Tiki Bar

I got this little building at Dollar Tree a while back.  

I want to use it for some 1/72nd scale figures but it is taller than I would like.  So I used my belt sanders to buzz the base down about 3mm.  I then used my Dremel too to buzz out some of the bottles because they are too large.

Original versus the modified version.  Still buzzing out the inside.

These are the three tools I am using to cut out the inside of the tiki hut.

The big X-Acto knife is helpful for scraping off some of the excess and smoothing out the line.

Dremel tool, probably 20+ years old.  It's my new one, the other one is much older and I still use them both.

Bottles and sign cut out now.

How it looks so far.  Obviously it needs paint and maybe some more work.
 

SWS Halftrack Rear Views

The line up.  It looks like a perfect strafing set up for a P-47.

Rear view of the first platoon, you can see the shovel and bucket I added to the rear.

The machine guns don't have a shield, but I may add that to some of the others as they get machine guns.

No upgrades to these but I think the camouflage is well done.

An interesting thing about buying used vehicles is they often look more like a real unit because they have many variations in markings, and camouflage.

AA guns from the rear.  I have a lot of the shovels and pickaxs from the Roco Opel Blitz that are surplus and many of them may find there way here.

Rear view of the maintenance van, need a small ladder to enter.
 

SWS Line Up

More SWS Infantry Company.  Here are two SWS 81mm mortar carriers.  I used the Esci hard plastic Africa Korps mortar and an ammo box from that set to make the carriers.  Very basic.

Roco 37mm anti-aircraft guns.  Stock out of the box, whoever painted them did a great job I think.

Maintenance vehicle with a box on the rear.  This is from the Roco US 2 1/2 ton radio van, it has this box as a removable feature and the previous owner did this conversion.  I liked it so well I kept it.

Another view of an infantry plastoon.

 Here is the whole line up.  I put them on a couple pieces of chipboard that sit on my patio table.  I use the chip board as a spray painting surface so it gets painted and in a variety of colors so it looks good as a group surface for photos, usually.  A couple 2x4s along the edge help mask the trees beyond or I can use my sky wallpaper on foamcore board.  Trees are very large, probably 30 yards, away.

More SWS Halftrak Photos

The SWS Schwerer Wehrmachtschlepper halftrack was intended as a lightly armored supply vehicle.  They were also used to carry 20mm, and 37mm anti-aircraft guns, as well as 150mm rocket launchers.  Everywhere I look, I find different production numbers for the individual versions but there seem to have been at least 500 manufactured in various configurations, and probably many more.  There was also one with an unarmored cab.

Recently I have posted a few photos of an SWS halftrack that has a camouflage paint job.  The same halftrack has appeared in a number of different set up.  This caused a few people to ask if it is the only SWS halftrack in my collection.  The SWS series is one of the oldest Roco Minitanks ever made.  They come in six versions, but sadly, don't make the unarmed cab version.  They are also some of the oldest vehicles in my collection as I likely have not purchased a new one in the package in at least 20 years.

Here is a company of them employed as armored infantry vehicles.  Two Kubelwagen and one SWS command radio version.  I got this in a collection I purchased forever ago and figured it was too nicely done to change.  This is the original paint job it had when I got it.

I have no evidence that the SWS halftrack was ever used as an armored infantry carrier, and no evidence of even troops simply riding in the back of the vehicle.  Back in olden times we could not get HO scale SdKfz 251 armored infantry carrier halftracks so we use the Matchbox or Eadai / Arii / Grip versions in 1/76th scale.  Even so they were much more expensive than the Roco SWS and so it was not uncommon to improvise and use the SWS instead or in addition to the 1/76th scale versions.

The first platoon, all Roco, the platoon commander has the 37mm anti-tank gun on top, and the three others have light machine guns.  I painted these probably 30 years ago.  One dot at a time with the brush.  I added a few other details that will be seen later.

Second platoon, no machine gun, but I have them ready to install.  These came painted and marked like this.

Third infantry platoon also came like this.  Years ago my wargame group and I purchased two collections that were in excess of a thousand vehicles.   I got a lot of these in that purchase as no one else was interested.