Have Trek Cart, Will Travel …

Bob a Job for the War Office? Phoenix 43 range (S and D models) scout trek cart, scouts and scoutmaster group. Crate – old Tamiya  1:35 stock.

My recent broken figure conversions to Girl Scouts admire the Trek Cart

Beautifully detailed moulded figures with scout badges and all …

I have pretty much finished painting my Trek Cart scout group of Phoenix 43 figures, apart from gloss varnishing them.

1\43 Phoenix 43 S and D Models Scouts and Trek Cart

At first it looked a little fiddly but fitted together well with little flash.

The Trek or Trek Cart is mentioned in very early Scout cigarette cards.

First series Ogden’s  cigarette  cards – Boy Scout Series 1 to 5 Cigarette Card Images, an internet book / reprint by Trading Card Enterprises, LLC

It is also pictured as an iconic bit of scout history in the 1990 Cub Scout Handbook history of Scouting pages:

Baden-Powell’s Mafeking idea of ‘Model Soldiers’

An interesting conversion idea for a Boy Scout patrol with turbans – plenty of world Boy Scout uniforms on cigarette cards on Pinterest. Cub Scout Handbook, 1990.

Close up of the trek cart picture illustration 1990 by Martin Aitchison

Search around and you will find that trek carts were once quite iconic for the scout movement, such as this book cover illustration.

Pinterest is a useful source of images and there are Trek Cart sections on there,  from which I have taken some screen-shots as  reference pictures for painting my trek cart model.

The dark green works well as a scout colour (Pinterest image source)

Bright and colourful Trek Cart paint scheme

Good design  and colour references for vintage trek carts from a Pinterest search.

S and D models Phoenix 43 Trek Cart No. OF154

I chose a dark green Gloss simple paint scheme for my trek cart  with no wording.

The trek cart or baggage waggon train provides a good target or focus for many Wide Games / tabletop gaming scenarios.

Lots more Trek Cart stories and images at http://www.shurdington.org/Scouts/Trekcart.htm

I never made the link between scout trek carts and the Wild West type pioneer trek carts featured in this episode of Mormon and American West history.

Recreating the Mormon pioneer treks of the 1840s

This is a pioneer story as gripping and tragic as that of the Oregon Trail.

“To cut down on expensive wagons and oxen, some 3,000 of the [Mormon] pioneers subsequently used low-cost wooden handcarts that were light enough to be pulled across the Great Plains. One family or five individuals were assigned to a handcart, with 18 to 20 people sharing a tent. A cart hauled no more than 200 pounds — about 17 pounds of baggage per person.  Each highly organized company was led by an experienced guide and was accompanied by at least four oxen-drawn supply wagons.

The first party of handcarts set out from Iowa City, Iowa, on 9 June 1856 with a company of 266 people from England, followed two days later by a second company of just over 200.  These early handcart brigades successfully arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, but the trips were not easy. Pioneer journals recorded harsh weather, the threat of hostile Indians, the death of fellow travelers and the ongoing hardships of hunger and fatigue.”

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/pioneer-trek

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_handcart_pioneers

The Mormon pioneer treks of American history are often recreated as part of youth camping activities within this church, pictured and described here:

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/youth/activities/stake-and-multistake-activities/camps-and-youth-conferences/treks?lang=eng&country=am

There is also a Wikipedia article on the Mormon Handcart Pioneers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_handcart_pioneers

As mentioned before, the Man of TIN blog supports no particular faith denomination. All are welcome at the Man of TIN blog.

Trek carts which disassembled were made in the early William Britain’s Boy Scouts Range, seen here featured in James Opie’s Britain’s Toy Soldiers 1893 – 1932: 

Two of my repaired Broken Britain’s 54mm  Scouts beside Britain’s Trek Cart  pictures in James Opie’s book.

Trek Carts can also be found in smaller OOHO  railway scale figures by Modelscene / Peco.

OOHO Modelscene Peco railway series trek cart and Scouts with berets

A historical Huzzah for the humble Trek Cart!

Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN, 15 July 2019.

Pound Store and Homecast Boy Scouts on the Painting Table

Not reliable casting weather to cast a few more  scouts to complete the Duchy of Tradgardland’s patrol

https://tradgardland.blogspot.com/2019/05/scouts-for-wide-games.html

but a chance to get some more Scout painting done in between scribbling down more character card and Wide Games rules ideas.  I have found a treasure trove of vintage scout manuals free here http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/games.html

All twenty Shiny Toy Soldiers Little Britons 42mm Range LBB30 Boy Scouts on the painting table – four of them are now full skirted Girl Scouts! Still fiddly faces and gloss varnish to do.

Alan as Chief Scout of the Duchy of Tradgardland Scouts  has kindly sent my Boy Scouts the gift of a spare bicycle that he had in his Scout Troop stores.

A three part resin bicycle gifted to my scouts from Alan at the Duchy of Tradgardland. Two paper clip – Sass and Belle bicycle paper clips – male and female bicycles for comparison.

Toot toot! One of my homecast 60mm scout buglers  painted up and released (like the Duchy of Tradgardland’s versions) into the big outdoors.

I was hoping there was also a fun Pound Store Plastic alternative to buying or casting metal scout figures and the Wargaming Pastor had a good suggestion.

Two of my Pound Land “Penny Dreadful” figures converted into quick cheap scout figures. Still some painting to finish.

The Wargaming Pastor on Death Zap suggested that my floppy bush hatted Boer type figure conversions from Pound store tubs might convert well enough: “I’m tempted to collect a few scouts now, I’m wondering how easy it would be to modify some Airfix WW1 Americans or some of those Poundland chaps? Your Boer conversions would go a long way, then all I have to do is chop off the gun.”

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/pound-store-plastic-colonial-infantry-on-the-painting-table/

I have quickly paint-bashed these two 32mm examples up to see how this might go.  The Wargaming Pastor’s clever suggestion does work!

The original ‘penny dreadful’ pound store figures and first paint draft of pound store Boy Scouts. A simple hole punched card rim  or page reinforcer trimmed to size makes the bush hat.

From pound store figures to more expensive pewter figures.

Looking for a Scout Trek or Treck Cart,  before I started converting home cast gun carriages  for their wheels, I came across the Phoenix 43 series by S&D / Phoenix which featured a trek cart, two separate scouts pushing and a Scoutmaster and Patrol Leader.

https://www.sanddmodels.co.uk/products_43_figures.htm

Designed for model railways, I bought a sample of each, not quite sure of size at the time.  They are not cheap at around £3 each figure but they are beautifully and crisply cast. They also have very speedy delivery.

Fortunately they do match with my Little Britons 42mm boys and will form a few character pieces such as a Patrol Leader and a Scoutmaster. The Treck Cart should form an interesting scenario focus for  Wide Games.

OF203 Scoutmaster next to one of my painted 42mm Little Britons range scouts and OF204 Boy Scout with pole. OF238 and OF239 form the trek cart crew.

So there we are … my Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts now have wheels in the form of bicycles and a trek cart.

The 20 scouts are closer to completed painting, mainly just touch ups and faces before a gloss varnish to match the toy soldier style.

I have also spent  £3 on a single metal scout and made one from a penny plastic figure.

Blogposted by Mark Man of TIN (1970s Cub Scout, Bronze Arrow, retired) on 19 May 2019.