Lindberg 1/16 Concord Stage Coach No. 70351
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Introduction
Now here’s a kit to bring you back to the thrilling days of old.
No, not the old West but of evenings watching Western TV shows. Bonanza,
Maverick, Have Gun will Travel and dozens more. When bad guys wore six
shooters and school teacher and banker rode into town on the Stage. It’s
all here, complete with four horses, six figures and all in action posses.
And it’s big! The kit in one sixteenth scale, when it’s completed
it measures, two and a half feet long. The box it comes in is 23 ½
inches wide by 17 inches long and 4 inches high.
This is the kind of kit that a kid back in those old black and white
TV days would have been delighted to see under the Christmas tree. In
fact, this actually is a re-release of a kit dating back to the time frame
of many of our youths (and before, for some). Personally I have no recollection
of this kit from my childhood but seeing it’s recent release caught
my modeling fancy. The Lindberg Company that dates back to the early 1950s
has recently been revived by the new ownership of J. Lloyd International
who is releasing many of their vintage kits. They also brought back the
long gone Hawk brand and are pursuing a similar marketing path with it.
This kit is a limited release of 2500 kits (mine is number 2282)
The Kit
Other than the horses, the parts come in eight taped plastic bags, one
holding the figures and seven others. The second holds the individual
wheels and a small sprue of the four wheel hubs, these are molded in yellow.
The other bags contents are also grouped by colors. A red sprue is mostly
suspension and harness pieces. There are two bags of black sprues that
including the major parts of the carriage, luggage and the interior seats.
The luggage will end up mounted on the roof. The coach body is molded
in dark brown. A complete interior is included and the Stage itself is
nicely detailed.
The thick treelike sprues show the age of the molds. However, there
is very little flash to clean up, but there are the usual mold lines,
injection marks, some fairly large and deep that will need to be cleaned
up. Fortunately most appear to end up in inconspicuous places. The point
of detachment from the sprues will need some cleaning up due to their
thickness. On my kit, the front of the stage (part 102) suffers from a
rash that will have to be sanded away. Even there I’m not sure how
much will be visible on the finished model. Also included is black strapping
material, chains and metal links for the reins of the horses.
Figures
The figures are a driver (teamster), his partner riding shotgun, complete
with shotgun of course. Then there are three passengers, the first a nattily
dressed gentleman with top hat and walking stick Secondly what appears
to be a U.S. Army Officer in uniform with wide brimmed hat and sidearm.
The third passenger is a lady in a long dress with a bonnet. Lastly a
masked gunmen figure who I guess is included to stage a ‘holdup’.
The figures are all one piece (except the shotgun) they are in gray plastic
and will need some mold line cleanup but otherwise are nicely detailed.
The passenger figures look small compared to the drivers and gunmen.
Horses
Making up about two third the length of the completed model are the
four horses. These come packed loose in the box, the halves of each held
together by a rubber band. Even without the band it’s easy to tell
which halves are meant to go together since each horse is molded in a
different color. Unfortunately the one weak point of the kit is that you
really get two different horses and a copy of each, not four different
horses. If one is ambitious, and knows a little about horse anatomy they
probably could be modified. There are a lot of seam lines on the underbelly
of the horses that will need cleaning up.
The horses’ stance is as if the driver is pulling on the reins,
stopping them. Perhaps this is due to the threatening gunman.
Instructions and Decals
The instructions consists of a nine page booklet. It has a lot of descriptive
text and fairly good sketches. I particularly like the overhead drawing
showing how the reins go. Decals are for the gold scroll work on the outside
and doors of the coach. The small sheet looks well printed and in register.
Conclusion.
Well, it’s different! Should be interesting to see where one of
these gets placed as a contest entry. Like many kits, and figure kits
in particular, it will be the painting that will make or break a build
of this one. After all, there are ten figures to deal with. It will be
interesting to see how the wagon goes together and then it’s not
very often one ‘rigs’ four horses. I’m looking forward
to building mine. The directions recommend building on a good sturdy base
and that I certainly intend to do.
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