Caesar Miniatures WWII German Panzer Crews

1/72nd scale Caesar Panzer Crews. This dismounted troop is firing his machine gun. The older style machine gun was retained for tanks because the round barrel was better for bow machine guns. As you can see he is firing over the front end of a 1/87th scale Roco conversion of a Panzer III munitions carrier.

Apart from the MG man most in this set are relaxed. The officer here is taking a break.

The Roco Stug III with a tired crewman at the end of the barrel. You have to click on the picture for the large size version of the picture to enjoy the character in these guys.

This pair would fit next to a tank, in the hatch or inside an armored artillery gun like a Wespe.

This is the most unique soldier in the group. He is the tank commander half figure. But wait theres more. Tune in morrow to find out what more!

Orion AA Gun

I am working on the Orion Soviet heavy AA machine gun in 1/72nd scale soft plastic.

The kit needs to have the center disc drilled out to accommodate the legs. Once that is done I coat all the pieces with Bestine N-Heptane.

I drilled out a big trio of holes into a .80 piece of plastic. Using Zap-A-Gap CA+ glue I glued the legs to the center disc. Then I glued the bottom of the legs into the holes using epoxy. The tripods were held in place by the weight of various tools. I then glued the AA gun, ammo box and gunner with triggers on the base and machine gun tripod.

These products are sold in hobby shops and art supply stores. The heptane prepares the surface of the plastic for the CA glue.

I put a drop of each part of the epoxy on the tiny stamp size bit of aluminum foil for mixing. A toothpick is for mixing the glue. I use the round toothpicks because they are stronger than flat ones and they allow you to roll the toothpick between my fingers to help distribute the glue.

MTSC

Toy Soldier Co. Owner Charged with Ripping off Movie Director Peter Jackson - Royal Oak, MI Patch

Over the years I have referred people to Michigan Toy Soldier Company as a good place to buy plastic army men. I no longer recommend them. The owner, according to news reports was convicted of using a customer credit card to charge purchases for his business without the knowledge or consent of the credit card holder. The charges were in excess of $150,000.00! The victim was Peter Jackson, the movie director who gave us the Lord of the Rings and the remake of King Kong.

The owner did not make a mistake. He did not charge Mr. Jackson’s credit card in error. The owner made an immoral decision to steal money from Mr. Jackson. The excuse that he did it to save his business is irrelevant. The excuse that he did it to save the jobs of his employees is also irrelevant. The excuse that Mr. Jackson could afford it is irrelevant as well.

Other companies have gone out of business rather than turn to crime. There are plenty of rich people out there, but their money is not our money to take because they can afford the loss. I don’t care how nice the employees are, or how well stocked the store is, or how competitive the prices. I will never shop there again, and I will do business with legitimate companies, not crooks. This hobby is filled with decent, honest, hard working people and this kind of activity makes us all look bad to the general public who know little about us other than one of use stole money from Mr. Jackson. I hope that full restitution with interest is paid to Mr. Jackson and that he continues to have fun with his little soldiers, thus spake the Bunkermeister.

Bunker Talk

A little behind the scenes glimpse of the Bunker Talk facilities world headquarters.

I use a small photo studio my wife got me on line from Harriot Carter. It was less than $100.

There is a large twin fluorescent light above the set up. The lights on each side provide the lights that eliminate most of the shadows. I use a Kodak EasyShare Z915 with 10 megapixels, less than $150 at Target.

Other photos are taken directly off my workbench or outside on my patio or in my backyard.

Recognize This?

If you have not seen the movie Tron, get it and see it. If you have not seen the movie Tron: Legacy then go see it. It is very good, but it is best to see them in order.

If you have seen the movies you recognze this, it's a Recognizer.

They fly around the Tron world and capture programs.

These die cast models are much smaller than the ones in the movie when viewed with an HO scale car, but they make a nice sci fi item.

It could be a flying machine. A portal and you walk into the center and are carried away, like a Stargate. It could be a crane, radar, sensor, weapon. It could be anything you want it to be and thats why I got a few at Toys R Us and Target stores. Made by Spin Master.

DShK

One of the largest gaps in my collection has been WWII Soviet AA protection. With the release of the Orion Soviet DShK AA MG and crew set from Orion in 1/72nd scale plastic I figured my worries were over. Not hardly. This is the basic set, three of these groups of figures and the gun. It is difficult to assemble and rather fragile. It should have been done in hard plastic, not soft or at least in glueable soft plastic.

The set only includes three guns and 15 crewmen, not a very good value considering it costs as much as a regular set. It should have included at least four guns and 20 figures in my opinion.

The box art is impressive and shows essentially what you get. AA guns and some additional guys firing at the sky.

The only instructions you get is this rather vague exploded view on the back of the box. The set does not fit together well and I had to base mine on a sheet of styrene. I used both CA glue and epoxy glue to put it together. The figure firing the gun does not fit well with the gun and the legs, ammo can and machine gun and trigger don't snap together at all. They need to be glued but this very soft plastic does not take glue well. There is also flash on some of the figures. I am glad I only need 12 of these guns, so I purchased four sets. The plastic color is good, it goes well with the Revell Soviet sets. The crewmen are fine, a loader and a gunner and pointer for each gun. The two men with submachine guns firing into the air are nice poses and in my view represent other ammo bearers that are perhaps throwing up a little extra lead.

The base I used is large enough for the gunner, and the loader and pointer to stand on. I glued the gunner on the base and to the gun for greater strength as this builds up as a fragile piece. I drilled large holes in the base for the legs and slathered them with glue.

Flying monkeys are the natural capitalist enemies of the Soviet people.

Flying Monkeys

While at a local art supply store I came across these flying monkeys.

These are monkeys like those from the movie The Wizard of Oz.

Four of them for $3, made by a company called Accoutrements, http://www.accoutrements.com/.

I have no idea what I will do with these figures, the fez would imply that they are domesticated.

These monkeys are about the size of the ones in the movie. They fit pretty good with 1/72nd scale figures. Maybe they will end up populating a pulp island fortress.

1,000 Posts

Bunker Talk has reached over a thousand posts.

Thank you for reading my blog and please tell all your friends. This takes about an hour a day and I publish every day. My hope was to be at a 100 followers by now and we are at 80.

If you have a website, please link to me and I will link back. If you have friends in the hobby, please ask them to follow this blog.

I hope that you find this blog useful and if you do, post a comment, ask a question and send others here to read the blog!

Bunkermeister

Painting Jars

The Martains do everything in threes. So I need to get two more UTZ pretzel jars to make into Martian cylinders. These jars have been prepared for painting. The labels have been removed. Spray them with WD-40 and let them sit for a few hours. It then loosens the glue and the label is easy to peel off. I put them inside a plastic bag to hold in the vapors.

The lids have had the UTZ molded on markings buffed off with the wire brush and Dremel tool. The on the right has been primer painted on the inside already. It looks like a really glossy paint job when you paint a clear plastic bottle with primer from the inside.

Both lids have been painted in the inside.

All four parts have been painted on the inside waiting to dry.

Painting the inside of a big jar is a very time consuming task. The paint and air flow inside and the air wants to come back out, creating a very confused mix of air flow. Now to do the outside of the jars and lids with primer paint.

HaT Wagons

Prototype HaT Industrie WWI German wagon. 1/72nd scale hard plastic.

Prototype HaT Industrie WWII German wagon in hard plastic, 1/72nd scale.

Wagons can be bare wood, gray, green or even camouflage.

While the horses are a bit small, I like them a lot. The wagons are flash free and fit together perfectly.

A Roco Stug III with the HaT wagon. A nice pair of models.

DAK

Italeri soft plastic Africa Corps figures in 1/72nd scale.

These figures have no flash and are nicely animated.

They only require the mortar bipod to put on the mortar guy and you are ready to go.

Three identical sprues. As you can tell from this close up photo, the detail is awesome.
These will go well with there Motorcycle set.

Wagons

Assembled photos of the prototype for the new HaT WWII wagon.

The horses are a bit on the small size, but as you can see from the photos they are certainly usable.

HaT 1/72nd scale World War I wagon.

Same horses as on the WWII wagon. Not bad, but a little small. Since they are prototypes the production horses may be larger.

I would buy 50 of them just like this and maybe swap out a few of the horses with other horses from other sets. I don't mind having a variety of different horse types in the collection.

Italeri German Paratroopers, WWII

Caesar Miniatures broke the terrible, dreaded curse of the 1/72nd scale German paratroopers. Italeri can now make 1/72nd scale German WWII paratroopers and not have the sets be terrible since the spell is broken.

The set has three identical sprues of figures in semi-hard soft plastic. The mortar bipod and the back pack radio need to be glued to the figures but that's the only assembly. These guys are in tropical uniform and are good for Africa, Sicily, and southern Russia.

The figures are flash free and have excellent detail.

All the figures are pretty good, but I don't care for the looking right, pointing the gun to the left pose. Always look in the direction your gun is pointed, or always point your gun in the direction you are looking.

This close up shows the fine detail of the figures. More pics of them soon.