FORGE WAGONS.

Forge wagons in my Army are allocated to the Veterinary/Farrier companies of Quartermaster battalions. Each company has four of these wagons which tow a light GS trailer carrying fuel supplies. The principles of operation are that Veterinary/Farrier platoons travel to all the Battalions supported by that particular Quartermaster battalion to "service" the horses of those units.

The historic reference for these vehicles is the German Vorratswagon 96 n/A of World War One as shown in the pictures below.

My vehicles are based on 5mm balsa slabs to my standard size of 30 x 15 mm. I cut two such slabs for each wagon. The second slab is cut into three parts, one of  15 x 15 and two of 15 x 10 all as shown on the left side of the photo below. These parts are then glued together to create a forward storage locker for raw materials with two side lockers for tools etc as shown in the centre of the photo below. I then file the ends of the side lockers to give a rounded profile, add a chimney made from a piece of plastic straw (or environmentally friendly paper straw!!!!) , a shaft with horse mounting block, wheels and towing hook. These operations are clearly shown from top to bottom on the right side of the photo below.

The photo below shows the whole batch of 24 vehicles with all plastic and metal parts primed. If there are any gaps between the lockers, I fill them with Milliput,  file smooth when dry and prime these areas too.

This next photo shows the batch of vehicles painted olive drab.

Here is the whole batch fully painted with horses and harness wire fitted. In case it is not clear in the photo below, I paint the chimneys black both inside and out. For the methods of manufacturing and painting of horses and the fitting of harness wire see my posts on horses and GS wagon construction..

Finally a close up of a single vehicle which hopefully will clarify any lingering construction questions.

When I first started building my Army my standard supply vehicle was a covered wagon. These were made using bits of wire to create the hoops over which was glued tissue paper to give the covered wagon look. Over the years my army was in storage, most of these fragile tissue tilts got damaged. In addition I realised that covered wagons were just too awkward to build in any quantity hence the GS wagon that I now use. However I was left with a number of covered wagons. These became my first Forge wagons as shown below.

 The rear part of the tilt was removed and a chimney added. The remainder of the tilt was repaired with more tissue and lots of super glue, its amazing how strong tissue becomes when soaked in super glue!!!!!!! These old converted vehicles bear a striking resemblance to the Vorratswagon.

Within the whole army group I have a total of 72  forge wagons of both old and new versions.