whdamon
Corporal
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2009
- Messages
- 442
I got the bug about a year ago to hunt down and construct some of the 1/32nd scale, metal, Phoenix By Gone age carriages produced about 45 years ago.
This came about after poking around in my Gray army I discovered a number of Phoenix figures from the same time period that needed to come out of the darkness and be on display in my collection. These figures and carriages are nothing less than pieces of jewelry.
My first piece was to be the Hansom cab. I searched and lost a number of auctions on eBay (the last loss was over my bid of $150), but later had a lucky break
and found one in an obscure category (Hansom Cab) just loaded with photos, post cards and bracelet charms and sure enough the Phoenix Cab for $25. Moral of the story:
Don't limit your search on eBay to categories that are most likely to carry the piece you are looking for. Open the search to ALL categories. (this worked out even better for the rare Phoenix mail coach which I will explain in a later post)
So starting out, here is the Hansom cab after construction (unfortunately I did not photograph the construction process)
The carriage went together rather easily with the pieces (at least 30) fit well with the minimum of clean up.
After painting to include the interior, I decided to find a suitable driver as I did not have the fellow originally designed
for the cab. More important was to fit a passenger inside the cab, with the front doors CLOSED. Phoenix did not design
or offer a passenger, so this was going to have to be a modified figure, especially if I stayed within the phoenix figure line.
In addition I experimented with various Horses ( A couple from John Jenkins just proved to be visually a little too big at 1/30th scale)
I found after much digging in the gray army endless pit, one of the Phoenix horses designed for this carriage. Whew, dodged another custom
build or modification bullet)
So the search was on for suitable candidates to modify and meet my expectations of enhancing
the Cab with an array of figure based eye candy. Photo below are the Phoenix chosen few to lose or exchange heads, legs
etc and come back to life in a different painted form.
Visual of the first pass of cab driver (translation: Eventually He didn't work out, but ended up filling an even greater need elsewhere)
Stay tuned, following posts will go through the modification of these figures and utilization in non Phoenix carriages and wagons.
Photo also shows the in process original carriage horse designed and produced by Phoenix for the By Gone Age line
This came about after poking around in my Gray army I discovered a number of Phoenix figures from the same time period that needed to come out of the darkness and be on display in my collection. These figures and carriages are nothing less than pieces of jewelry.
My first piece was to be the Hansom cab. I searched and lost a number of auctions on eBay (the last loss was over my bid of $150), but later had a lucky break
and found one in an obscure category (Hansom Cab) just loaded with photos, post cards and bracelet charms and sure enough the Phoenix Cab for $25. Moral of the story:
Don't limit your search on eBay to categories that are most likely to carry the piece you are looking for. Open the search to ALL categories. (this worked out even better for the rare Phoenix mail coach which I will explain in a later post)
So starting out, here is the Hansom cab after construction (unfortunately I did not photograph the construction process)
The carriage went together rather easily with the pieces (at least 30) fit well with the minimum of clean up.
After painting to include the interior, I decided to find a suitable driver as I did not have the fellow originally designed
for the cab. More important was to fit a passenger inside the cab, with the front doors CLOSED. Phoenix did not design
or offer a passenger, so this was going to have to be a modified figure, especially if I stayed within the phoenix figure line.
In addition I experimented with various Horses ( A couple from John Jenkins just proved to be visually a little too big at 1/30th scale)
I found after much digging in the gray army endless pit, one of the Phoenix horses designed for this carriage. Whew, dodged another custom
build or modification bullet)
So the search was on for suitable candidates to modify and meet my expectations of enhancing
the Cab with an array of figure based eye candy. Photo below are the Phoenix chosen few to lose or exchange heads, legs
etc and come back to life in a different painted form.
Visual of the first pass of cab driver (translation: Eventually He didn't work out, but ended up filling an even greater need elsewhere)
Stay tuned, following posts will go through the modification of these figures and utilization in non Phoenix carriages and wagons.
Photo also shows the in process original carriage horse designed and produced by Phoenix for the By Gone Age line
