Ford Model T

I read in one of the UK's tabloids, years ago, that in 1916 the Ford Model T made up more than 50% of the cars on Planet Earth. Allegedly it was quite a rugged and reliable little vehicle. I thought I'd have a look around and see what models are available in 1/72 scale.

There are 3 nice, but a bit fiddly, kits from RPM: an ambulance, a Motor Machine Gun Service (MMGS) car, and the Ford Tfc armoured car. The armoured car version was specific to Poland during the Polish-Bolshevik War, but the ambulance and the gun car were more widely used. For an article on how to super-detail these models, click here. For an article about the Tfc in the Polish-Bolshevik War, click here.

Matador Models also make 3 Model Ts; like RPM there is an ambulance and a gun car, but there is also a light truck version:

For some years now, Matador Models have been saying they are making a "Ford Model T Russian Pattern Armoured Car". Hopefully they make it, and hopefully they are talking about the Admiralty Pattern armoured car.

Reviresco make a number of Model Ts (10 in fact), but some sites say that not all of them are 1/72, in spite of Reviresco's claim. I don't own any of them, so am not best placed to comment. All of them can be seen on this page, entitled, "Cars and Staff Vehicles of The Great War, 1/72nd Scale". Among the list is a sedan, coupe, staff car, panel truck, stake truck, and this pick-up:

 



Scale Link have two in their ranges; a flat bed truck and a van. Reading the fine print on their site reveals that Scale Link made the master for Matador Models' flat-bed truck (shown above). This is their van:

You can buy Scale Link's 1/76 scale Ford Model Ts on this page.

Springside Models make 4; two trucks and two cars. They are in 4mm:foot scale which works out to 1/76. The 4-seater car version looks good:

And there is a Staff Car version available from Convoy Models, who seem to make all their models in 1/76 scale.

Plastic Figures for WW1

Plastic Soldier Review has a long list of plastic figures for WW1, it shows there are 19 sets of Germans, 6 of French, 10 British, 5 British Dominion, 12 Russian, 5 Austro-Hungarian, 3 Italian, 4 American, 2 Ottoman, 1 Serbian, and 1 of pilots for all nations. That makes a total of 68. I have not included the sets made by MIR, HäT's reissues of Airfix's sets, or sets that have no figures, such as the LW/Evolution Russo-Balt armoured car, and some of the guns from HäT.

There are two sets available from Strelets that aren't on PSR's list; 6-inch Gun Mark VII, and 8-inch Howitzer Mark II. Both of these sets contain a sprue of figures for the gun crew, and there are actually quite a lot of figures. Bringing the total of plastic WW1 sets up to 70.

In addition to the 70, there are quite a few sets that will be released in the near or not-too-distant future.

Out of that 70, 26 are made by HäT, and if you include Coates and Shine as HäT (the boxes have "HäT" written on them, not Coates and Shine) the number goes up to 28. Strelets account for 22 sets (soon to be 24), with a large number of them being Russian and German cavalry. The remaining 20 are made up by Airfix (5), Emhar (5), Revell (2), Zvezda (2), Caesar (1), Pegasus (1), LW (1), Waterloo 1815 (1), Dark Dream Studio (1), and Co. Ma. (1).

Looking at those numbers you could be forgiven for thinking that there is a good selection of 1/72 plastic figures available for WW1. You'd be wrong, but you could be forgiven for it.

Minute Men

Minute Men is my first blog. My intention is to blog about small scale models and figures, but some other topics might creep in. By "small scale" I mean 1/72, 1/76, 4mm:foot, and perhaps occasionally 20mm, 28mm, 15mm, HO and OO.

My main interest is The Great War, or WWI, but I may also talk about Ancients, Medieval, English Civil War, the other civil and uncivil wars between say, 1890 and 1930, and anything else that takes my fancy.