Gypsy Caravans from Sarissa Precision

In this post I present my versions of the two Gypsy Caravan models from Sarissa Precision.



I first saw the two gypsy wagons by Sarissa Precision on the Lead Adventure Forum and I was instantly sold: the designs of the models looked great.

Gypsy Caravans (source: LAF)

Now before looking any deeper into the caravans I have to say that I am usually very sceptical of laser cut models. They seem to be very popular for all kinds of terrain these days - especially Wild West buildings. Often these models appear somewhat "flat" to me, lacking the details of resin models. However, there are certain structures that lend themselves to laser cut building very well. The dockside crane I assembled recently wouldn't look any better (or probably even as good) had it been scratch-built. The gypsy wagons by Sarissa immediately looked like further examples of laser cut technology done right. In fact, these models look much more interesting than the gypsy wagons I know from West Wind Productions or Old Glory. Actually, judging from the Sarissa website pretty much all of their buildings look damn good to me. Anyway, let's look at the wagons!

The Kits

There are two different versions: The Bow Top Gypsy Caravan and the Ledge Type Gypsy Caravan (see Vardo). As I write this I still cannot find them on the Sarissa website where they should be listed in the "Gaslamp Alley" range. As described in the LAF thread it is no problem to contact Sarissa directly and they will send you a PayPal invoice. That is what I did to get my wagons.

The kits comprise of no more than two sheets plus a sheet with instructions. Pretty fascinating, isn't it?

The contents of the Bow Top Type Gypsy Caravan kit

The contents of the Lodge Type Gypsy Caravan kit

Modifications

Although the models look nice enough, the one thing I am not happy with is the wheels. They obviously have the problem of flatness. Therefore I chose to replace them with metal wheels from Stronghold Terrain: Each caravan got one set of small and big spokewheels to replace the laser cut ones. I think this improves the models a lot.

Small and big wheels from Stronghold Terrain

The endings of the axles were filed to fit the slots of the wheels

Another modification I did is replacing the original chimneys, which are just plain strips, with some scratch-build thingies.

The first chimney is made from a small plastic pipe and wooden pieces

The chimney of the Bow Top caravan fixed with modelling putty

The second chimney is simply made from wooden sticks of different thickness

The Ledge Type caravan has big windows on the sides so I applied short pieces of wire to represent hinges. Luckily I had this very thin wire left from the crane model. It's a small detail but - again - I think it improves the overall appearance a lot, giving it much more depth.

Small hinges made of thin wire applied to the window of the Ledge Type Caravan

Finally, the assembled caravans are ready for painting:

Painting the Caravans

Painting gypsy caravans is a fun albeit difficult task. It's a great opportunity to go all colourful and fancy. At the same time I found it very difficult to pick the right colour scheme. Most importantly the colours should match the gypsy models painted by Simon Bradley. This means the colour palette comprises of light greens, blues, pink and a bit of red. To get into it I started with brown, though.


Similar to the sample paint jobs from LAF (see above) I chose to go with green for the Bow Top Caravan.




Lastly, I applied some of my Gierburg posters I created years ago.



The Ledge Type Caravan received a matching green-heavy paint job with red details. The main difference is the use of yellow for the decorative colour instead of white.




Just when I thought I was done I realized that lanterns would look great on the wagons. I couldn't find any proper models so I built one myself and added it to the Bow Top Caravan.

Verdict

I cannot stress enough how impressed I am by these models. The laser cut technology works perfectly for the caravans. In fact, some parts of the models - e.g. the curved roof of the Bow Top wagon - could not have been done any better with a resin or metal model.  For once the scale is satisfactory as well - I have a lot of wagons and coaches and most of them are... well, saying they are 25mm instaed of heroic 28 would be putting it nicely. Lastly, the price is very good too! So all in all I am absolutely happy with the models and highly recommend them.