Road vehicles and ships.

[Taigatrommel]

I've been modelling in 1:120 for over a decade, and I found myself wondering what I could usefully offer in terms of knowledge to those whose interest has been piqued by Peco & Heljan's announcements in the scale.  Instead, I find myself coming round to what I've found most challenging ... obtaining non rail vehicles.

 

As you might imagine, there's a fair selection of East German and Czechoslovakian prototypes.  Generally a Tillig start set will have a Wartburg 353 included.  It's actually not a bad model, and with a little paintbrush work looks OK.  Anyway, getting right to it, here's a selection of what I've been able to get so far that might be of interest for those modelling British...

 

 

Front row, left to right:

 

VW Beetle.  Distributed by Tillig, the maker's mark on the bottom says Weiland.

Lada estate.  Utterly awful model made by Schirmer.  You'll get a pack of five for less than €5, and still somehow feel cheated.

VW Golf Mk1.  Busch.  Pretty nice, very good decoration.
Generic 1990s estate car from Auhagen.  It's got elements of Golf, Astra and Octavia, and a grille that matches nothing.  Very much a background item, but still somehow preferable to Schirmer's Lada...

Skoda Fabia, an unfortunately discontinued model from VV Model.  A good 'un.

VW Golf Mk4.  ADP.  Looks pretty crappy out of the box, improved with paintbrush work.  Massively overpriced at €20ish.
VW Passat B5.  Also ADP.  Has a slightly squashed look, and also benefits from paintbrush work.  Also very expensive for something not that great.

Back row.
MAN lorry.  From Schirmer, much better than their Lada but a bit plasticy looking.  Available as rigid chassis and artic.

Simson S50.  By Kres.  Pretty nice, but €30 for two motorbikes!
VW Transporter T4.  From Roco, sometimes branded as Minitanks.  Decent, up there with the Busch stuff.  This is missing rear wheels as I'm mid-conversion to a rolling model to use with Magnorail.

 

Going to shows on the continent one sometimes sees other items.  Of this lot I've only shown the ADP as I've found them on eBay, but very few shops carry them.  Further to this, I think there are a couple of Matchbox buses that are close to 1:120.  Our real saviour is RailNScale, who 3d print a nice selection of cars for the 1960s to 1980s.  They're available from Modellbahn Union.  I also found a front loader from Tomy that was 1:110.  The VV Model range is worth examining.  At present, the web store with the largest range of TT road vehicles is probably Mein-MBS.  https://ttmodelar.eu is worth a look too.

 

Like an idiot I decided to model a dock scene.  Wow, finding boats was hard...

 

 

Liuetenant GILLET is a Del Prado model from a french magazine series, and ebay find.  Actually 1:130.  I plan to convert this to a tug.

 

 

Also 1:130 is Shell Welder, an old Frog Models kit now reissued under various Eastern European brand.  There is an etched detailing kit available.  I've got this far with it and decided that I'll convert it to a freelance bulker of about 500 tons.  It's not an amazing kit.

 

I realise that there's much more out there, but finding it isn't always easy.

[britishcolumbian]

Herpa have done very nice (same quality as their HO products) automobiles and HGVs (actually I think the one Gaugemaster is announcing is a Herpa tooling)... of course the Herpa cars are East block, Volga, Moskvich, Skoda 100...

 

There are also some military lorries that are made - "Soviet" types that are actually copies of American army types.

 

And for US road vehicles, Kolya Lyashenko in Ukraine makes a wide array of cars and lorries from the 1910s through to the 1980s... last I heard he's doing his best to keep things going still. http://railtt.ucoz.ua/news/1-0-1

 

Also, I know of a few other ship kits that I'll need to dig around to rediscover, and there are some 1:120 aircraft kits as well... again, things I used to know about but need to rediscover, when I do I'll post them here.

Edited June 16, 2022 by britishcolumbian

[Taigatrommel]

I totally forgot to mention Herpa's lorries!  Scania, DAF and M-B from memory.  Good value too.

My favourite TT road vehicle is Herpa's Barkas B1000, it's very nice indeed.  Unfortunately it's of little interest to the British market.

[dseagull]

Might have been picked up elsewhere, but the Scalescenes range of ships and buildings  https://scalescenes.com/dockscenes/ - can be printed: TT scale (1:120) - reduce Scalescenes OO to 63% as per https://scalescenes.com/not-modelling-in-n-or-oo/

[MartinRS]

1 hour ago, britishcolumbian said:

Herpa have done very nice (same quality as their HO products) automobiles and HGWs (actually I think the one Gaugemaster is announcing is a Herpa tooling)... of course the Herpa cars are East block, Volga, Moskvich, Skoda 100...

 

There are also some military lorries that are made - "Soviet" types that are actually copies of American army types.

 

And for US road vehicles, Kolya Lyashenko in Ukraine makes a wide array of cars and lorries from the 1910s through to the 1980s... last I heard he's doing his best to keep things going still. http://railtt.ucoz.ua/news/1-0-1

 

Also, I know of a few other ship kits that I'll need to dig around to rediscover, and there are some 1:120 aircraft kits as well... again, things I used to know about but need to rediscover, when I do I'll post them here.

I just found this 1:130 card model aircraft.

https://zrppapercrafter.blogspot.com/2013/02/bombardier-crj-1000-nextgen-garuda.html

There are also some links to 1:20 buildings of mixed quality here.

https://papermau.blogspot.com/search/label/1%2F120 scale

[britishcolumbian]

2 hours ago, Taigatrommel said:

My favourite TT road vehicle is Herpa's Barkas B1000, it's very nice indeed.  Unfortunately it's of little interest to the British market.

Mine has to be the Skoda 100 in yellow, my grandparents in Hungary had one exactly like it when I stayed with them as a child 1979-80. So naturally I've got one of them for my collection.

 

I don't know if the Skoda 100 was ever sold in the UK, but I do recall that the Wartburg 353 were sold for a brief time there, as well as the Lada 1500... so you could probably get away with one on a British themed layout... Lada 1500 and Lada Niva (along with Skoda 105/120/125) could even be used on a Canadian layout set in the early 1980s.

 

But I think it'll be a while till we see definitive British road vehicles, Bedford lorries, Rover P6, Marina, Viva, Velox... (these last four I'd love since they were also sold in Canada... my dad had a Rover 2000TC back in the day, I loved that car, great uncle had a Viva)... but one can hope.

[dseagull]

10 minutes ago, britishcolumbian said:

Mine has to be the Skoda 100 in yellow, my grandparents in Hungary had one exactly like it when I stayed with them as a child 1979-80. So naturally I've got one of them for my collection.

 

I don't know if the Skoda 100 was ever sold in the UK, but I do recall that the Wartburg 353 were sold for a brief time there, as well as the Lada 1500... so you could probably get away with one on a British themed layout... Lada 1500 and Lada Niva (along with Skoda 105/120/125) could even be used on a Canadian layout set in the early 1980s.

 

But I think it'll be a while till we see definitive British road vehicles, Bedford lorries, Rover P6, Marina, Viva, Velox... (these last four I'd love since they were also sold in Canada... my dad had a Rover 2000TC back in the day, I loved that car, great uncle had a Viva)... but one can hope.

 

British plates and an AA sticker in the window.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Škoda_100 - I'd say so!

[britishcolumbian]

Never thought to look at the Wikipedia article on it!

[Hobby]

There's a lot more cars available than those listed, the problem is that they are often from smaller manufacturers and so not listed on the websites, I found that I was picking them up when over in the Czech Republic but could never find them listed elsewhere!

 

The only problem is that they are all left hand drive, OK for over the channel but would look strange on a UK based layout... But that's only if there are people looking closely enough to notice.

[Hobby]

Should have added this link:

 

https://www.svetvlacku.cz/tt-auticka

[andythenorth]

Plenty here, expensive painted, more affordable unpainted.

 

https://www.panzer-shop.net/c-5651759/1-120-tt-gauge/

 

Includes military and civilian, with quite a good spread of Land Rovers.

[Vanguard 5374]

The Matchbox Leyland Titan is 1/124 but is a good model:

 

 
I’m also going to get a Daimler Fleetline from the Matchbox range as it is a 1/120 model.

[rodshaw]

There's also the Revell harbour tug boat which may be near enough for some:

 

[andythenorth]

Also in the 'near enough' angle, 15mm wargaming scale is somewhere between 1:100 and 1:120.

 

Mostly soldiers and tanks, but eh. 😉

[Moria15]

Theres also this if you want a proper sailing ship on your layout by Airfix which is 1:120

 

HMS Endeavour but also suitable as a trading ship.

 

By other manufacturers there is also a Cutty Sark, and some smaller ships as well.  1:120 is a popular shipbuilding scale.

 

 

Number of wooden kits as well from all periods.

 

Graham

 

 

[eldomtom2]

41 minutes ago, andythenorth said:

Also in the 'near enough' angle, 15mm wargaming scale is somewhere between 1:100 and 1:120.

 

Mostly soldiers and tanks, but eh. 😉

There's a lot of civillian 15mm scenery though - a lot of it of course inappropriate for a British railway but a lot of the stuff aimed at WW1/WW2 wargamers could come in handy.

[andythenorth]

Model One 1/120 buses https://www.ttcdiecast.com/model-one-750-c.asp

 

Mostly Hong Kong / China I think.

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

16 hours ago, andythenorth said:

Model One 1/120 buses https://www.ttcdiecast.com/model-one-750-c.asp

 

Mostly Hong Kong / China I think.

 

That’s a really useful link for those of us based in the UK as the company address is in Derby.  Thanks, Keith.

[andythenorth]

3 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

That’s a really useful link for those of us based in the UK as the company address is in Derby.  Thanks, Keith.

 

If it helps, TTC Diecast are a good shop, I've bought a fair amount from them.

[Taigatrommel]

A couple of ships from Revell I forgot to mention:

 

Harbour tug (1:108):  https://www.revell.de/en/products/modelmaking/ships/civil-vessel/harbour-tug.html

Ocean Exploration Vessel (1:125, actually Jaques Cousteau's "Calypso"):  https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-05101-ocean-exploration-vessel--102359

[eldomtom2]

And of course prior to its use as a research vessel the Calypso was a minesweeper and then a ferry, so there's potential for kitbashing.

[britishcolumbian]

Revell did a DC-9-10 in 1:120 that's been put out numerous times over the years so shouldn't be too hard to find. In either 1:121 or 1:122 Kader did a Vickers Viscount, and one or the other of those scales has a DC-7... these are pretty big aircraft, though, but a Tiger Moth or Dragon Rapide or up to a Dove would be a more manageable size in 1:120. Helicopters would be even better...

[andythenorth]

1:120 Sany Tower crane.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193525756034

 

60cm tall at TT:120 size.

 

This would be pretty much the entire scenic interest 😛

 

Do a bridge installation diorama 🙂

 

£300 or shipped.

[natterjack]

Maybe you have room for a Superfortress?

 

https://www.jumbliesmodels.com/plastic-kits-c3/aviation-kits-c4/1-120-boeing-b-29-superfortress-aircraft-model-kit-p19570

 

But seriously, looking around for older 'box scale' kits produces quite a few in the 1/120 region, and  Lindberg had at least two 1/125 scale ships including the more usefully sized USS Hazard 'minesweeper' that would readily convert for a variety of utility vessels as would the Heller (80609) Thonier Armor tuna clipper.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

On 20/06/2022 at 12:01, rodshaw said:

There's also the Revell harbour tug boat which may be near enough for some:

 

 

21 hours ago, Taigatrommel said:

A couple of ships from Revell I forgot to mention:

 

Harbour tug (1:108):  https://www.revell.de/en/products/modelmaking/ships/civil-vessel/harbour-tug.html
 

 

 

I’m no painter, so didn’t try. Made about eight years ago, I would now paint the components before assembly.  Detail includes moulded ropes on the aft and fore decks and three figures.  From what I remember, it was a well made kit that went together easily.  Approx. 225mm long, 75mm wide, 90mm tall (base of hull to top of chimney) plus 50mm for tall mast / radio aerial.  Keith.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke
Dimensions added