The Wheels on the Bus...

Annabelle Evarion's wagon commission (for my upcoming Mordheim Merchant Caravan warband) is rolling right along. I'm still not finished with it though. She's now telling me there needs to be a roof on it. Of course, Magnet Princess that I am, I'm going to make it removable. Who knows when she'll turn up with large cargo, or if the the weather is nice.

I still haven't found the proper horses to pull the wagon though. Fortunately the next campaign won't start for a couple more weeks still.




The magnetized roof was inspired from the wheels being magnetized (and my general proclivity for magnetizing anything). I have been fretting for several days trying to figure out how to attach the wheels. Wheels can be damaged in the game so I wanted to make them removable. My first test of putting a magnet into balsa failed while drilling into the dowel. I thought I had a small dowel somewhere but couldn't find it in any of my craft boxes. I toyed with a plastic axle set up and a couple of other ways but nothing seemed to work in a way that would support the weight of the wagon loaded. Finally I tried the balsa again, drilling slowly and then coating the end in wood glue around the magnet. Success!! The wheels were easy enough to plant magnets in since they are the aforementioned 2 part plastic.

Here you see Annabelle and her Wizardess friend testing things out. Checking to see if there's space enough for cargo. I found some little wooden cubes in my craft stuff that will make great crates for when there is cargo to put in it.

I honestly did research on wagons and stages before undertaking this build, and I know it doesn't look much like any of the more commonplace historical blahblahblah wagons. As I've built it though, it's just kind of grown into it's own thing. I'm happy with what I have and that's what counts!

At least it doesn't look like a picnic table any more.