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http://www.modelzone.co.uk/meccano-gears-of-war-armadillo-with-2-figures-weapons.html

Armadillo Scout Car and Raven helicopter

http://www.modelzone.co.uk/meccano-gears-of-war-king-raven-with-4-figures-weapons.html

I picked up one of each for general SF game use. The scale is about 1/35 or 1/32.

I have not assembled them yet as they must be kept hidden from Mrs Kilkrazy for a while.

Both say they're out of stock online.. Otherwise, the helicopter could be useful when Orkified.

Cool find. Here some pics:


And to get some idea of scale (miniatures are 2" scale):

Looks a bit big... although I know that is a very small human standing behind it

It does look big. 40k style figs will likely reach only to the mid chest of those figs and seem a bit lilliputian next to the gun turrets.

But it looks right as terrain/mission marker for any evacuation scenario.
That's why I just bought one

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Both say they're out of stock online.. Otherwise, the helicopter could be useful when Orkified.

Yeah, you have to go to the shop.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 RiTides wrote:
Looks a bit big... although I know that is a very small human standing behind it

It's probably the size a Tau Orca ought to be if it was properly sized. I will use it as a heavy dropship or something, not for 40K.

 Kroothawk wrote:
But it looks right as terrain/mission marker for any evacuation scenario.
That's why I just bought one

No problems here. You're talking to the guy who bought a TMNT terrordrome for a 3rd edition VDR ministompa.

Hmm... Nice models, but there doesn't seem to be much Meccano in ... Meccano these days, is there? :p

Not like when I were a lad.

Lego has gone down the same road.

Young people these days, etc...

Looks to be quite small. Might make a good transport, looks like it could be converted quite easily.

Will be waiting for some proper scale pics.

I just recently watched James Mays Toy Stories episode of Meccano, and decided I wanted to buy a set. I believe I played with a set when i was six or seven years old, and might have gotten a train set from that same company....not sure really. But I went to the Meccano website and was shocked. WTF HAPPENED?!?! Why would you get rid of actual toys that are intellectually stimulating to sell this total rubbish? I am EXTREMELY disappointed that I cannot buy a classic Victorian Meccano set from the Company itself anymore. Does anyone know of any manufacturers or businesses that sell similar items?

When I was a boy, Meccano sets included beams, plates, angle irons, gears and so on. They gave plans but you could build anything you wanted and make it work, with enough parts and ingenuity. By doing it you exercised your imagination and learned practical mechanical engineering skills.

The modern equivalent is something like those Lego toys you can program, or a introductory scripting language -- what's the one with the Tortoise? -- running on a Raspberry Pi.

 Kroothawk wrote:
Cool find. Here some pics:

Spoiler:

And to get some idea of scale (miniatures are 2" scale):

I always pictured Kroot...taller?

 Kilkrazy wrote:
When I was a boy, Meccano sets included beams, plates, angle irons, gears and so on. They gave plans but you could build anything you wanted and make it work, with enough parts and ingenuity. By doing it you exercised your imagination and learned practical mechanical engineering skills.

The modern equivalent is something like those Lego toys you can program, or a introductory scripting language -- what's the one with the Tortoise? -- running on a Raspberry Pi.

Logo, I believe.

I don't know if I'd call it "total rubbish", but I can see why some would be upset. It would be like if Lego stopped making original sets and just focused entirely on doing movie/video game licensed stuff.

Now watch someone come in and tell me that Lego does it too and prove just how ignorant I really am.

 Sidstyler wrote:
I don't know if I'd call it "total rubbish", but I can see why some would be upset. It would be like if Lego stopped making original sets and just focused entirely on doing movie/video game licensed stuff.

Now watch someone come in and tell me that Lego does it too and prove just how ignorant I really am.

Oh, yes.... yes they do.
Still got my lego game stuff somewhere. We had some ship battles with the pirates stuff back in the day.


good times.... good times.

Lego still sells basic blocks, though their patent on the block design ran out years ago, and there are cheapo versions on the market.

Naturally they prefer you to buy the licensed special model kits which are much more profitable.

http://www.meccanospares.com I recently found this neat website that sells Meccano parts, and then some. I honestly think parents should get something more like the original toy sets instead of what the watered down company sells nowadays. The educational and creativity benefits from the original thing far outweighs the modern electronic plastics on wheels.

Wow. Two things came to mind in this thread:

1) Nice find
2) WTF? Is that Meccano?

I'd actually been skipping this thread because what I pictured in my mind's eye from the thread title was beams and such, so how could you use those in 40k? It's even more unrecognisable than LEGO, compared to when I was a kid...

 scipio.au wrote:
Wow. Two things came to mind in this thread:

1) Nice find
2) WTF? Is that Meccano?

I'd actually been skipping this thread because what I pictured in my mind's eye from the thread title was beams and such, so how could you use those in 40k? It's even more unrecognisable than LEGO, compared to when I was a kid...

You can't really. But I myself have always been interested in the mechanical world. Plus this toy is a blast from my past. This toy was still pretty popular in 1970s. My uncle-in-law (my moms sisters husband) had a set or two lying around and found it around the time I was born, in the early 1990s. Some of the toys I had around were pretty weird for the time period and out of place with modern toys. I guess it was because I was the first child of their generation out of all my siblings. There were 3 toys that were most iconic from my childhood, Scalextric, Model trains, and Legos. From what I heard from my family, I didn't do much with the Meccano except chew on them and made shapes with the strips and bolts. Now I wish someone would have sat down and taught little me what to do with these, but i doubt either my mom nor dad knew anything about Meccano or what the gadgets were for. But now, I've rediscovered my past thanks to James May.

WH40K is but only one hobby of mine. I categorize it with my indoor hobbies such as model building, model trains, steampunk, and now meccano. I wouldn't consider WH40K and meccano to have relation at all, although steampunk and meccano does. But if you do a bit of googling and youtubing, you'll find huge amounts of meccano culture and meccano achievements. You can build and experiment like engineers and builders do without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. For me, that is like a mind exploding find.

I built the Armadillo so here is a short review.

The kit comprises a number of cleanly moulded plastic parts, probably ABS rather than polystyrene, a set of soft tyres, a couple of metal plates and a number of metal nuts and bolts to hold everything together.

Assembly is very simple. In most cases the nut sits in a square holder so you don't need the spanner. The bolts tighten with an Allen screw. Their hex heads give the finished model a distinctive appearance. The tools are in the kit.



No cutting is needed. The job takes about 10 minutes, and is not much of a pleasure as a construction challenge.

The finished model is 18cm long by 9cm wide and 6.5cm tall. The plastic is a dark blue grey. A set of stickers offers some detailing though I intend to paint my car so I haven't applied them. The rest of the surface detail is minimal.



You may like to cement the kit with Superglue or epoxy, to stop it coming apart, and fill the seams with putty. Some of the parts can be slightly improved a bit of shaving or sanding. Yet the model is very useable as it comes, if you ignore such details.

There is no underneath, so when the car is lying on its roof there is a clear void. If this worries you, plasticard and putty could easily be used to make an underside, or just pile a wad of cotton wool to represent smoke.



The letdown from the top view are the wheel hubs -- which have no detail and are very obviously "toy" -- and the mini turret guns, similar in size to a Bolt pistol in 40K. The guns can easily be replaced, though, and a bit of work with plasticard will provide suitable armoured hub caps.



Beyond that, it provides the basis for more conversions and offers in general a nice, SF looking armoured vehicle for 28mm scale games. I can imagine a number of themes such as command car, security transport, troop carrier, and so on.

Overpriced at the original £29.99 it is a much better buy for £19.99 or better yet £14.99 at Model Zone if you can find one.