Mystery Armored Car

This is a small resin HO 1/87th scale German WWII armored car.

It is essentially a 222 armored car without a turret.

I am not actually sure of the designation of this vehicle.

I am not even sure who made it.

I think it is from Bill, Junior, but I am not sure.

It is an okay model.  I found it in a zip lock type baggie with no markings in one of my spares boxes.  Who knows how long it has languished there?  I am thinking about giving it to the Luftwaffe as an air/ground liasion vehicle.

Condor

The Curtis Condor, an airliner from the 1930's, a great model for pulp games.

It's some weird box scale, 1/81st scale.  It still works for 1/72nd scale in my opinion.

I replaced the original teeny tiny crew with 1/72nd scale pilots.

The kit has either wheels or pontoons and two different engine versions.

The window glass is way too small, I had to use Testors window maker to make them fit.

The wing struts have a combination of locater holes and nothing to make sure some of them fit properly.  After a huge amount to tweaking the wings still don't quite fit right, but I eventually got it to fit together.

Curtis Condor

I got a Curtis Condor years ago at a kit show.

It is a very old kit that has been re-issued, and the wheels have been upgraded.

It's a beautiful aircraft, not unlike a Curtis Commando C-46 as a biplane.

The decal sheet gives an American Airline or Byrd Antarctica versions.

I built mine as the airliner and so I had a lot of bits left over.

Upstairs Downstairs

MRS Bunkermeister and I have been watching Upstairs Downstairs.  She never saw it before, I have seen most of it on broadcast TV.

There is not much war in it as such.

The show follows the household of a member of Parliament from about 1900 to about 1930. 

It is an excellent study of the home front from various colonial wars to the middle of the Inter-War Era.

It is sort of a soap opera, the special effects are not fantastic, but they have excellent period cars and clothing and furniture.

There are five seasons, and we have watched the first three, it is an excellent show.

Steel

Steel is essential for modern warfare.  These slag cars are for removing waste material from a steel mill.

They are very important and lots of them are often found at active steel mills. 

They are a specialized car and are not found anywhere else.

This is a Walters three pack kit, three identical models with different numbers on the end.

The kit is pretty easy, the instructions are not that great.  I got three, for use with my Walthers Steel Mill kits.  They are HO scale and precolored in a nice gray.  Stalingrad was fought in part over steel mills!

Wargame Time

While at Orchard Supply Warehouse the other day, MRS Bunkermeister found this little clock in the sign section.  It actually was part of a "CLOSED" sign.  I cut the other part off.

When I play wargames the time of day is important.  Night and dusk are times of limited visibility.  So it is important to know when those times are for game purposes.  Having a game clock displayed is very helpful.

We count each game turn as an hour on the clock.  That's why an offensive will begin at dawn or a little before, it gives you more daylight to attack in.  Or maybe attack at night and use your night vision gear. 

Merry Christmas!

Psalm 144

King James Version (KJV)

 

144 Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:

 

² My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me.

³ Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!

⁴ Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

⁵ Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

⁶ Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.

⁷ Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children;

⁸ Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.

⁹ I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.

¹⁰ It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.

¹¹ Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:

¹² That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:

¹³ That our garners may be full, affording all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets:

¹⁴ That our oxen may be strong to labour; that there be no breaking in, nor going out; that there be no complaining in our streets.

¹⁵ Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.

 

Completed Church

This is the overhead view of the completed church, that started out as a bird house.

The back is still pretty fancy.

The door and the stained glass window are very apparent in this side view.

The other side view, all four windows are different.

The front view, it turned out to be a pretty good looking church in my opinion.  The whole project was very cheap and only took a short while to do once I got all the bits together.

Merry Christmas!

Church Windows & Spire

I used Goo on my church to stick the doors to the walls.

Going on line I printed out photos of stained glass windows.  I covered them with clear sheet plastic.

I put Goo on the plastic edges and stuck the printed photo on the clear plastic.  Then I put Goo inside the windows and stuck the plastic to the inside of the window.

This way I created stained glass windows for each of the openings.  Kept the birds out too!

I used paper thin plastic sheets to make crosses.

I printed out photos of several different crosses.  I glued them to the plastic and then cut them out carefully.  That gave me a selection of little crosses for each spire top.

Church Details

The masking tape has been removed.  I like to use the blue masking tape because it is very easy to remove.

The blue ribbon goes on, it added a little extra glue to the glue on the back of the paper.

Once done the door really stands out against the wall.

I decided to add the yellow and blue tape to break up the outline of the church.

I applied the glue by putting a little on the paper and then wearing this glove, spreading the glue with my finger.

Church Stripes

This paper ribbon was for sale at a local craft store.

ST Basil in Red Square has all kinds of detail work. 

I figured it would work as a bit of scrolly stuff around the door.

It looks good and it sets the door off from the brown walls.

It was only a few bucks and it came in long strips.

There were four different patterns.

I selected the blue with the most white because it seemed to start out the best from the brown background.