Trucks

This is a Hot Wheels truck.  It comes in many colors.

The same truck with a Roco van body.

With a Roco water tanker body.

All four together.  The Hot Wheels body also fits the Roco truck, so it's a straight swap.

Storage

US Army self propelled guns.

Tanks and armored infantry.

Boley trucks.  These boxes stack.  On average they weigh about eight pounds, and can stack about eight high.

Storage

The blue lid reflecting light makes these green buildings look blue.

WWII US Army Coast Artillery.

Misc.  WWII US Army vehicles.

US Army modern, Roco and a few others.

Roco WWII US Army tank destroyers.

Vehicle Storage

My collection of vehicles is stored in plastic boxes.  They are lined with corduroy cloth to keep the vehicles from sliding around.  The cloth is held in place by a drawer liner.  Modern US Army, mostly Hot Wheels.

Modern US Army, Roco and Hot Wheels.  There is a white box like this one in every box.  I use it to store parts that have broken off or fallen off.

Roco and Lindberg modern US Army.

Roco M41 and M103.  These M41 fought Godzilla recently.

This is a scrapyard box.  It holds bits and misc. vehicles that are waiting for use in conversions and other special projects.

Police

A new Matchbox sheriff vehicle.

For near future wargames in an urban environment police vehicles are a must.

Sheriff vehicles with police.

1/72nd scale figures with sheriff cars.

The same vehicle comes in red with different markings.

In a major incident, like a Commie or Martian invasion, police from all over will respond.

Matchbox makes a nice line of police vehicles.

ATV

The US Army is developing a new ground based drone that looks a lot like this vehicle.

My plan it to take it apart and strip off the paint.

Then I will rebuild the superstructure.

It's a cute little bug of a vehicle.

It's held with only one rivet, and that makes dis-assembly easier.

Here the land drones support the troops.

Space Age Army

Many of the weapons and systems in the book Our Space Age Army were short lived, or total dead ends.  This little vehicle became the M114 series of armored recon vehicles.

The vehicle was supposed to be a low flying car.  Not enough lift to power ration and replaced by helicopters.

Other technologies, like television turned out to be very important.  Here it's a huge model, with a backpack.  Now of course, they are little cell phones!

This long range ground mounted television required a Jeep to carry it and at least two men to operate it.

Our Space Age Army

One way to do research about a specific time frame is to read contemporary publications.

Our Space Age Army is from the early 1960's and tells about the high technology US Army.

One item is this M48 tank with external television.  Note the huge air conditioner on the top.

Here is the inside view.

This is a land train.  The tires are over six feet tall.  This is a great book and I recommend it to anyone.  Amazon is where I got mine.  I am considering building a TV tank and have gathered a few parts to make an Overland Train.

Coyote 500

I wanted enough Coyotee 500's to staff an armored battalion and an mech infantry battalion.

Over the years Matchbox has changed the decals and the colors, but not the actual model.

The most recent ones were red.

I am very happy with them.

Might be a while before this project makes much more progress.

Coyote 500

Back in the Cold War there were a number of vehicles put forward to replace the venerable Jeep and M151 series vehicles.

 http://silodrome.com/lamborghini-cheetah/

Eventually the HumVee won the day, but I like to have alternate history vehicles once in a while.

Matchbox has made the Coyote 500 for a very long time and I have been gradually collecting them.

After hitting every KMart, Walmart, Target store and many others within 50 miles for the last ten years, I finally got enough of them.

Now begins the job of removing them from their package and taking them apart and stripping the paint.

This may take a while.