Matchbox Dauphin Air Ambulance

[BritJet]

This Dauphin has been used as an air ambulance for many years in several different colour schemes to promote the main sponsor.  I used the old Matchbox Dauphin with the Whirlybirds resin interior and decals for the Virgin scheme;

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Steve

[cmatthewbacon]

That's brilliant to see, and what a blast from the past! I worked for Virgin in the late 90s, and we built the web site for G-HEMS when Virgin took over the sponsorship. I commissioned a detailed 1/48 card model at the time (https://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=288&t=10511&sid=d03bd7b2b0d24c8c171fdc055071cf2a) so we had lots of photographs, which I shared with the Whirlybirds chaps (the Vicar ?Roger? and his son) after chatting to them at Scale Model World some years later. This is the first time I've ever seen the decals used, so thank you! BTW, if you wanted a really out of the ordinary display base, the galvanised helipad on the roof of the Royal London in Whitechapel with the Portakabin ready room underneath would make a nice little diorama, especially if you included an on-call medic building the card model helicopter (which at least one of them did: surgeon's hands, you know...) ...

best,

M.

[Aetheris Avidi]

Another lovely helicopter @BritJet. All I can say is that you have inspired me somewhat  maybe one day (not soon) these will form my own fleet of air ambulances!

 

[Abandoned Project]

Nice whirlybird.

[rob Lyttle]

An excellent result from this kit! 

"And old Matchbox never lets you down"!.... (or was it "old raincoat"?)

Yes you've got me wondering about having a go at doing a Hele now.... 

[RMCS]

Superb 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Beautiful job on an otherwise difficult and indifferent kit.  I had difficulty keeping the paint from intruding into the interior, and yours is top notch!

[Vesa Jussila]

Nice build. Interesting I never built myself this Matchbox kit.

[BritJet]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments.

 

17 hours ago, cmatthewbacon said:

That's brilliant to see, and what a blast from the past! I worked for Virgin in the late 90s, and we built the web site for G-HEMS when Virgin took over the sponsorship. I commissioned a detailed 1/48 card model at the time (https://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=288&t=10511&sid=d03bd7b2b0d24c8c171fdc055071cf2a) so we had lots of photographs, which I shared with the Whirlybirds chaps (the Vicar ?Roger? and his son) after chatting to them at Scale Model World some years later. This is the first time I've ever seen the decals used, so thank you! BTW, if you wanted a really out of the ordinary display base, the galvanised helipad on the roof of the Royal London in Whitechapel with the Portakabin ready room underneath would make a nice little diorama, especially if you included an on-call medic building the card model helicopter (which at least one of them did: surgeon's hands, you know...) ...

best,

M.

 

Thanks for the interesting backstory, yes the vicar is Roger. I probably won't be building the helipad though, too many other things on the list.....

 

16 hours ago, Aetheris Avidi said:

Another lovely helicopter @BritJet. All I can say is that you have inspired me somewhat  maybe one day (not soon) these will form my own fleet of air ambulances!

 

They are very nice kits but be aware of the different parts in the various boxings, some are better suited to doing an air ambulance than others. I'll look out for them in the Ready For Inspection area!

 

11 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Beautiful job on an otherwise difficult and indifferent kit.  I had difficulty keeping the paint from intruding into the interior, and yours is top notch!

 

The clear parts don't fit very well and I had to use PVA to fill quite a few gaps, well before any paint went near it! I know the kit has a few accuracy issues and I was tempted to ditch it in favour of the Dream Model kit but the price put me off....

 

Steve

[Linus]

Very nice scheme, good Whirlybirds!!!

[Aetheris Avidi]

8 hours ago, BritJet said:

They are very nice kits but be aware of the different parts in the various boxings, some are better suited to doing an air ambulance than others. I'll look out for them in the Ready For Inspection area!

 

Good advice, but i'm actually really pleased with the Air Glaciers boxing. In addition to the air ambulance interior it contains an extra sprue that originally came with the EC635 boxing. This has all manner of aerials and attachments that means many configurations will be covered OOB. I'm sure it won't be as easy as that when it comes to it though 

[BritJet]

Cheers.

 

Steve