Museum

The inside of a weasel.

Another type of weasel.

I like getting photos of unusual vehicles, then if you find something in a model RR shop or toy store that is close you can use it for airfields and construction.

You don't get to see photos of many tactical road rollers or bulldozers but they were essential to move supplies and build airfields.

German Kubelwagen via Wayne Wanner, Master Modeller.

Museum

 Master Modeller Wayne Wanner knows one of the keys to excellent model building it great information.  One of the best ways to gather information is to visit museums.  Even small out of the way places may have a great museum, someones only one great vehicle is enough to provide you with information that can be useful.  This military museum is in Lexington, Nebraska.

Some vehicles, like this one are very rare.

Note the color difference between this photo and the previous one.

Sometimes the light in a museum can play havoc with photography.  Review your digital photos while you are still on site.

Sometimes vehicles in museums are not painted in the original colors, or may even have been civilian vehicles with civilian colors or civilian modifications.

Guard Shack

This is the metal guard shack I repainted.

They both turned out very nice.

They look good with the 60mm Marx guard.

I have two and so can secure one gate really well, or two gates!

Dollar Tree

Tombstone Corners by Dollar Tree.

This is a three pack of gargoyles.

They are already painted nicely.

They are a pretty good size and should work for any scale from 15mm to 70mm on the top of buildings.

They do have a bit of a Disney look to them.

Still they are pretty good in my opinion.

They fit nicely with the other items from Dollar Tree.

They say they are a decoration only not a toy.

Gate

The Dollar Tree Halloween items include a fence and gate.  I did not get the fence because it was very short and not that interesting to me, but the gate is cool.

The pillars have a gargoyle on top.

It's pretty creepy and just big enough for a large car.

With a change in the top of the pillars it might end up as the gate to stately Wayne Manor.

Bones Gazebo

Dollar Tree is selling Halloween items now.

I am not sure what I will use this for, but it might work for a haunted house, vampire, or other very bad guy scenario.

As you can see, it is a very nice size.

I suppose it will end up with some kind of superhero game.

Part of some super villain lair no doubt.

Staggerwing

I am working on a 1/72nd scale Staggerwing aircraft model.

It's from a company called Sword.  There are no crew figures so they came from the spares box.

The instructions are pretty basic, but good enough.

It's a very attractive early war aircraft.

It may also fight the Martians in 1938.

Guard Shacks

Months ago I went to the West Coaster Toy Soldier Show and got one of these guard houses.

I got my first one there several years ago, shown here with a 60mm Marx recast figure.

I soaked them in Simple Green to remove the paint.

Then I sprayed them with $1 white spray paint from Wal-Mart.

It took a couple coats to get the coverage I wanted. 

 Better two thin coats than one thick one.

Then I painted the guard shacks with Rust-oleum.

Deep Forest Green is pretty close to Olive Drab.

They came out okay I think.

Electra

 My Lockheed Electra has resin engines.

They get glued to the plastic covers.  I used superglue to hold it in well.

I converted these two figures to be my pilot and navigator.  He was wearing a trench coat and I cut it down.  She had a skirt and I cut it down to pants.  I also cut off their heads and put new heads on from Preiser.
 

The kit does not have tabs to hold the halves together so I improvised some with sheet styrene.

Soviet Storage

I have been upgrading my storage for my WWII Soviet Union collection.  Here are some 57mm anti-tank guns for my Tank Corps from Plastic Soldier Company.

Mir M60 tanks with turret removed with Katusha rockets installed for my Tank Corps.

Each artillery battalion gets a small HQ and a flag.  WWII Russians did not have a lot of radios and field phones and so flags could be important.

Tank Corps 37mm anti-aircraft guns from Zvezda.