advice on 1:43 armor for army flats

Much of the Solido brand is 1:50.

Also, surf TheBay (or specialty model sites) for the old Bandai 1/48, Aurora 1/48, or Revell 1/48.  None is quite as nice as the Tamiya, but all could be made to work very well.

I did a search the other day check Walmart search for 1/48 finds a lot

European companies like Eaglemoss make 1/43 scale WW2 soft skin and tracked vehicles. Some aren't accurate, like the 6-wheeled US weapons carrier, which as a top and ruing mount for a .50 caliber MG which is about 3 scale feet higher than it should be.

Solido in particular has made a lot of WWII era U.S. armor in 1:48 or 1:50. I've gotten quite a bit of it on eBay, including half-tracks, Shermans, sponson-gun M3 Grant and Lee tanks, self-propelled guns, tank destroyers, etc. Solido also produced a nice variety of trucks, jeeps, etc. Corgi also has made some nice armor; prices are usually higher than Solido. Much of the Corgi product is intended for battlefield dioramas and is pre-weathered, which makes it look kind of odd on a flatcar. Corgi has produced tanks prototypically decorated for specific campaigns, including D-Day, Tarawa, and the Korean War. 

1:43 military vehicles can be found on eBay from vendors in Europe, mainly in Poland. I bought a 1:43 half-track once and found it was grossly out of proportion to all the 1:48 equipment I had, so I resold it. 

Revell plastic kit company has 4 1/48 tank kits out right now. 2 USA and 2 German.

They are simple snap kits....the Tamiya are MUCH nicer but the Revell kits are under $10 and great for layout use. 

I think I'm going to put a primer on how WW2 vehicles should look on this forum soon.

Here's a few things a WW2 tank should not have, in a stateside layout:

• No machine guns on the turrets or box guns. Those are easily removed and easily stolen, so they never went in rail movements, mounted on turrets.
• White stars shouldn't have a white circle surround. Those were 'invasion' stars for the European theater, to denote any allied nation using a vehicle. The standard insignia leaving the factory would have been a simple white star.
• The OD green color was relatively light back then. Maybe die-cast models today are of a much darker shade, that is mostly like the OD green paint they used in the 1950s, when it went to a darker shade as right after WW2, a quartermaster study determined that the lighter OD green shade didn't provide as good camo as a darker OD green did. 
• Wheeled vehicles wouldn't normally be shipped by rail with the cloth tops in place. They were usually removed from the vehicles, or at the least, stowed away inside them. That said, I have seen film of a troop train with several vehicles with the tops up. But it sure wasn't common.

Thanks P51.  I was looking at that very eaglemoss vehicle.  I will pass on it.  You should definitely post a WWII primer!!!

Does Solido stll make 1:50 military vehicles?

Well, Eagle Moss makes a lot of 1:43 armor, mostly WWII era.  Often you can't tell the difference and it mixes right in.  

Corgi and Solido and Sword all make 1:50.  There is a lot available between them.  

In 1:48, there is a bit of diecast but not much beyond jeeps and such: most 1:48 armor is Tamiya kits, which are really nice when completed but: a) a lot of work to build, and b) subsequent models really boring after you put together the first one.  

Solido's stuff is very toy like and the paint is off on everything they make.

It's also really small when you put it alongside O scale stuff, especially structures and figures.

For example, I put a lot of work into converting these fire trucks into GMC GCCW 2 1/5 ton trucks (nobody makes an early closed-cab troop version in 1/48 or 1/43 unless you want to buy some really expensive resin conversion kits) by using correct paint and early-war light blue hood markings and non-surround stars on the doors, but they look really small on the layout. I'm now very much tempted to get rid of them as I have a few Jeeps and a command car in 1/43 which looks so much more correct...

I bought a few Solido tanks (mostly German) in Europe the first time I was there after seeing the 1:1 scale versions at various museums, but given the toy-like appearance of most of their stuff, I really wouldn't use it for any model railroad other than a 3-rail 'just having fun' type of layout...

Eaglemoss:

Real thing:

It's now obvious how badly they screwed up the top on the model, isn't it?

You could cut the whole thing away and go without the top and ring mount (which was rarely used on that type anyway) and probably have a decent model when you're done...

I prefer the 1:43 models to 1:50 and even some 1:48 models just because they are a bit larger.  I will post some pics of 1:48 tanks and other vehicles in 1:43 later today.

Sorry, no pics, camera not working properly.

Rick

Lots of 1:48 armor on Ebay. I have a 1:48 Abrams resin tank. Very nice. I'll try to get a picture up.

Just an FYI, if you're looking for a serious representation, mixing WW2 and modern stuff is really going to raise some eyebrows among any vets who see your layout.

Just sayin'...

P51,

I plan on sticking with WWII era armor.  It looks like you own the eaglemoss dodge truck you posted above.  Besides the fact that the canopy over the rear of the truck is way too high, do you think that truck would look too big next to a 1:48 Sherman?  I can doctor the model a bit, but if it is too big it is a non-starter for me.  So what do you think about mixing 1:43 with 1:48?

thanks!!

I don't own the Eaglemoss WC63, but I've seen one in person and it was tough not to snicker when I did see one due to how high the top and ring mount is.

Most people have never seen a Weapons Carrier in period and the WC 63 is rare even for one of those as most of them had only 4 wheels, not the 6 that the 63 had.

Many people have also never seen a Sherman in person and I've seen plenty of people see WW2 tanks in person for the first time (I've even crewed a Sherman as a driver on two occasions) and they either think it's way bigger or much smaller than they imagined.

So to answer your question, to ME, it would probably look a tiny bit odd, just like my Solido 1/50 scale GMC 2 1/2 trucks don't look right next to anything 1/43, but to plenty of other people, it might not look off at all as they would lack the context that I would look at them in. If you were a 'rivet counter', I'd say don't do it, but if you're just a little bit looser with your concept and scales (and especially if you run 3-rail), it'd probably be okay.

Victoria makes a nice 4-wheel weapons carrier and command car in 1/43, which is a shorter vehicle and therefore might not be as 'off' between the two.

Hongwell also make a decent 1/43 GPW/MB Jeep that would look just fine with a 1/48 scale tank for the most part.

But all that said, I would probably make a point to have whatever in 1/43 up front if in a static position on the layout, and the 1/48 whatever behind it.

Eaglemoss does make tanks, by the way. I'm not 100% sure but I thought I saw them offering a Stuart light tank. I could be wrong about that, though. I know they make several Axis-nation tanks in 1/43 scale...