Mystery Truck

This Tootsietoy truck was painted in Army green when I got it.

They called it an Army troop carrier.

Something about it did not seem quite right to me.

After removing the canopy, I found out, it is there fire truck pretending to be an Army truck!

I stripped off the paint and had to remove the canopy to get to all the nooks and crannies.

Japanese Bike Troops

Generally my armies are unpainted.

I have too many to paint and I don't really like painting them much.

I have painted these white plastic figures to a solid tan so they match my other plastic Japanese.

This HaT set has nice variety.

This little dog got painted too.

Japanese Bike Troops

Japanese troops in WWII.

Bike soldiers carrying heavy loads of supplies.

Four different poses, each with a load of gear.

Japanese troops fought a very long war, in China particularly.

These bikes are easy to build and should be in shops soon.

Japanese Bike Troops

The HaT WWII Japanese Bike Troops with a few Airfix troops tossed into the mix.

The Japanese in WWII operated in many primative areas with few or poor roads.

Bikes were very helpful in moving heavy loads, mortar shells, rifle and machine gun ammo.

The dog is from a ceramic Christmas building figure. It was molded onto the base next to a lady in a long dress. He was a tiny dog next to her, but a Newfoundland in this scale.

These HaT bikes fit nicely with the Airfix figures and should do well with the other sets of 1/72nd scale plastic Japanese troops.

German Bikes

My paint was a bit old, so I had to use a lot of thinner on it.

This is my brush cleaner of choise for enamels.

The Germans getting painted a little bit at a time, so I can hold onto them.

I put my paint inside a little plastic box, in case I knock it over it won't spill so badly.

Bikes

I have been painting my WWII Japanese and WWII German bike troops by HaT in 1/72nd scale.

I have been using Model Master paints for the Germans.

This is a bit of a flashback, it is the Japanese cut off the sprue and ready for assembly.

These are pre-production versions so no instructions.

The productions versions may vary, but I found no flaws in these.

HaT Japanese Bike Troops

HaT WWII 1/72nd scale Japanese bike troops, in white, compared to the old HaT WWII German bike troop in green.

If you click on the pic it should enlarge and make it easier to see the detail.

The Japanese used a lot of bikes so these are very useful.

Airfix WWII Japanese always needed a guy with a knee mortar and a bike guy.

Just in time for the new Revell Germany Japanese; actually they are a re-release of the old Matchbox Japanese which have been out of production for years.

Helicopter

The pilot drops of critical supplies and spare parts.

The ground crew inspects the chopper for it's next flight.

They know only to approach from the front quarter to avoid the blades and so the pilot can see you.

The bird is almost ready to return to base.

A quick wave before the pilot acends into the air!

Helicopter

The helicopter prepares for take off.

The ground crew makes sure everything is ready.

Helicopters require one hour of maintenance for every hour in the air.

At the jungle clearing the ground crew is ready for the arrival of the helicopter.

The chopper lands in a small clearing, no conventional aircraft could land here.

Helicopter

The chopper when together well, but there was a couple assemblies that reqired five hands.

Makes up a nice whirleybird.

This guy wears the helmet so he must be the pilot.

His hands fit perfectly on the controls.

A very nice little toy that will see lots of action I am sure.

Helicopter

I got a 60mm helicopter from MPC off eBay recently.

It's probably 60 years old.

All the bits are here too.

I laid out the bits and trimmed off the flash.

It comes with a unique helmet, I have seen photos of the helmet before but never actually saw one in person. It's very nice.