Bunker Strong Point

This small raised pile of sandbags is perfect for a forward observer, company command post or just a machine gun nest.

It's painted and flocked the same as the bunkers to tie them together visually.

Many of you instantly recognize this old standby from Fujimi, the terrain piece that came with a set of their German troops.

I used Testors Light Tan for the dirt color in the trench and the shell hole.  Then flocked it as usual.

The two bits work pretty good together, with the Fujimi part as a communications trench.

All these small pieces together with a Roco SWS halftrack and a few German troops.  Together they make a pretty nice strong point.

More Talk About Bunkers on Bunker Talk

Two of the same bunker as shown yesterday.

I painted them in a tan, dark brown, dark green using the type of colors used to paint tanks of the period.

This is a larger bunker.  I could hold a 50mm or 75mm gun.  It would have to be mounted inside the bunker, there is no way to get a towed gun inside.

The three bunkers are all painted with the same colors and the same general pattern, it brings a certain unity to the bunkers so they look good together.

The flocking is Woodland Scenics, Blended Turf, Green Blend.  I paint on a thick layer of green poster paint and then sprinkle on the grass.  Then I spray it with the Woodland Scenics white glue, and finally a spray of Testors Dullcote.

The paints are mostly Tamyia, but the concrete is Aged Concrete by Floquil; which is not longer in production.

The roof comes off to move the troops around inside.

Bunkers at Bunker Talk

My friend COL Jim gave me a small collection of unpainted resin bunkers, this is one of them.

MRS Bunkermeister says it looks like a Flintstones house.

Its a WWII era German machine gun bunker.

It's perfect for 1/72nd scale troops.  The flocking is the same color as my gaming table, which is covered in dark green indoor / outdoor carpeting.

The roof comes off, there is no significant detail inside.  German bunkers often had steel doors, this one does not come with that.

Holy Woodlawn Police Station, Batman!

The Batmobile arrives at Woodlawn Police Station!

The Dynamic Duo make a Dynamic Departure from the Batmobile!

Despite being HO 1/87th scale, but building works fine with 1/72nd scale figures in my opinion.

Placing Batman & Robin in a more natural setting helps to make them appear even better than when photographed alone.

Now the scene is complete.  Look for more exciting adventures with the Woodlawn Police Station.

Woodlawn Police Station

This Life-Like kit has probably been around nearly 40 years, I got one decades ago.  My friend Richard gave me this one about a week ago.

It is molded in gray plastic, but comes pre-painted in the basic colors.

I painted the mortar in between the bricks on three sides and a few other small details.

They give you bars for the four big windows at the rear, but I am saving them for another project.

The building is generic enough to use for many purposes, bank, police station, embassy,  office building.

With the air conditioning unit on the roof it is a 20th Century building.  I plan on doing a bit more work to the roof and the interior.

No Triumphant Procession

No Triumphant Procession, The Forgotten Battles of April 1945, by John Russell, Arms and Armour Press, 1994.  This book is about British soldiers fighting the Germans at the end of World War Two.

This is a fantastic book for wargamers.  The British forces include tanks, infantry, armored infantry, and tactical air support.  The Germans include air support including jet bombers.  Their infantry are primarily Kreigsmarine troops converted into infantry from redundant U-Boat crews and others.  They also include Herr, SS, Hitler Youth and many other troops types.  The KM are the main troops and they fought surprisingly well this late in the war.

This book is fill of TO&E information for building wargame armies.  They discuss the weapons, aircraft, and vehicles and artillery in great detail.  While this book was not written as a wargame book, it certainly is perfect for wargaming.

Quick Robin, To the Bat Computer!

Have you ever taken apart a computer printer?  My daughter was dumping an old one, so I salvaged it for wargaming parts.  These things have about a thousand pieces.

The circuit boards are good for use as miniature computers.  Back in the 1950's and 1960's computers were often huge devices.  http://the-eniac.com/

Now the previous occupants of my daughters printer are not The Bat Computer!

The Bat Cave was always noted for having the latest in technological innovation.

Here we see Batman and Robin operate the crime solving Bat Computer.

The flip side works too!

And the best part of all, is that it was free!

UFO or US Army?

The same episode of The Big Picture had these drawings of a future US Army craft.

Pretty cool stuff, in my opinion.

US Army, UFOs, with rockets projectors on the top near the canopy.

Troops dismount and attack!  I love the helmets with the radio and the external body armor too.  Who needs Science Fiction gaming, just play the projected US Army.

The Big Picture

A couple days ago I was watching an old TV show produced by the US Army called The Big Picture.  It presented information about the Army and it ran from about 1950 until about 1971.  This episode from the 1960's described the Army of the 1970's.  It showed this drawing a Future MBT.

This is a future shotgun.  Note the pistol grip at the front and the curved sleeve for the right arm.

Airmobile artillery, sort of Osprey meets Puff the Magic Dragon!

The MIFV.  For decades the US Army tried to replace the M113 with a fighting vehicle that the troops could stay inside and fight from. I remember in the 1970's they called it the Mythical Infantry Fighting Vehicle.  It looks a lot like the Soviet BMP in this picture.  Eventually, it became the Bradley and ironically after the first few versions the rifle ports were welded up and the troops could no longer fight from inside the vehicle.

This is some sort of infantry transport, I like the mini-gun on the front.

That howitzer from Yuma that I did not recognize, here it is again, they were supposed to be attached to the Chinook helicopter.  Thanks to A. Kempees for the updated information.

This very low prime mover never saw the light of day.  Probably just as well.