Lindberg

1/16 Concord Stage Coach

Kit Number 70352

Reviewed By Steve Dottavio #39681

The Concord Stagecoach by Lindberg comes in a very large box.  Inside you will find the parts are molded in three colors of plastic – red, brown and black.  Also included is a small bag of chain, and vinyl straps for the reins. I found the plastic to be very hard and brittle.  Figures for the coach are also included - A driver, shotgun rider, soldier, husband and wife and a masked bandit.  The figures are toy like in appearance and of a smaller scale than the coach.  The instruction sheet is very old school with lots of text and a few exploded views of the assembly.

The first part of the assembly starts with the coach itself.  This is a very straight forward build.  The side, bottom, front and back comprise the main parts of the coach.  Next up is the driver’s platform, then the roof.   What is nice about the way the coach goes together is that the interior can be put in after it is all painted.

The luggage consists of one large trunk, one small trunk and a round one.  The large and small trucks have quite a few parts, but with patience they can go together with no problems.  The round truck only has two parts.

The carriage assembly is next.  Looking at the exploded view makes it look fairly easy, but once I started the assembly, I realized there was some reading to do!  The parts looked the same, but were different at each end of the carriage.  After figuring where everything went it turned out quite well considering. (Who said we don’t need no stinking directions??!)

Horses were next.  When I opened the box there were four horses molded in two pieces, rubber banded together in two different poses.  With my figure building background, I wanted to change the pose on two of the horses to make it look a little better.  I glued the bodies together.  This was one of the worst parts of the build.  I had to use lots of liquid cement and wood working C clamps to make the two halves go together.  What a nightmare!!!  (a little play on words). Once together I filed and sanded smooth the steeds. I cut off and repositioned two heads with a razor saw.  Then I cut the knee joints to reposition the legs.  Epoxy putty was used to fill the areas, and sanded smooth. Painting was done using acrylic paints with pastel chalks for shading.

Harness work was to be next.  This is where everything came to a halt.  I started by laying out the parts to see how the stage was going together.  Something just didn’t seem right – not enough parts?  Well my thoughts were right, I was missing parts.  I searched the instructions for a phone number for Lindberg, but all that was there was the address for Craft House Corps.  I found a phone number on the internet, placed the call and left a message on an answering machine reference my dilemma.  A short while later I received a call back from Craft House.  I once again explained what happened.  The person I spoke with told me that they had replacement parts available, but they only had one set left. Apparently, all the limited release kits were missing two sets of harnesses.  So this is where it stands.  Unfinished.  When I have the time, I am going to try to scratch build the extra harness pieces and finish the coach.  This turned out to be a very time consuming build, but the finished product seems to have been worth it.

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