T-34 ARV

This Roco Minitank might be 50 years old.

In the 1970s I was reading about Soviet Union making armored recovery vehicles out of the T34.

The simple version is remove the turret, weld over the hold in the hull top, and add a hatch.

I added a couple tow cables.

And some tools.  This model sat unpainted for over 40 years until this week.  Not detail painted, but good enough for wargaming.
 

Cold War Soviet Engineer Gear

This is the rocket launcher that was hiding under yesterdays tent.  I am not sure what it is actually supposed to be.

The tent from yesterday for comparison.

 A group of large cargo trucks.

Support vehicles from my heavy engineer unit.  Note road rollers on the left side.

AVLB on T54 chassis.

Note the upper left a farm tractor, used for towing large aircraft, and the small van that had it's roof repaired a while ago when it was blue.

 Another view of the skip loaders.

Cold War Soviet Union

HO scale BMP, Cold War Soviet Union.  At least four different companies made these.  Hard to find models of it in HO.

Roskopf motorcycles, I got a ton of these in a used collection years ago.

ARV and TOG by SDV.

Plastic dump trucks.  Heavy engineer unit to install the big bridge.

This big green tent was part of the original packaging to this model.  I painted it green and use it as a cover for the rocket launcher that belongs underneath.

A couple die cast generic scoop loaders, the back of the rocket launcher and BRDM-2.
 

New Boxes

I have been working on upgrading my old Cold War Soviet Union  collection.  Here are some armored fighting vehicles used by airborne troops.  The bridge is a cheap copy of the Airfix Baily Bridge.  Such items used to be common in the dollar stores decades ago.

After at least 3 decades of making a nice big underbed storage box that was perfect for my collection, so perfect that I built my storage shelved around those boxes, Sterilite decided to re-imagine them.  They are still the same height, but are wider and shorter, with the same volume as the old boxes.  But they don't fit the same in my shelves.  So I am having to re-imagine my storage solutions to fit the new box.  

Here are some of the Cold War Soviet vehicle that have been completed during this Cold War Soviet Union upgrade.  Each of these vehicles has had all the parts inspected, repaired, replaced, painted and then minimal detail painting done.  There are over 40 vehicles in this box alone.

I take a 3x5 card and tape it to the inside of the box.  The name of the collection is in big bold marker letters and then the contents in smaller letters.  Obviously this one has been changed and the card will have to be replaced before this project is over.

Another view of the bridge and the BMDs.

 Motorcycles, BMP, and dump trucks all in the box.  These are actually in a waiting room box and will be sorted into the correct box at the conclusion of the painting, repair and upgrades.  I usually put bubble wrap on the bottom of the box to prevent vehicles from sliding around on the smooth surface.