1962; [Wild West] Wagon Train, S15 / 01715 / 01715-8 - HO/OO

A brilliant set back in the day when your only alternatives for 'Horse & Musket' transport were expensive metal, oversized (and frankly; silly-looking) Marx or the sub-scale single-horse efforts of Manurba and the Hong Kong copies with various horse arrangements. It seems to be more representative of a European military GS wagon than an actual 'Prairie Schooner', but I'm no expert and I'm sure they used all sorts of designs at the time. With the tilt on, it still looks good for the Wild West.

There was a very good article in Military Modelling or Airfix Magazine showing how to convert this into a reconnaissance-balloon team for the ACW, if/when I find it, I'll add it to this post.

Open-topped (upper image) you can see the European 'lines, but with the tilt in place it looks OK, the lower image is also a complete set on display together.

Again a complete set, but broken down into four vignettes, this set not only provided a useful wagon, but a bunch of period civilians, more cowboys (better than the ones in the Cowboys set), cargo/baggage for a model railway and...a camp fire!

On the negative side; the buckets looked more like hat-boxes...but maybe they were! The standing guys make an excellent relaxed gun-crew and most of the figures could be recruited straight into a poorly uniformed American Civil War unit on either side.

Some people seem to have difficulty with the break-shoes, so I did a quick visual guide to how they are to be fitted so they lie flush with the wheels, not facing away from them.

Again thanking Kostas for the scans, this is the 1985 catalogue image of a photographed box with the separate blurb superimposed. While atmospheric, the Airfix box art gave no clue as to the positioning of the brakes and gave an over-dramatic expectation of the attitude of the figures, who were a little more sedate in pose once you'd got them home.

Also contains Cavalry, may not contain trace of Cowboys! The blurb and the press-photographs in the catalogues rarely (if ever? My catalogues are in storage) agreed with the actual contents at point of sale...a confusion that is oft repeated even today!