Where to get 1930s cars in 1/56th to 1/48?

[Verderer]

I am trying to find some prewar (1930-1938) period cars for 28mm, do such beasts exist? US, British, whatever? I know the usual sources for 1920s cars, but for this decade there seem to be scarce pickings?

[Doomsdave]

Search for Matchbox Yesteryear on ebay. 

[Svennn]

Use somewhere like this to find whats available
http://www.carmodel.net/start.php?PDs+TlZULS1hbGwtMC0zMC0xLTA8Oj48Oz48Oj48Oj48Oj4tMS08Oj4w

and then hit evilbay

[wolfgangbrooks]

Not sure where you're from, but we have a small variety remaining.

http://recreationalconflict.lusagi.com/misc.html

[Verderer]

Thanks, I am in Finland so I will try to scour European sources first. So it looks like Lledo 'days gone' and Matchbox yesteryear are my best bets? It seems Lledo ones are more consistent with scale (1:50), but the Matchbox ones vary from 1:38 to to 1:48 or some such? So one needs to be more careful with picking them?

[Penchour]

Lledo is about 1/60, which perfectly matches most of 25-28mm minis. Now, beware buses are smaller (more 1/80 sale).
Matchbox usualy varies between 1/48 and 1/43, which may be a bit large for 28mm, but more detailled and easier to find.

Up to you to choose

[1ngram]

The ONLY scale 1930s car I have found is the excellent Heller Citroen Traction Avant plastic kit which makes into a lovely model. Both my Gestapo and French resistance guys race round Paris in these.  But be careful what you buy as they are available in more than one scale.

[Gundamentalist 5.56]

Siku do a Citroen Traction Avant and a Mercedes-Benz SSK. Both are diecast/plastic and 1/55 scale.

HTH

[Dolmot]

Strangely enough, when I was looking for 1920s cars, it felt like everything out there was actually 1930s...

There are a bunch of pulp car/scale topics scattered over interwar, pulp, CoC, workbench and bazar boards. Here are a few picks:

Lledo vs. Matchbox - what's the go?
Suitable cars?

The rest may turn up in "related" links.

For Matchbox, the classic vault of information is this site (which unfortunately doesn't seem to accept linking into deeper pages so click around). You have to check individual car pages in "collection" to find out the scale of each model. I went through that all once and took notes of good stuff in 1/60 ... 1/48 scales, but unfortunately stopped at year 1930 or so. The only good example of 30s on my list is Y-40-1 1931 Mercedes Benz 770, listed as 1/48, although some online sellers have different opinions on its real scale.

Apart from Lledo, Matchbox, Blue Moon, Brigade, Sloppy Jalopy, RAFM and the other listed choices, you can check Rusty Rail's trucks and conversions. They're 1/48. Even though the full kits are fairly expensive, for conversions the source models are listed there.

Let us know if you find anything.

[fastolfrus]

Just seen some Lledo on ebay that were listed as 1950s but looked more like 1939.
Most cars seem to be fairly constant for size, but trucks & buses are way too small - they all seem to be made to fit the box.
Also, some 1920s vehicles would still be fairly common on 1930s roads, they'd just look older.
There's a local Lledo seller who does 5 vehicles for £10, and I've seen assorted batches on ebay at a similar price (or less).

[Verderer]

Yup, ordered a bunch of Lledos just now on ebay.

[Burgundavia]

The ONLY scale 1930s car I have found is the excellent Heller Citroen Traction Avant plastic kit which makes into a lovely model. Both my Gestapo and French resistance guys race round Paris in these.  But be careful what you buy as they are available in more than one scale.

There is also a Siku model in 1:55. I own two of them.

[littlewars]

I've been buying the IXO Museum range from an eBay seller in Poland. Really nice 30's vehicles, they are a mixture of die cast and plastic parts.

[Verderer]

Ooh, what scale are the Ixos?

Edit: seems they're 1:43, so tad large, plus not exactly cheap...

[P_Clapham]

I've gotten some 'generic' 1930's-ish vehicles at CVS of all places.  They run from $5-$6, and scale quite nicely with 28mm figures.  Wish I knew the manufacturer.