"Vehicles for your expedition" Topic

I recently took advantage of a sale to buy a couple 1920s expedition vehicles by RAFM. My goal: To recreate the Central Asiatic Expeditions of that decade, famous for its discovery of dinosaur fossils and eggs. Unfortunately, the vehicles themselves are 25mm scale, so they look small next to my 28mm Copplestone figures, but I can live it given I bought both for under $20. USD

This is what I seek to recreate (from a 1925 brochure Dodge used to sell its vehicles):

If you want to know more about the vehicles used in the expedition, here is the blog post that came from (with more pictures): link

I will probably use twine and string for rope. Any ideas about where I could get baggage to put on the vehicles? I thought about trying to scratch build some but not sure where to start.

As far as the rest, Copplestone has me covered, with a paleontologist figure, camels with baggage, several Mongols.

You could look at things like the Bolt Action German Cargo Accessory Pack:

link

There's also a lot of stowage and useful bits in the Tamiya 1:48 scale Jerry Can Set:

link

In all honesty, if you made them by hand, just rolling tissue and tying it with thread, then soaking it in glue and pressing it to conform, you'd end up with a rustic and custom fit look that would probably look pretty natty.

I loved the book "Dragon hunter" about those expeditions. I put together something similar a while back.

I used some (diecast) Crossley trucks by Models of Yesteryear for my vehicles. They seemed to match up well to Copplestone's figures.

Here's a pic of a couple of my Crossleys next to some Copplestone figures for comparison:

I second the Matchbox "Models of Yesteryear" Crossleys, but I think that they're long out of production. I have three of them. Two painted in OD green. BTW, nice paint jobs Evilcartoonist.

Funny coincidence that I was watching the Real Indiana Jones on youtube last night showing those exact vehicles.

I have three of those Crossleys as well in my BOB collection. The Renaults seem to share a very similar chassis which I used for my Armoured Cars.

Even though the Matchbox Crossleys are OOP, you can find them all the time on eBay and at reasonable prices. I have a number of them for my BoB and VBCW forces.

As for baggage bundles, thosmoss has a good suggestion. You can also use old cloth either rolled up or folded up, tied, and covered in glue. While still wet, mold the bundles into the shape(s) you want them on the vehicles.

Also, John McEwan's Reviresco S-Guage (1:64) line [ tin-soldier.com/sgauge.html ] has additional vehicles that will fit nicely with the 28mm size figures.

Jim

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Thosmoss: You had me smacking my head, because I realized I had purchased that jerry can set two or three years back and never did anything with it. I dug it out and now will be using it.

Also, I found a matchbox crossly on ebay for $8 USD, so I'm happy. Now I have two cars and a truck.