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Bachmann Warflats


Peter Bedding
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Hi all,

Bachmann are currently listing this warflat wagon Suitable for era's 3, 4 & 5.

I am planning to use these for my layout's time period mid 1980's to mid 1990's with the Oxford diecast military Land Rover Defenders. I am also thinking of using the Bofors gun. Both these items have been manufactured in khaki & 'desert sand 'so a realistic rake complete with a Bachmann VGA at the rear could be made.

However, it would be nice to have a ready made Scorpion or Warrior tank for the potentially forth coming well wagon.

Maybe Bachmann will commission a manufacturer to provide this as well.....

Any ideas out there?

 

Not sure why you'd need a ready made one?

post-25673-0-97926800-1480453732.jpg

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Hi all,

Bachmann are currently listing this warflat wagon Suitable for era's 3, 4 & 5.

I am planning to use these for my layout's time period mid 1980's to mid 1990's with the Oxford diecast military Land Rover Defenders. I am also thinking of using the Bofors gun. Both these items have been manufactured in khaki & 'desert sand 'so a realistic rake complete with a Bachmann VGA at the rear could be made.

However, it would be nice to have a ready made Scorpion or Warrior tank for the potentially forth coming well wagon.

Maybe Bachmann will commission a manufacturer to provide this as well.....

Any ideas out there?

 

I noticed a 1/72 scale ready made Warrior in my local shop last week, had come from surplus partwork models, however it seems to be available from a company called Easy Model, several for sale on e-bay, if you can accept it is slightly out of scale

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HI All,

Whilst at Warley I visited the Bachmann stand & they had some examples of an unpainted warflat on display. With a 'fair wind', it is planed to release these in 2017. I mentioned about a more 'modern' load such as a warrior or scorpian - I don't have the skills, patience or time to make up & paint half a dozen of the available kits, & was advised 'no plans at the moment'. So the Oxford diecast Landrover Defenders will be my choice of load once these wagons become available.

However, this got me thinking, so I visited Oxford Diecast who were also exhibiting & asked about any future plans for modern military tanked vehicles. I was advised that obtaining plans of these types of vehicles are (obviously) difficult. However, there were some 'opportunities' that were being reviewed so I guess watch this space.....

Mind you, they would look good in the recently announced Hatton's Warwell so maybe some 'interest' registered here may spurn on said manufacturer.

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Note that the Bachmann version has limited use for modern vehicles as they were mostly the later style ones in use in the UK in the 90's. I'm not 100% certain when the 'fishbelly' ones stopped being used on the mainline here but I get the impression from other articles they were internal MOD use only in the 90's. You certainly won't see a warrior on one as they are too tall, warriors have to go on a warwell with a cradle to keep the turret within gauge and the run as an out of gauge load in many places as it's very tight.

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Note that the Bachmann version has limited use for modern vehicles as they were mostly the later style ones in use in the UK in the 90's. I'm not 100% certain when the 'fishbelly' ones stopped being used on the mainline here but I get the impression from other articles they were internal MOD use only in the 90's. You certainly won't see a warrior on one as they are too tall, warriors have to go on a warwell with a cradle to keep the turret within gauge and the run as an out of gauge load in many places as it's very tight.

The original design had gone over to WD internal use by the early 1980s. The last I remember seeing in mainline service was at Thirsk in 1982; I think traffic for Catterick was being handled there at the time, Redmire still being a stone loading point. The last of the BR revenue fleet would have gone at about the same time, though examples remained in Departmental service for a bit longer- the CMEE SR had some for transporting bogies, as did BREL. There were 81 wagons that were returned from BAOR in the late 1990s via the Channel Tunnel- these were out-of-gauge in the UK, and were taken by road to various locations.

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  • 1 month later...

Has anyone else noticed that the Warflats are now £42.36 each, I think Bman are taking the preverbial pxxx, its a flat truck with a tank on it not a coach with sides and a roof with super detail !

Not impressed.....

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Has anyone else noticed that the Warflats are now £42.36 each, I think Bman are taking the preverbial pxxx, its a flat truck with a tank on it not a coach with sides and a roof with super detail !

Not impressed.....

Well if the tank model is decent the equivalent models are £15-£18 http://www.tankzone.co.uk/cart/dc_hobbymaster72_1.htm
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Has anyone else noticed that the Warflats are now £42.36 each, I think Bman are taking the preverbial pxxx, its a flat truck with a tank on it not a coach with sides and a roof with super detail !

Not impressed.....

Have you seen one, or a sample? Do you know the level of detail on it or the complexity involved in the underframe, tank and mounting system?

 

You seem to suggest that just because the wagon has a flat base for the tank to sit on, there will be very little detail involved. The pictures that have been shown, including on this forum, seem to show, at least to me, lots of attention to detail.

 

 

Let's not forget the cost has to include everything, not just 'super detail', but research, design, packaging, production, manufacturing, marketing, shipping, retailer margins etc etc.

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Has anyone else noticed that the Warflats are now £42.36 each, I think Bman are taking the preverbial pxxx, its a flat truck with a tank on it not a coach with sides and a roof with super detail !

Not impressed.....

I think we'd all be fairly delighted if Bachmann were intending to release newly-tooled coaches at that sort of figure! What's been happening to their prices is well known and even simple open wagons now have RRPs up around the £15 mark with complex 4-wheelers heading for double that.. 

 

We will buy or not buy, having balanced the strength of our want for any particular model against our reluctance/ability to pay. Bachmann in turn will accept our collective verdict and adjust their product planning accordingly. That will lead to judgements that some subjects aren't worth their while but such decisions have always been necessary. The present situation merely shifts the goalposts.

 

I only have a requirement for one Warflat (without tank) so am not too bothered. If you want a loaded rake of ten or a dozen, it's gonna cost but long trains always do - work out what the eight Mk3s required to complete Hornby's £250+ GW HST power car pack or an appropriate number of Stanier coaches to go behind the new Duchess will add up to. 

 

John

Edited by Dunsignalling
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Has anyone else noticed that the Warflats are now £42.36 each, I think Bman are taking the preverbial pxxx, its a flat truck with a tank on it not a coach with sides and a roof with super detail !

Not impressed.....

A USATC  bogie tank wagon has just been introduced in H0 at around £61 so it looks as though the Bachmann UK model is some thing of a bargain.

Welcome to 2017. Things can only get worse.

Bernard

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A USATC  bogie tank wagon has just been introduced in H0 at around £61 so it looks as though the Bachmann UK model is some thing of a bargain.

Welcome to 2017. Things can only get worse.

Bernard

 

Indeed but how long before they run out of punters ? that are listing the the LNER steels opens for nearly £19 each. Nice model I bought mine from the first release from Modelzone for £6 in a sale each. 

Sale means items the shop cant sell at r.t.r what chance of these selling at that price. 

 

Hard times coming for r.t.r, if it hasn't arrived already, quite sad. It will all end up limited productions (if at all) and sky high prices which will make it even worse especially for anyone new to the hobby.

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Although the price of these looks a bit steep, there's been a lot of research and development gone into these.However,I had planned on having a rake but now maybe two or three maximum might have to do.As a customer we choose with our walllets.If they are priced right they will sell, if not Bachmann might be put off doing something different for the rtr market again.These are very nicely detailed so maybe we get what we pay for.

 

post-126-0-67834000-1484473837.jpg

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Indeed but how long before they run out of punters ? that are listing the the LNER steels opens for nearly £19 each. Nice model I bought mine from the first release from Modelzone for £6 in a sale each. 

Sale means items the shop cant sell at r.t.r what chance of these selling at that price. 

 

Hard times coming for r.t.r, if it hasn't arrived already, quite sad. It will all end up limited productions (if at all) and sky high prices which will make it even worse especially for anyone new to the hobby.

Times may be getting tighter for lots of us, but the contents of quite a few threads on here suggest there is plenty of cash sloshing around in "the hobby" overall.

 

TBH I already have more models (especially wagons) than I'll ever get much use out of and I'm beginning to think that my greatly increased selectivity of late isn't wholly the result of rising prices. 

 

John

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Although the price of these looks a bit steep, there's been a lot of research and development gone into these.However,I had planned on having a rake but now maybe two or three maximum might have to do.As a customer we choose with our walllets.If they are priced right they will sell, if not Bachmann might be put off doing something different for the rtr market again.These are very nicely detailed so maybe we get what we pay for.

 

attachicon.gif38-725_1529970_Qty1_cat2.jpg

Based on one of the earlier links showing the formation for a 1940's GWR powered military train, 3 sounds a perfect number.  The formation consisted of a 2800, full break, non corridor third, ramp wagon, 3 war flats, ramp wagon, and finally another full brake.

 

The only thing I am struggling to work out is what such a train would be doing heading through Brent after the end of the war.  Other than being moved to Plymouth to be loaded on a ship, I cant think of any tank training areas in south / west Devon or Cornwall....

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Based on one of the earlier links showing the formation for a 1940's GWR powered military train, 3 sounds a perfect number.  The formation consisted of a 2800, full break, non corridor third, ramp wagon, 3 war flats, ramp wagon, and finally another full brake.

 

The only thing I am struggling to work out is what such a train would be doing heading through Brent after the end of the war.  Other than being moved to Plymouth to be loaded on a ship, I cant think of any tank training areas in south / west Devon or Cornwall....

Don't 42 Commando use AFVs?

 

http://www.eliteukforces.info/gallery/vehicles/viking-royal-marines.php

 

Phil

 

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There goes my hopes of having a large rake of them, I wonder if they will have the tank covered like they did with the N gauge WW1 set. I may opt for trying out the DOGA kit version, always wanted to try and build a metal kit  :)

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I wonder who the first will be to do conversion kits for one of these:-

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/warflatcoile/h1cd1dce9#h1cd1dce9

or these:-

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/warflatcoilg/h3f43ce73#h3f43ce73

Then there's this, which wouldn't even need converting:-

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brwarflatwc/h22ed117a#h22ed117a

Other non-military uses for the Warflat included carrying ingot moulds from BSC Landore to steelworks throughout the UK, or as spacer wagons on trains carrying concrete bridge beams.

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Absolutely Brian!

 

Coil E and Coil G have to be a natural progression don't they?

What would need to be done to the model? Remove jacks and side chains and then a bit of plasticard fabrication - you could hide a multitude of sins under those tarp covers....

 

Phil

 

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I wonder who the first will be to do conversion kits for one of these:-

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/warflatcoile/h1cd1dce9#h1cd1dce9

or these:-

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/warflatcoilg/h3f43ce73#h3f43ce73

Then there's this, which wouldn't even need converting:-

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brwarflatwc/h22ed117a#h22ed117a

Other non-military uses for the Warflat included carrying ingot moulds from BSC Landore to steelworks throughout the UK, or as spacer wagons on trains carrying concrete bridge beams.

The Big problem I foresee with converting these to some of the postwar conversions is how to remove the timber floor?

 

Will there ever be a Warflat "B" produced?

 

Mark Saunders

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The Big problem I foresee with converting these to some of the postwar conversions is how to remove the timber floor?

 

Will there ever be a Warflat "B" produced?

 

Mark Saunders

I fear you're right, Mark; I just took a look at PB's photos, and realised the Coil conversions didn't have floors, except at the ends. Mightn't be too visible with a hood on, though.

What do you mean by a 'Warflat B'? The one on six-wheel bogies?

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