1:32 British Dispatch Rider Taking Carrier Pigeons To The Front Line

Lofts on the chassis of London buses

The most remarkable piece of equipment of the whole pigeon service was the mobile loft. The British used stripped double-decker buses withdrawn from the London routes for them: the body came off, a wooden hut with nesting compartments was built on the frame and the whole thing was towed to wherever it was needed. The birds learned a new station within a few days and from then on headed for it, even when it had moved some way on in the meantime.

A performance that could be counted

A bird released would climb, circle for a moment and then head straight. It flew at about sixty kilometers an hour, so it covered the usual distance of twenty to thirty kilometers from the line to the staff in under half an hour. No other means of communication of the day could do the same without a line, without an operator and without the risk of being captured along with the contents of the dispatch.

The figure and its role in a scene

The man heads forward and carries his load against him. In the larger 1:32 scale the wicker and the straps stand out considerably more than in the smaller sizes, so with this figure it pays not to stint on time for glazes and for transitions of shade. It brings action into a static scene without breaking it up. If you place the figure at the edge of the base so that it heads out of the scene, the diorama gains a direction and the viewer imagines what lies beyond its boundary.

The casting is of resin. Take the remaining sprue gates off by cutting, level the mating faces and degrease the surface before priming. Cyanoacrylate glue will do the bonding, and on larger faces an epoxy more reliably.