Qick Trip in the Way Back Machine

Work is beating me senseless a the moment, I don't know how many hours I've worked this past weekend. During Zombtober no less!!! There is no respect for the dead I tell you! I had dug up some photos of my ATZ set up from Way Back in 2009! As you can see Harely gets all the cool rides. And here are a few WIP test shots of unfinished miniatures and more of my ATZ vehicle fleet.

Help Wanted

The funny thing about starting a new period or project is digging up all the bits & bobs you squirreled away. I got this Corgi 2003 special Starkbucks Christmas toy for $1 at a garage sale a couple of years ago. It's 1/56th scale and perfect for 28mm its also a 1940's style truck. I have one big problem there are 7 wheels (including the spare) but I have only 2 of the rubber tires. I need to get a hold of at least 4 more rubber tires to get this truck back in commission does anyone have any idea where I could get some?

Empire of the Dead New Releases

 

More of the EOTD Requiem KS miniatures have been released for general sale they include these two fine sets of Victorian servants. I'd say these sets are a must for all Gothic Horror gamers.

And these rather fine sets of villainous thugs. The first set contains some great brutes but the guy with the box in the second set projects a real air of menace to me. Say what you will about Westwind's utter cockup with their ETOD game support they are in my opinion still the best manufacturers of Victorian Gothic figures in true 28mm.

I am both delighted and outraged by these wonderful figures pictured above. I'm delighted because stylistically they are very much like the previous set of Order of the Dragon thugs giving the player a total of 8 (both sets) stylistically similar troops enough for a IHMN company if you play that game. I really hope a 3rd set with some thugs with rifles will be released in the near future that would be just perfect! These figures are brand new sculpts they were not part of the Requiem KS and so none of the KS backers have this particular set of figures. (hence the mild outrage) Its nice to see brand new Gothics from Westwind.

Also a few more resign vehicles have been release:

Sharpen Your Pencil?

I bought this pencil sharpener from D&P Unique Collectibles off ebay I read about some VSF (Victorian Science Fiction) wargamer buying some 28mm scale covered wagons off this guy on the Lead Adventurer Forum. So I bought this because it was on sale. I realized later than the guy on the forum bought the pencil sharpener wagon without the horse attached looks much better than the ones with the horse attached.

The carriage size is good for 28mm but there is very little detail. Still I think I can do something with it.

Ships Ahoy!

Five years or so ago when we where playing LOTHS I started collecting toy ships to use in those games. I rather quickly amassed a sizable fleet of 5 ships and 2 boats for pirate gaming. I did this through that vile money pit ebay. Now I never actually got around to converting any of these toys for wargaming so I have finally begun to do so. I have two playmobil ships I bought used off of ebay they are very large but I like that their decks are wide and allow for many miniatures at a time. The down side of playmobil ships is that they need a lot of work to make them look the right scale, they are very large.

This is the first of my playmobil ships, playmobil calls it a schooner but with a keel length of  14 1/2" it will have to be a 3 master to look in scale. Here is a playmobil advert photo of this ship with the masts on 14 1/2" is much to big for a 28mm schooner. I stripped it of masts and clipped off various knobs and protrusions. I also remove the screws because they weren't flush with the deck.

The playmobil ships have wheels on the bottom of the hulls for the kiddies so the first order of business was to cut off the bottom of the hull off so it would have a proper waterline. This was done with a double toothed hand saw for cutting wood.

I think the gunwale height in comparison to this 8" long 28mm brig looks correct now. The 8'' long 2 mast plastic ship is one of two that came in a board game called Weapons & Warriors Pirate Battle Game where you use cannons that shot little rubber balls to knock down your enemy's figures.

I learned about this OOP game through the LOTSH yahoo group back in the days when yahoo groups where the thing for wargamers on the internet. As you can see from the picture above a complete game nets you 2 ships, 2 boats, a round tower, 12 cannon, treasure chests, some nice palm trees and a bunch of 28mm plastic pirates. The round bases of the pirate figures are 25mm in diameter which makes these ships the perfect size.

LLedo Days Gone Bye Horse Drawn Carriages A Guide for 28mm Wargamers

28mm WarGaming With LLEDO
What you as a 28mm wargamer need to know is first that Lledo is a toy manufacturer and not a scale model maker. All of their vehicles both horse drawn and cars were made to fit a standard sized box. So what does that mean? Well Lledo vehicles fall into two general categories, 20mm(1/72nd) or 28mm or there about. I personally own 4 of the Lledo horse drawn models the Milk Float, Delivery Van, Omnibus and the Fire engine. Some models work perfectly for 28mm others do not.

 

 Omnibus with 28mm Eureka figures. 

As you can see the omnibus is much too small for 28mm use. I suspect the Tram is too small as well. 

 The Milk Float with 28mm Eureka figure.

The smaller carriages, the Milk Float, Delevery Van and Fire Engine work perfectly for 28mm.

Bare in mind that all the plastic horses provided with the carriages  are too small and will need to be replaced. 

 

Lledo plastic horse next to 28mm metal horse.

The next thing you have to bare in mind is that Lledo made money from selling the promotional value of ads on the toys, so those nicely printed ads on the carriages are not historically acurate at all. Also remember that there are a limited number of body types, the only thing that changes in a particular vehicle line (omnibus, milk float, etc..) are the ads printed on them.

See same toys different ads.

Below is a series of photos of the carriages upgraded to 28mm.  

 All carriages come with driver figures some of them are 28mm.

 
A short history taken from Wikipedia.
"Lledo was a brand of die cast toys, founded in 1982 by Matchbox co-founder Jack Odell and Burt Russell. The factory produced diecast vehicles in Enfield, England from 1983 to 1999. Models were later made in China. Lledo was a reversal of Odell's own surname. Lledo set out to specialize in replicating early Matchbox series styles, particularly the Models of Yesteryear range. The first Lledo models appeared on the market in early 1983. These were a horse-drawn tram, a horse-drawn milk float, a horse-drawn delivery van, a stagecoach-like omnibus, and a horse-drawn fire engine. Around April 1983 the first deliveries of the "Days Gone" range of models were shipped, soon after this, in order to further support the range required by the avid collecters, the company turned to the promotions market and started offering the models to companies as a quality, British made vehicle to carry logos for gifts, product launches and special promotions etc.  These promotional models were mostly produced in limited edition runs of 500 or 1000 models. Lledo went bankrupt in 1999, and the naming rights and model range were bought by Corgi which continued producing Lledo models in China until 2005, when the remaining models were merged into the Corgi Classics range. "

Guide to LLEDO Horse Drawn Carriages with Model Numbers

DG001 Horse Drawn Tran

DG002 Horse Drawn Milk Float

DG003, LP003, PM108, SP003 Horse Drawn Delivery Van

DG004, LP004 Horse Drawn Omnibus

DG005, LP005, SP005 Shand Mason Horse Drawn Fire Engine

DG011 Horse Drawn Removal Van

DG031 Horse Drawn Brewers Dray

PM115 Horse Drawn Tank Wagon 
(A special promotion for Standard Oil it may haven been given out by the company as a gift.)

 *DG-Days Gone Bye *LP-Lldeo Promotional *SP-Stevelyn Promotional

This article is from the Plastic Solider Review, a site for 1/72 scale wargamers is packed with  scale pictures of the accompanying Lledo plastic figures and other tidbits. Check it out.


Ebay and collector's web stores like this one http://www.lledomodels.com/ seem to be the best place to get them.

Amazon is currently selling the Shand Mason Horse Drawn Fire Engine you can find it here and here. 

Carts of Course

I've been working on carriages for my London board here are some work in progress shots.

Lideo Bakers Van with Recreation Conflict Harness Mule

Here is a period picture of a similar van apart from the wheels which I will replace what do you think?

Here is the Lideo plastic driver. Victorian drivers are proving hard to come by.

Do you guys think the mule is a good size for the baker's van? Please let me know in the comments.
I bought the Lideo vehicle from Recreational Conflict he sold out of this vehicle but has some others. The Mule is also from Recreational Conflict and can be found in the Tiger Miniatures section under colonial Equipment.

Breaking News Brumm horse and horseless carriages in 1/43 scale

Brumm horse and horseless carriages in 1/43 scale. First a horse drawn carriage.

Horseless carriages from the "old Fire" line.

Brumm, this company was created in 1972 in Italy to produce a line of horse drawn Carriages, the "Carriage" line.  In 1976, the "Old Fire" series of steam powered horseless carriages followed.   The "Old Fire" series at first focused on steam fire engines and other fairly well known pre-gas engine vehicles such as Richard Trevithick's 1803 steam carriage. Soon, the line was expanded into a unique set of steam powered vehicles - something no toy manufacturer had ever done before. This included Cugnot's 1769 steam tractor from France, proposed for pulling military cannon, and later, two fantastical steam cars: one supposedly made by Ferdinand Verbiest in 1681, and another proposed by Newton in 1680 - neither confirmed to have ever been actually constructed. Such novel choices for steam propulsion did not stop with European concoctions; for example Oliver Evans' 'Oruktor Amphibolos' was a steam dredge demonstrated in Philadelphia in 1804. I think that's the one with the paddle.

The Carriage and Old Fire series were produced in detailed plastic. The Carriage line and Old Fire lines have been out of production for years, Brumm only produces car models in die cast metal now. But they are showing up for sale on British ebay.

Look at this. 

Or this. 

You Limeys get all the good stuff.

Vehicle Research

I was worried about the rubber tires on the delivery/dairy vans I got in the mail. So I did a little goggle research last night. I found that dairy vans from the 30 to 50's used those style tires. That explains the 30-50s styles plastic figures I got with them.

Pictured here is a 1948 American dairy van with those style wheels.

I now have my delivery van reference at least most of it. I want some better signage reference before I try to do the sign on the side. I love the large wheel in the back look. It also raises the van higher than the rubber tires, I like that too. Fortunately for me the omnibus has just the wheels I want for my delivery van.

I've found some omnibus pictures as well. I think they are fantastic.

Most of the pictures I found where small so they aren't so sharp when blown up. They do show a number of important details like the driver's blanket, where the advertisements where placed and the scale of the bus. I can't wait to get one of the West Wind omnibuses now. It will be a major project for me though. I'd have to acquire a bunch of seated passengers. I'd feel the need to place passengers seated at the windows of the bus and a number on top. I love the crowed look to the bus in the sepia tone picture.