T34, T62, Boxes

I got some open boxes from Amazon.  Here is a Roco Minitanks T-34 tank converted into an armored recovery vehicle.

The cardboard box is very white and is helpful for taking quick photos.

I have a lot of WWII and a few post WWII T-34 ARVs in the collection.

This is the photo box.

It's about a foot square.

It is also a bit disconcerting on it's own.

Which box is the inside and which is the outside?

This is my next big Cold War Soviet Union project, upgrading my T62 forces.
 

Soviet Skip Loaders and Painting Eggs

I buy a lot of little Chinese made die cast vehicles.

Many are generic construction equipment such as this skip loader.  I am no expert on skip loaders so they all look about the same to me.  So now that it has been painted, it is officially a Cold War era skip loader from the Soviet Unions' Red Army.  Along with it's comrades in the back.

More die cast vehicles, this time two decontamination trucks and a cargo truck.  Various countries in the old Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe made military equipment and sometimes it was used by the old Soviet Union.  Decon trucks are conversions from three vehicles.

More T54 tanks in for servicing and some freshly painted cargo box trucks.  Note tanks without hulls in the background of the photo.

I use this tube on the end of my electric drill motor to mix cans of spray paint.  It goes 40 seconds one way and 40 seconds the other way.  I use an old rag to help keep the paint can firmly inside the pipe.  Then just pull the rag and it drags the paint can right out.  Makes a lot of difference on mixing the paint well.  I also shake it up and down the old fashioned way a few shakes and as I paint.

I keep a bit of rubber exercise mat by the basement door and use it to kneel on sometimes if I need to be low and close in while taking photos or spray painting.  Gravel is hard on the knees.

Easter is a nice time to harvest a selection of eggs.  These formerly colorful eggs are being painted gloss white for use by Batman Villain Egghead.  They have been flipped upside down and are waiting for a second coat.  It will probably take three coats.  A couple of the sort of foam plastic eggs are not likely to pass inspection, their surface is scruffy looking when not colorful!
 

Tank Maintenance

Note the road wheels.  The front of the vehicle is to your left.  The gap between the first and second road wheel is supposed to be to the front, as it is in this picture.  It's hard to see but the small front wheel has sprockets on it.  The sprockets are supposed to be on the back wheel.  So you can assemble the vehicle wrong with the road wheel gap at the rear or wrong with the drive sprocket to the front.  Maddening.

The upper and lower hulls often don't fit well together, so they have to be glued and held in place with clamps.

Sometimes the upper hulls can be so warped I have had to use some very big clamps.  I selected having the road wheel gap at the front because it is more visible than the sprocket teeth.  I could cut the teeth off the drive wheel at the front to make it look more like an idler wheel, but that's more work that it's worth to me.  I could also use plastic rod to make new sprocket teeth and glue them on the rear idler wheel but unless I was only making one or two of these the amount of work is just too much.

The missing hatch has been replaced with sheet plastic and a bit of paint splashed over it for now.  It will cover up nicely when spray painted.  Note the little white tab inside the gun mount.  It helps to keep the gun from drooping by making the space where the gun fits into the turret narrower.

I put a little Model Master liquid cement, wait a moment and then place the very thin bit of sheet plastic on the inside of the turret opening.  I push it into the dimple with tweezers.

I had to do this on probably 80% of my T54 models.  Most are very old and have been campaigning for decades.

I got these tanks used decades ago, and yet, I could match the color from my paint collection.  It's exact.

Many of these old tanks were painted with the turrets on!  So the space under the turret was not painted.  Not a problem until the asymmetrical turret turns and shows the original Roco plastic color!

This buff old soldier has been touched up, tuned up, and revved up and is ready for war.  Games that is.
 

More Rock Monster

Giganto is a monster that has been associated with Fantastic Fours first villain foe, Mole Man.

Mole Man had a monster called Giganto who does his bidding.  He has had several looks and this figure certainly would work for a 1/72nd scale version of that monster.

The rock in his hand is removable.

Without the rock he has a nice gripping pose hand.

Shown here with an unlucky Matchbox WWII US Army soldier.  About 1/76th scale.

So a decent sized 1/72nd scale monster.  They make a couple versions of rock and lava monsters that are similar to this one.