Random Photos of My Collection

This year is  the year I get my basement in order.  I have been buying boxes and finally go the sheds assembled.  I hope to clear off the tables someone this year.  The project includes building some racks to hold boxes and installing a second railing on my basement stairs for safety.  Dollar Tree row houses, Godzillasauruas in the back yards.

The last several years I have been working on a project to make police for some East Coast US jurisdictions and some West Coast ones for the years 1898 to 2018.  These are most of the actual cars that have been allocated for the East Coast.  Many will get new markings and some will be repainted.  This does not include most of the trucks, command centers, SWAT vehicles, nor fire trucks and other emergency vehicles.

Base temporary markings for a figure I am making.  James Bond in Thunderball, 007.

The original figure is 1/75th scale, hard plastic made in China, and comes in a bag of 100 rather generic civilian figures with a small number of poses.  Many companies sell these on ebay and Amazon.  Some painted, some not painted, in several variations of size, and quality and pose number.

The figure after mounting on a base and swapping the head.  In my role playing rules major figures get a hexagon shaped plastic base.  Stats will go on the underside of the base.  The character name my go on a plaque on the upper base or written on the bottom.  Being styrene plastic these are very easy to convert and I swap legs, heads, arms, even bodies all the the time since the poses are limited.  I save every unused body part and they often get used up in other projects so I don't have to sacrifice a whole figure each time.

Mr. Bond with an HO 1/87 scale Austin Martin.

It is a small car and he is a big guy, but it seems very small with the scale difference.

These figures paint up pretty well even with my marginal painting skills.

Bond, James Bond.
 

Sheds

After sitting in a stack of parts in my driveway for nine years, my two sheds are finally together.

Three of our kids decided to visit and naturally I put them to work on an old fashioned barn raising.  These two shed served for at least ten years in California mounted on a concrete pad.  Here they will sit on graded gravel in the wind and the snow.  They are made by Lifetime and they are terrific.

I am placing only replaceable items into the sheds.  So in the event of catastrophe the contents can be replace by insurance money.  Not the case with many hobby items.

The first items are my collection of miniature trees.  All mounted on sheets of plastic or on old CDs.  Fully painted, flocks, and well cared for.  All very tidy.

Each box is labeled with the contents.  It's not hoarding if the boxes are labeled. 

An insect catching sticky pad and a moisture trap on the shelf it insure the integrity of the collection.  The shed walls and roofs have been reinforced with metal straps to hold the plastic pieces together, the floor has been nailed to the ground with 10 inch nails.  The seams have been sealed with foam or glue to prevent leakage and stop insects from gaining entry.

Each shed has a wasp trap and flying insect trap to catch flying bugs.

The interior of each box has a moisture absorbing packet to further protect the contents.  Both sheds are right outside my window and I inspect the exterior at least twice a day.  They sit under a porch light.

I needed a few extra screws to finish putting them together and a quick call to Lifetime and a very kind lady sent me 100 metal screws free of charge, despite the sheds being years out of warranty.  Excellent customer service.  I highly recommend their products.  Other than being a customer I don't have any connection with the company.

https://www.lifetime.com/storage-sheds  
 

Cat Car

Hot Wheels Blvd. Brusier, as part of their 2026 Batman collection 5 pack.

It has an excellent paint job as a Catwoman car.

This car has been around since 2011 and has a spare tire molded in the back that is not the same wheel as is on the car.

This is one way that Hot Wheels can recycle an old car into something new.

Since I have three Catwoman figures, having an additional Catwoman car is a good idea.

It is a good looking car, sort of a Camero or Firebird in style.

Batman vs Catwoman!
 

More Police Figures

Roco Minitanks US tank commanders and cheap plastic figures.

Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department required mandatory helmet wearing for several years in the 1980s and it looks a lot like the tanker helmet.  So I am doing head swaps for these guys.  You can also see a Cold M1919 machine gun with a white barrel.  It is a replacement barrel for an air cooled machine gun barrel that had broken off.

I am working on making bases for my police figures.

This is my standard figure basing plastic for basing figures.

The plastic is trimmed into pieces with 2 x 3 squares making a small rectangle.

Sometimes I leave them with sharp corners or smooth the corners down.

This is the bottom half of a WWII German figure by Odemars.  

Uniforms like this were very common in the US for polices, particularly those who rode on motorcycles.

So I switched his head with the head of an Airfix WWI British soldier.

The original arm position is at a low ready, but I moved the arm to more of a shooting pose.

These will become motorcycle police.  From 1910 to after WWII motorcycle police were very common because motorcycles were less expensive than automobiles and some cities fielded large fleets of them.