M41 Tank

The Walker Bulldog is one of the most attractive tanks ever made, in my opinion.

These tanks were often seen on TV and movies, often as WWII German or American.

This looks a lot like a miniature M60A1 tank.

These tanks saw service for a long time, and were often up gunned or had engines replaced in foreign armies.

 

The ARVN used them in the Viet Nam War.



Walker Bulldog

This Huey Cobra gunship is outside the Yuma Proving Ground.

Entrance to the side gate.

M-41 Walker Bulldog, light tank.

In some ways it was like being at a full size Roco catalog!

This plaque is dedicated to General Walker, the tank was named after him.

M47

There are lots of little lighting parts on the front end of a tank.

The stars they painted on are rather small and I suspect in the late 1950's this tank may have had much larger white starts on it.

This tank was in pretty good shape, but some of the small bits were broken or missing parts.

A good view of the turret nose. 

With shoes and a hat on that guy has gotta be at least 6 feet four inches tall, so that's a pretty big tank!

M47 in Yuma

This M47 from Yuma looks great.  The numbers are painted on very well.

 

The storage box on the back of the turret is a distinctive feature.  Later US tanks went with a wire basket for storage.

This plaque was in with the tank.

This is a awesome tank.  Platoons of 5 and three platoons with two HQ tanks for 17 in a company.

 

 

This tank has had the bow machine gun plated over.  This was the last US tank fielded with a bow MG.

SWS

When I disposed of my old Roco Panther tanks, I had some left over machine guns.

One of them landed on the front of this SWS halftrack.

It has been converted into the flamethrower version!

Here is the standard SWS halftrack.

I had a few extra wheels, so one when on the back of the halftrack.

 

 

The pin in the center deck was missing and I replace it with window pane glue.

M47 Patton Tank, Yuma

One of my favorite tanks, the M47, at the Yuma Army Proving Grounds Museum.

As evidenced by the chain being down and the tracks in the sand, this tank was recently returned to this concrete pad.

You can also see the dust tracks on the concrete.

M47 was only used for a short period of time by US Army troops, most were shipped overseas to allied nations and eventually upgraded engines, fire control and even guns.

The rubber wheels are all matted down on one side.  This tank sat on display for a very long time in one place before it was moved.

The semi-gloss paint and the white markings on the tank are very early Cold War.

The big white cross on the side is one of my favorites!  I got a bunch of these from Roco.

SWS Halftrack, Roco

An old friend, the Roco SWS halftrack.

The soldier is a 1/76th scale Matchbox German officer.

I used window pane maker from Testors to fill in the hole to create this version of the halftrack.

Cut open the top and add a 37mm ATG and you have a platoon leader version.

Here from the back.

These small Matchbox figures work pretty well as armored infantry.

Bradley

The US Army, infantry fighting vehicle, Bradley.

The Yuma Museum has been recently upgraded, judging by the vehicles, they all looked great.

Typical of American military vehicles from the South West.  They were often painted green if they were Army Reserve, but were repainted for Desert Storm in yellow, and repainted back to green when they came home.  The bumper codes were often not repainted and so you have the yellow under black bumper codes.  The reverse is often true for vehicles deployed from the South West.

This think is as big as a Sherman tank.  For a decade the press told us they were a terrible vehicle, as usual.

Then they proved themselves in Desert Storm and the press looked foolish, as usual.

French Commanders

http://www.ykreol.com/index.html

Caesar Miniatures and Pegasus Models have both done WWII French figures for France 1940.  Now Ykreol has announced a new set for the same time frame.

 

 

Many wargamers are reluctant to take on this period because they think it was an easy victory for the Germans.  It was a short campaign, but an intense one.  The Germans lost about 30,000 killed and over 100,000 wounded.  That's about 4,000 casualties per day for the main period of combat.  The French lost 85,000 killed and the British almost 70,000 killed.  That's some major casualties for a war that lasted only seven months and most of the major combat lasted only a month.

 

These figures would be useful for all of WWII as Free French or Vichy French troops, and some could be used for WWI as well since many of the uniforms changed little.  Don't forget there were battles in North Africa and French Indochina and at least some of these troops could find their way to those battles as well.  A useful set and I look forward to getting some.

The Dynamic Duo

These are a couple Battle Dice figures that I have converted to Batman and Robin.

They are based on the 1966 TV series, but are essentially the same as the WWII era versions.

Batman was Magneto with cape modified, ears and utility belt added and rays removed from his hands.

Robin is Cyclops and has a cape added from a Pegasus figure and a new head from Preiser.

Batmobile from Hot Wheels.  Mostly the figures are just repainted.  Most superheros wear tights and maybe a cape so one general figure will serve for most of them.