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Landships II -> Landships WW1 Forum -> Modelling -> Thanks and some scratch built WW1 wooden toy tanks
Post Info TOPIC: Thanks and some scratch built WW1 wooden toy tanks
Toy Making Dad


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Thanks and some scratch built WW1 wooden toy tanks
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I have never had the patience (or skill) to build highly detailed and accurate models.
I have to admit that I always was, and still am, pretty much an "Out of the Box" builder when it comes to models.
A few years ago, I began building wooden toys for family and friends. My best friend is in the Armor Branch of the US Army and I decided to build his son some toy tanks.
I used this site to get ideas and I found myself coming back to it fairly often. So I just decided to register, say thanks and share some pictures of how the toys came out.

Right off the bat... I fully acknowledge that these are not historically accurate.
What I was going for was a toy that could be easily identified as the subject tank, but still be played with.
These are intended to be pushed around carpeted battlefields and played with roughly.
They push around on wheels. Not so sure about building wooden tracks :)

Here is the British tank.

British Tank FrontBritish Tank FrontBritish Tank Left side

All wood. The sponsons are oversized but this makes them very sturdy and easy to play with.

9" long
3" tall
5" wide at the sponsons
3" wide at the tracks

The German A7V:

A7V Front OnA7V SideA7V Rear

The wheel base is a bit narrow, but it gets the job done. The machine guns look fragile, but so far they have held together fine and all of them rotate.

7" long
4" tall
2.5" wide at the tracks

I have instruction on how I built them on my blog at http://toymakingdad.blogspot.com

One last thing, and maybe I'll post this under "Tanks" when I get a better scan, but here is a picture I recently came across of my great uncle next to an A7V.
The photo is dated 1919 and says "Verdun"
He was in an Engineers Unit and this was taken after the war. I assume the tank was on display as a trophy.

It was a neat bit of history for me to have built the tank and then over a year later see that a blood relative had actually been next to one of these beasts.

 

Post war A7V

Thanks for a great site.

 



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Paul Bonnett


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Hi, As far as toys go, they look fantastic and I can see they will provide many hours of fun too. Cant wait to see a better scan of the A7V as well.

Paul

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 The finest stories of the Great War are those that will never be told.
Roger Todd


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I hope I don't sound patronising because that's really not my intention at all but your toys are utterly charming and I think your family and friends are very lucky to have someone making good old-fashioned rugged toys for them! Even though I love detailed scale models (and occasionally make them) I also adore toy versions of real things (for example, I've always had a soft spot for tin toy boats, so I'm a sucker for your fish-tin pop-pop boats!) - there's a real art to simplifying an object into toy-form yet retaining the character of the original, and that is exactly what you've done. I'm going to enjoy delving into your blog.

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Toy Making Dad


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Roger,

Thanks for the kind words. I was a little nervous about sharing such simple versions of these tanks when I know the level of detail discussed on this forum.

I have a St Chamond on the drawing board that I was able to mock up a front but most likely won't be ready for this Christmas:

St Chamond

The FT-17 will require actual tracks. I have an idea to use small toothed timing belts.

I have hopes of learning how to work with metal and would love to make a metal gun boat powered by a pop-pop engine.



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elbavaro


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Hey!

Graet - maybe .... maybe (!!) .. I have some üics showing your great uncle too. Please show better scan. Thank you!

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Rob


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They look brilliant. Like Roger says, toys that capture the 'character' of the object they are based on are just as good as models to me, in some cases i'd much rather a toy that has the character and recogniseable as what it's based on than some detailed models that get it all wrong and don't look like what they're supposed to be!

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Roger Todd


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Your St Chamond front looks good! And actual tracks on a Renault would be great, but I'm now starting to think what would be even more fantastic - a clockwork tank!

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Kaiser


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I think they look absolutely charming. I would have loved to have toys like those when I was younger (and perhaps I wouldn't mind having them now either...wink).

You did right by posting your pictures here.



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