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Re: Re: Draft animals

Aren't there mules and draft horses in some of Emhar's older ACW/American Frontier sets?

hornby (ho model & railway scenics ) make animal sets

Not too expensive should find them online easy and ebay etc

Re: hornby (ho model & railway scenics ) make animal sets

There is a nice set from Preiser with horses, oxen and sheep.

Re: Re: hornby (ho model & railway scenics ) make animal sets

Or the Airfix wagon train set has a nice wagon and some draft animals. You still see it around. The civilians are useful too. I found the Preiser sets to be too expensive.
David Moore

Preiser set

Unfortunately, the Preiser set contains cows, not oxen, and they are far too large animals for wagons (they are fine-breed 20th century milk-cows). However, the set is really nice.

Re: Preiser set

For those of us with minimal knowledge of animals what are the main differences between cows and oxen in 1/72? I am assuming that oxen are male but is there a technical specise difference?

Difference between cows and Oxen

Basically an Ox is a castrated bull. The reason for castrating the animal is that it is more docile. Most of the beef that you eat are from male animals that are usually castrated since this also helps them gain weight.

In past centuries the use of oxen as draft animals was widespread since the animal is fairly docile, very strong and can survive on a poor diet, unlike a draft horse that needs a better diet. This last point is also the reason for breeding mules: Father donkey, mother horse gives big strong animal that can survive on a poorer diet than that needed for horses.

As to oxen anybody lucky enough to see a bull fight in Spain will may be lucky enough to see the oxen that they use sometimes to take poor live bulls from the ring. These oxen are huge beasts. I was once in a Corredor de toros in Spain in a small town. Since it was a small town the bulls were quite young and so quite small, about 300kg but when the oxen came along they were about 500 kg seemed to be at about 1.70 metres to the shoulder with a horn span of about 1.5 metres.

The Atlantic Long Horn cattle could be used to present these although they look a little to lively. The Pegasus/Imex Calafornia Mission People have excellent oxen for their cart and plough.

Best regards,


Malcolm

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Replying to:

For those of us with minimal knowledge of animals what are the main differences between cows and oxen in 1/72? I am assuming that oxen are male but is there a technical specise difference?

Re: Difference between cows and Oxen

Thank you. I was thinking Atalntic although I think some of the cattle are female but I'm sure I can change that if I wish.

Re: Draft animals

Sorry, but the Wagon Train Set from Airfix isn`t up to 2007-standards (and wasn`t one of the better Airfix products at all).
Preiser Sets 72414 (with small animals) and 72511 (horses, cows and sheep) cost 10,-(72414) and 8,- (72511) Euros (Highstreet-Price) and are worth every cent!
Maybe there is a online-shop offering them for a lower price?
That doesn`t seem cheap at the first glance, but the sets offer good value for the money and very I think!
I have both and I`m quite happy with them.
Imex and Pegasus Sets might be useful as well (if you have interest in the included figures).
Good luck with your project(s)!
Greetings

1/72 animal auctionS

copy and paste this into your browser for
ebay auctions deer cows sheep turkeys etc
banyards etc

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&from=R10&satitle=ho+animals&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=93430&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1%26fsoo%3D1&coaction=compare&copagenum=1&coentrypage=search

Re: Draft animals

Hi Jonathan,

I went thru the same hunt for some Anglo-Boer War oxen pulled cannons. Plus, I'm an original soft plastic kind-of-guy. So, I settled on the Atlantic Originals/Nexus-Atlantic Re-issues sets because (1) they were soft plastic so easy to work with, (2) I could get them fairly easily on-line, and (3) you get 8 or more per box = good value! The new Nexus re-issues are only about USD $8.00.

Regarding Nexus (Atlantic re-issues which are also out of production now), go to the link below and check out:

Stampede ATL013
Cowboys ATL016 (includes fallen/branding pose)

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Nexus.html

Original Atlantic also made a Pioneer Wagon set with 4 wagons and 8 oxen. I have one box. The oxen are nice, wagons so-so but now collector's set so eBay or ? = $. Go to this link to see a scan of this, scroll down:

http//www.atlantictoy soldiers.com/ATLANTICtoysoldier/west/mezzi/

I think some of the newer American Indian sets you only get 2 oxen per box, and the harder plastic is difficult for me to cut with an X-acto knife. Check PSR's "Manufacturers" Link, and go to the different makers to help make your own decision.

You can see some of my Anglo-Boer War conversions with oxen in the Strelet's "Contributions" link dated August 8, 2006 Anglo-Boer ...

By the way, the Airfix Wagon Train set's horses are a pretty small, but I still love the wagons. So I have bought up 25 boxes of the new re-issues and have made Anglo-Boer War conversions using Atlantic/Nexus Oxen, Airfix Wagons, and Imex Wagon tops and accessories. I've got (1) supply wagons - 3 types, (2) chow wagons, and (3) ambulance wagons. I hope to be able to complete the project for S*R's Contributions fairly soon. Good Luck!

Re: Draft animals (Horses)

Forgot the horses. I think the best horse/wagon set for sculpting and detail is Italeri's Napoleonic set. The wagon is pulled by 2 horses, but the box has 4 horses in it. 2 extras for conversions. So pretty good value. Produced in Silver and Blue that I know of. Here is PSR's review link:

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.asp?manu=ITA&code=6017