Cheap Coaches Project

[PeteMurray]

I felt compelled to investigate the wedding favor decorations mentioned here and elsewhere, the ones available at Michaels Craft Store, if for no other reason than the price cannot be beaten. So I procured a box of six for around $8. I'm moderately impressed. Each coach is pulled by a single horse. Ideally they'd each have two, but given the constraints of table space, I'll accept selective compression. The horse is prancing in a manner calculated to appeal to six-year-old girls.

First of all, there are six of them. At least one will lose the horse and become a static piece to decorate the auberge yard. Another might become a wreck piece for our heroes can investigate. That still leaves four, and embarrassment of riches.

I think I will decorate the four of them differently. One will be milady's/m'lord's coach, with excessive gold bling and a suitably elegant and manly shade of pink or baby blue. This color is known to cause ordinarily sensible people to mask the lower half of their face and yell "Stand and  Deliver!" Another will be the Paris-to-Calais mail coach. A third will get an all-black treatment for moving enemy spies, enemies of the state, and possibly Lord Vetinari. The fourth? Who knows.

Initial course of action, I think, will be to get them painted. They are transparent plastic (note to self: Ghost coach?) but I have a can of Krylon plastic spray primer which I have used before with great results. I'll write up project notes and try to put up pictures from time to time.

[W.B.Kurgan]

This sounds like a very wallet-friendly project  ::

I've had a quick look at the Michaels website - are these the coaches?



 

[PeteMurray]

That's them, though I swear mine only had one horse.

I attribute the confusion to being really, really sober at the time.

[Westfalia Chris]

One will be milady's/m'lord's coach, with excessive gold bling and a suitably elegant and manly shade of pink or baby blue. This color is known to cause ordinarily sensible people to mask the lower half of their face and yell "Stand and  Deliver!"

::

"T´have ye snug on the road, m´Lady, we´ve hooked you up with 40-inch DaGiovanni-Wheels, with gold-plated spokes! And for smooth riding in ye foulest weather, we added glass windows to ev´ry aperture!"

"My, isn´t it lovely!"

Pimp my coach - serving the rich and useless until 1789

::

I LOVE coaches - we had such great games of Flintloque with my Tut&Tatnix mail coach back in 1998. I´m totally anxious to see the final results.

[PeteMurray]

::

"T´have ye snug on the road, m´Lady, we´ve hooked you up with 40-inch DaGiovanni-Wheels, with gold-plated spokes! And for smooth riding in ye foulest weather, we added glass windows to ev´ry aperture!"

"My, isn´t it lovely!"

Pimp my coach - serving the rich and useless until 1789

::

Exhibitor & Associates
Carriage-Works and Adornments
By Reference Only

Indeed, I saw one of their handiworks, a most cunningly-wrought cabriolet. It had a clever compartment in the rear for the storage of musicians. They played in perfect concealment, with small holes affording them both air and a means for the music to pipe forth. The cabriolet rolled through the cobbled streets of Paris, emitting a somewhat disturbed but still recognizable Minuet.

[PeteMurray]

Okay, so here's what the package looks like before you open it.



And here's one coach with yes, two horses. (Note to self: Schedule eye exam)



The horses are both diminutive and very flat, almost two-dimensional. Here they are in comparison with a GW horse:



Viewed from above you can see how skinny they are:



Sizewise, here is the coach with figures (L to R: Brigade, Redoubt, Old Glory):



My verdict is that the coach is small but very usable, although I'd prefer to see some better looking horses on it. Time to consider a bulk order of ponies.

[Westfalia Chris]

I think the coach´s size is pretty good - most private coaches I´ve seen so far (Munich´s Marstall at Palais Nymphenburg, for example) ain´t too big in real life, either. The horses are... cute, somehow. Maybe paint them in gary pastels and keep them as little presents for nieces, granddaughters etc.?

[terrement]

Hand over your Lupines!!!