Small Scale Military Headquarters

Well, I've been planning on building a large dio for some time. Been giving thought at the idea of building the castle at Clervaux in 1/18. Well, building any portion that will fit in the diorama. lol I would love to have a car parked off the road in the diorama. What kind of cars would we see at that time? Civilian of course. Would I be able to find it in 1/18? My diorama will take place in the battle of the bulge. (I've got two that I'm deciding on, Castle at Clervaux or a snowed in village dio).

I think most cars remaining would pre-date the time period by decades - going back to the '20's or earlier. More recent cars would have been driven out, stripped, confiscated, etc. There should be models available, but I'm not a die cast collector so don't know what's out there. Maybe also check for plastic kits, or cars made for large-scale railroading?

Old thread with some civilian cars listed and a pic of a Citroen. http://www.warbird-photos.com/gpxd/viewtopic.php?t=5044
I've seen some recent releases of 30's German civilian cars since though, but the Citroen you still see in a lot of movies.

Found this! I literally said DAMN!

http://www.diecast.org/diecast98/html/a ... iewpix.htm

bugatti's were very expensive cars....not likely something you'd see in a village setting anymore than you'd see a rolls royce.

there isn't much in 1/18 30's era cars, i looked once. There was a german car or two but they were expensive type cars, not average everyday cars. The citroen is your best bet but it is a 50's model and the front end is different.

btw there are 2 different 1/18 citroens available...the 2cv and 15cv. The 2cv is probably the better bet as it was an economy car and small and gutless and less likely to have been comandeered by the germans.

Here are some cars that may be used as they fit the period :

http://cgi.ebay.fr/RENAULT-JUVAQUATTRE- ... 35b8b6d426

http://cgi.ebay.fr/SOLIDO-1-18-RENAULT- ... 3cc04764d4

Those two are the 1954 model but it was just the exact copy of the one made before WWII.

There is also the Citroen 11cv. Not the 15cv as this one is an after war production. Here is a nice taxi version based on the 11cv.

http://cgi.ebay.fr/CITROEN-TRACTION-11C ... 35b8e24bf1

You can use this 11cv cabriolet version too :

http://cgi.ebay.fr/citroen-traction-typ ... 4ab38a44e0

Here is also a nice utility from Citroen :

http://cgi.ebay.fr/CITROEN-C4-fourgon-t ... 35b919b122

http://cgi.ebay.fr/CITROEN-C4-Plateau-P ... 256bf20a10

I hope this can help you.

phil

Phil, that was a BIG help! I love that last one!!! I have to find it here in the US now!!!!

Sunstar make a 1939 Horch 855 roadster that is well priced and detailed like models priced 2x-3x more:
http://www.diecastxchange.com/forum1/to ... msearch__1

Also, you can got to scale18.com and search "the huge list" by year to see what models are made each year.

exether_mega wrote:Here are some cars that may be used as they fit the period :

http://cgi.ebay.fr/RENAULT-JUVAQUATTRE- ... 35b8b6d426

http://cgi.ebay.fr/SOLIDO-1-18-RENAULT- ... 3cc04764d4

Those two are the 1954 model but it was just the exact copy of the one made before WWII.

There is also the Citroen 11cv. Not the 15cv as this one is an after war production. Here is a nice taxi version based on the 11cv.

http://cgi.ebay.fr/CITROEN-TRACTION-11C ... 35b8e24bf1

You can use this 11cv cabriolet version too :

http://cgi.ebay.fr/citroen-traction-typ ... 4ab38a44e0

Here is also a nice utility from Citroen :

http://cgi.ebay.fr/CITROEN-C4-fourgon-t ... 35b919b122

http://cgi.ebay.fr/CITROEN-C4-Plateau-P ... 256bf20a10

I hope this can help you.

phil

Great to see you posting again Phil!

And that was a big help.

Well done.

Second that! We miss having you around! Glad to see you posting on the forum and thanks a lot for taking the time to help me!

Here are some shots of the 37 Ford Eifel during wartime. Very easy to find in 1:18 .

You're welcome Flyboy
I am always happy to help and more than happy to be back

Just in case, here is a little historical background about civilian vehicle during WWII in Nazi occupied countries...
Almost all fuel ressource (gasoline, fuel) was confiscated by nazi administration. A small part was left for fire services, ambulance and police and for some special professions like doctors and officials. This mean very few was left for basic civilian. The main reason was simply to make any displacement harder for any resistance group or sabotage team.
Each one allowed to have fuel had a stamps carnet each month and you had to give those stamps to have the fuel allowed to you (it was the same for food and so on).
As war goes on, fuel was harder and harder to have so appeared the famous gazogène system (gaz generator). Here are some pics :

















I hope it will help you for your civilian vehicle and maybe give you some ideas.

phil

trigger1 wrote:Here are some shots of the 37 Ford Eifel during wartime. Very easy to find in 1:18 .

Hey those Germans are pushing that Ford. So they had experience with "F-ix O-r R-epair D-aily" "F-ound O-n R-oad D-ead" too

Maybe just out of gas though.

Good to see you back on the forums Exether.

That's a great one!!!


Phil, that was really awesome! Thanks for that information. Really cool to learn about the civilian side.

Hi everyone

Noticed this thread during a recent Google Ego trip.

flybox, you are aware of this site and build?
http://www.diorama-clervaux.com

I am really looking forward to see the castle in 1/18 !

Regarding the cars, i am adding a gaz driven vehicle to the scene also, plus a Harley driving through the streets.

and yes, i did this dio

Greets from Luxembourg

Claude

Hi Claude,

I have not seen that diorama! WOW, it is amazing! Thank you for sharing that!!!

That is truly amazing, Claude.

Thanks for posting and sharing with us.

Can't imagine how long that took you to do.