that's it. I added some 1x1 light bley tiles to simulate the door handles of some of the storage compartments.

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The roofs of the cab and patient section can be removed for easy access. This picture also shows the brick-built doors in their open position. This was the first time building my own brick-built doors and quickly found that simply using hinges wouldn't work due to the thickness of the bricks. At one point, I experimented with a snot door that had cheese wedges on the side to allow it to open and close. It didn't look good, so I scrapped the use of hinged plates/bricks altogether.

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A shot of part of the interior. There is a seat for an EMT to help with the patient and lots of storage for medical supplies. The other side (not shown) has an area where another minifig can sit, though the stretcher would get in the way of the fig's feet. There's also an oxygen tank and fire extinguisher that you can't see in this photo.

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The ice skater has had a bad fall! Her fans are quite worried. Here you see a bit of how the doors are made. There is a bar on the door attached to two robot arms. The other end of the arms are attached to a bar on the interior of the patient section. This allows the brick-built doors to be pulled straight out and then swiveled to the side. It's hard to see, but I also used 1x1 corner panels to allow a bit more clearance for the robot arms. I feel like I've seen this door technique before, but I'm not sure where I've seen it.

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The side door opens just like the rear doors. I'll probably use a similar design if I decide to make a bus.

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Comparison with official Lego vehicles. The bus from City Corner is looking a bit small now.

Well, I guess that's it for this MOC! Thanks for looking!

My next MOC might be an 8-wide bus, or maybe a regular car of some sort.

This MOC can also be viewed at:

Flickr

MOC Pages

LDD file:

Spacysmoke's American Ambulance (ver.B)

Edited by SpacySmoke

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A huge :thumbup: for your ambulance 'SpacySmoke', great work on the opening doors and equipment bays inside.....looks like a true US paramedic ambulance ! :grin:

Brick On 'SpacySmoke' ! :grin:

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Great work! I accidentally clicked on this and I was pleasantly surprised! :laugh:

-Derek

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Excellent work on this American-style Ambulance SpaceySmoke! The overall design is very accurate with the real thing, and gotta love the small details like opening side doors and medical equipment inside. Very well done! :thumbup:

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It looks great and very realistic. When you mention how you made the doors, it sounds similar to the way the airplane doors work on the large aircraft (like the one in 3182 for example). Would you say that's close?

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Thanks for the comments so far folks!

It looks great and very realistic. When you mention how you made the doors, it sounds similar to the way the airplane doors work on the large aircraft (like the one in 3182 for example). Would you say that's close?

Yes, that is exactly how it works (just looked at the review for that set). I didn't realize an official set used that technique. Funny thing is, I have that set, but I haven't opened it yet! I think I first saw the technique on a MOC of a van with an opening side door.

I think the difference with mine is that the interior connection rod is hidden behind the bricks; the only drawback is that the door can't open fully like on that airplane or on the MOC I saw it on, but on the plus side, when opened, you can't see the connection rod.

Edited by SpacySmoke

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Nice ambulance, Spacysmoke. I personally don't care about seating minifigs side by side in my vehicles, so I generally opt for something a bit smaller. Given that you do want side-by-side seating, you've still managed to keep the overall dimensions reasonably compact. It's also nicely proportioned and detailed :thumbup:

I can't be sure the doors to my bus are where you've first seen the technique you used for the doors, but I know I never saw the technique before I applied it.

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bus doors by Mad physicist, on Flickr

Of course, it gets easier to open the door further if the door is actually wider.

Cheers,

Ralph

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You may very well be the originator of the design, Ralph. I wouldn't know though since I've only gotten back into Lego last year. My memory has been jogged now, and I think the first time I saw it was on a yellow DHL delivery van MOC. Can't recall who made it or even if it was a post here. Kudos if you did invent this door technique, cuz it's a great design. I'll try and post pics of my setup tonight when I get home.

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Great Ambulance. Any chance for instruction on this build? My wife recently was named top EMT for the large and busy county we live in for the year and I was wanting to build her one as a "trophy" of sorts. Yours looks almost exactly like one of her trucks.

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Great Ambulance. Any chance for instruction on this build? My wife recently was named top EMT for the large and busy county we live in for the year and I was wanting to build her one as a "trophy" of sorts. Yours looks almost exactly like one of her trucks.

In case the OP doesn't have instructions, you can buy instructions for a similar ambulance here: http://www.brickcitydepot.com/instructions.html (I'm not at all affiliated with the site, just something I've considered buying myself!)

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In case the OP doesn't have instructions, you can buy instructions for a similar ambulance here: http://www.brickcitydepot.com/instructions.html (I'm not at all affiliated with the site, just something I've considered buying myself!)

thanks for the link Meyerc13. The colors of this ambulance are nearly perfect though and I know I could switch the color pattern on the one in the link, I really like the look of this one.

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Here's an overhead shot of the rear doors. Pretty much exactly like Ralph's setup in terms of function.

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And with the doors open.

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Here's a shot of interior not shown in the other photos. There's a bench for another passenger or EMT and the fire extinguisher. You can also see my use of the 1x1 corner panels that I mentioned which allow the doors to open a few millimeters wider.

MikeyB, I'll try to make some instructions this weekend...which reminds me that I still need to finish the instructions for my food truck! :laugh:

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MikeyB, I'll try to make some instructions this weekend...which reminds me that I still need to finish the instructions for my food truck! :laugh:

thanks Spacy. If you can't get around to it, I understand. I started collecting pieces (the obvious ones) this weekend so hopefully I can recreated pretty close to yours I may just pester you for some additional photos though!!

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Thanks, everyone for the compliments! It really means a lot to me! :cry_happy:

ACCURATEin, I'm already trying to work out an 8-wide bus design in my head, and I think the biggest roadblock so far is an 8-wide windshield. Not sure how I'm going to do it yet.

thanks Spacy. If you can't get around to it, I understand. I started collecting pieces (the obvious ones) this weekend so hopefully I can recreated pretty close to yours I may just pester you for some additional photos though!!

I'm about 80% done with the LDD file. I would be done with it by now, but I actually did a slight redesign and moved the rear wheels one stud forward. This in turn moved a couple of other things forward so I had to make some adjustments. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it tonight.

The reason for the change is because on the real-life ambulance, the rear wheels are nearly in the center of the box, so I think moving the wheels forward will make it more accurate. This was kind of bugging me ever since I posted the thread. If it looks weird though, I'll make an LDD file of the original design. :laugh:

UPDATE:

LDD file finished! The altered version actually looks more accurate to me so I think I'll update the actual model eventually.

The LDD file: SpacySmoke's American Ambulance (ver. B)

Edited by SpacySmoke

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UPDATE:

LDD file finished! The altered version actually looks more accurate to me so I think I'll update the actual model eventually.

The LDD file: SpacySmoke's American Ambulance (ver. B)

Thanks spacy! I like the version B just fine! going to try and get building this one soon and put it on a "base" for the wife. thanks again

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Thanks spacy! I like the version B just fine! going to try and get building this one soon and put it on a "base" for the wife. thanks again

No problem! Just a warning, the auto-generated instructions aren't very good and it skips pieces to the point where they are hidden when they eventually do get placed, so you may need to take the virtual model apart to see some of the inner structure.

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very nice ambulance! should really find bricks and time to steal your design :devil:

I can't be sure the doors to my bus are where you've first seen the technique you used for the doors, but I know I never saw the technique before I applied it.

anyway, I also used that design about one year ago for my rio grande train and that time, I took the doors idea from someone else's train, but I don't really know who was the first who used it.

that is a very good way to make a realistic sort of "sliding" doors, especially on bus (it's strange that tlc didn't use it yet)

have a nice lego day

mrblue

Edited by mrblue

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anyway, I also used that design about one year ago for my rio grande train and that time, I took the doors idea from someone else's train, but I don't really know who was the first who used it.

that is a very good way to make a realistic sort of "sliding" doors, especially on bus (it's strange that tlc didn't use it yet)

have a nice lego day

mrblue

It's by no means unthinkable that multiple people had the same idea independently. I think it's still a bit too fiddly for LEGO. They are easy to open, but not so easy to close, certainly not for small children.

Cheers,

Ralph

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