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Horse and Carriage

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  • Member since
    November 2005
Horse and Carriage
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 11:13 AM
Is there a model out there of a horse drawn carriage?

Covered or not it doesn't matter.

Thanks in advance
  • Member since
    June 2004
  • From: Western Canada
Posted by ghamilt1 on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 2:01 PM
Andrea has a few horse and carriage based dioramas that might suit your needs. One is a stagecoach and is very nice, but will cost you about $450USD. Andrea also has an 1870's style U.S. calvary supply wagon but again, it's very expensive. Historex Agents may have something as well, and they will be much cheaper, but they deal almost exclusiely in Napoleonic subjects. You may need to do some conversion work if you want to represent something from the old west. Both Andrea and Histroex Agents can be found online.
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: Greenville, NC
Posted by jtilley on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 2:21 PM
Way back in the Dark Ages of plastic modeling (i.e., the early fifties) Revell issued a series of small horse-drawn vehicles on the scale of 1/40. (The first ones actually originated with a company called Miniature Masterpieces, from which Revell bought the molds.) They included (let's see if I can remember all of them) an American stage coach, a covered wagon, a buckboard, a chuck wagon, a medicine wagon, an eighteenth-century English stage coach (my favorite), a Roman chariot, the State Coach of England (issued to coincide with the coronation of Elizabeth II), and what was called a "Lafayette Coach." The latter sounds like about what you're looking for.

Then there was a series of horse-drawn fire engines, which have become among the most sought-after kits among collectors. Legend (unconfirmed) has it that the molds for those got destroyed. And Revell contracted with the producers of the TV show "Death Valley Days" to produce a model of the mule team publicized by 20-Mule-Team Borax (complete with all 20 mules).

The other kits have reappeared from time to time under various other labels: Adams, Athearn, LifeLike, MPC, and maybe a couple of others.

The quality of these kits varied a little (they were released over a period of more than a decade), but generally they were beautiful. Each came with several exquisitely-executed figures - horses, people, and sometimes other critters. The chuck wagon, for instance, featured two horses, a calf, a dog, and three humans, all intended to be arranged in a small diorama on the included base. The State Coach had eight horses with riders, and recognizable miniatures of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. The "Lafayette Coach" had two horses, a driver, and two passengers: a military officer in a cocked hat and a woman with an umbrella.

In the past few years I've managed to find examples of all but the American stage coach, the buckboard, and the medicine wagon - all at fairly reasonable prices. Possible sources include old hobby shops, e-bay, and dealers in old kits. I don't normally consider myself a kit collector, but in this case I've made an exception. (I've finished the English stage coach, and plan to do the others eventually. To do them justice takes a long time.) To my mind these kits are real specimens of the "golden age of plastic modeling."

Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.

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