T is for Tudor Rose Part 1 Vehicles

So, on to the support act - stars to me! In the 1950's Tudor Rose (Rosebud/Rosedale) made their own range of vehicles, while everyone else ran around copying/licensing each others, i.e.; Banner, Pyro, Merit, Kleeman/Kleeware, Lido and Wannatoys among others!.

The best is the Churchill tank, ignoring the dodgy turret, it's a nice model and fits in well with the only other high-street player of the time; Airfix. Detail is - especially on the suspension/running gear - a bit 'surface' or cosmetic but it does it for me.

The amphibious Jeep is too big and too ugly, so moving on...is that an AEC armoured car? I think it might think it is!!! Hey cumon! They were TOYS! And who's going to turn down a whole squadron of AEC's at pocket-money prices? Damage to aerials and windscreens is almost total after all these years, but the odd whole one turns up from time to time. The three that suffer are the Jeep, Carrier and 'amphijeep'.

Note also that some have the Liberation star recognition mark and some don't, these were thermo-printed, to such an extent you can use oven cleaner to strip war-gamers paint-jobs from these without removing the star underneath! I've yet to find a Churchill with the star.

The Jeep with gun and limber, a bit fictional on the artillery, while the ambulance is based on the Bedford MWD. Again the red cross is thermo-printed, but the cream roof is painted in household gloss! Likewise the rear gun (in the photo) has had the cream paint treatment, the hint of silver you will see in close-up (click on the image) was added by the war-gamer from the collection of whom this vehicle came. It has adhered to the cream underneath and won't fully come off.

He had a large collection of early plastics, all painted with red, blue, black and yellow markings (his four armies/units) and all the vehicles (Airfix/Blue Box/Marx etc...) were enhanced with silver, big blobs of it, all over tracks, radiators, mudguards, and gun barrels!!

My favourite Tudor Rose and one of my favourite pieces within the whole collection is the twin Bofors portee on a CMP chassis, all the early plastics guys (and Lone*Star in die-cast metal) did a twin Bofors, and they were all much copied/pirated.

In front is the best Bren carrier I have, the front gun is OK and the drivers bench also survives intact (it's a really thin moulding), but the pintle-mounted LMG is sadly missing its barrel.

When cleaning/paint stripping these you have to be careful of the wheels, they appear to be made of a vulcanised rubber/Bakelite material, and not only develop a white bloom or mould in storage, but can soften if immersed in oven cleaning foam for too long. So I tend to strip them in quick phases with periods of rest in between to allow the wheels to stabilize. Three sessions usually does it.