The Monster and The Lady

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Conquered_the_World  It Conquered the World was a very good science fiction movie.

In the movie Beverly Garland grabs her lever action rifle and shoots the creature, who kills her.

Still she is unafraid.  

A passing Army patrol kills the monster.

These monsters are not quite like the one in the movie, but are close enough for my purposes.

This woman is a great stand in for Beverly Garland.

She is from Atlantic, in 1/72nd scale.

 Here she is in the cave ready to take on the monster.

 http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=537  She is from the Outlaws and Sheriffs set.

Bison

Toobs makes an American West set that includes long horn cattle.

And an American Bison, Buffalo.  

They are about 1/48th scale, so too big for my 1/72nd scale collection.

However, I cut off the horns from both animals, and then drill a small hole in the side of the head of the buffalo and the long horn horns.  Then I insert a tiny piece of wire into the horn.  Next, I use a little gap filling super glue to coat the wire and press the horn, with the wire, into the hole on the side of the buffalo horn.

The result is a very nice, Bison Latifrons, the ancient and very large, buffalo, which is now transformed into a 1/72nd scale model.

Cavemen

My "prehistoric humans" collection is getting some attention.  These tan figures are by Phersu Miniatures, they are resin in 1/72nd scale.  I have added a seated drummer and a standing man by Imex and Pegasus.  Many American Indian figures work well for ancient Europeans.

These tan figures are Barbarians by Esci / Italeri.  I added a few more Imex figures.  By added figures from other sets I can include more women and children and various weapons and equipment that the original sets did not have in them.

These gray guys are ancient Germans by Caesar Miniatures.  They were all male, so they got an influx of females and a few other bits.  I generally back dated them by removing shields and swords, but keeping clubs and spears and knives.

Phersu Miniatures makes these more primitive primates, I am not sure what they are supposed to be, but I use them as a very ancient, nearly extinct, hominid form.

Ancient pigs and cats, also from Phersu.  I added bases to all the Phersu figures because the tiny resin legs are fragile and this keeps them from being broken.

Flying Monster

I visited the LA County Museum of Natural History recently and purchased this at their gift shop.

It makes a great Rodan, the flying monster.

While I am not sure that's what the scientists at the museum expected, it's what works for me.

Of course there were two Rodans in the movie, so I had to get a couple of them.

Shown here with 1/72nd scale Strelets WWI horse cavalry.

One interesting way to expand your science fiction gaming is to change the context of the monster.  Cowboys and Aliens did that a few years ago by giving us flying saucer stories in the context of the American West.  Here we have Rodan, and 1950's Japanese monster being used against WWI American cavalry.

WOTW and Artillery

Close up of the guns with their new wheels.

The US Army developed the Long Tom 155mm guns in the late 1930's, just in time for WWII.

They replaced the barrel with a 203mm gun and little other change to make a more powerful gun.

Both were very accurate and widely used in WWII.

I use the Roco versions for WWII, but I use these Tootsietoy versions for the immediate pre-war guns.

These guns get served by my Strelets WWI Americans.

When the Martians attack in 1938, these guys will be there to meet them.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g

Artillery

Sometimes I go on eBay and buy used Tootsietoy  artillery.  I look for the worst ones I can find so I can get them at the cheapest prices.  Then I strip the paint, repair any damage, primer it, paint it and add new wheels.  In this case the back end and the barrel were broken off.

 I added a new barrel from a Roco 8 inch artillery piece, usually these guns are 155mm.

That gives me a battery of 155mm and a single 203mm howitzer.

Which one is the original?

A battery of 155mm and an 8 inch together.

Strelets WWI US Army artillery crews.

Merry Christmas and Horse Training

 More horse barriers.

 Many of the horse breakers for the German Army were female, since the men were in the Army.

 So I set up a unit of women riding horses to train remounts for the Army.

 Some of those who were doing the horse training were older men.

This Emhar figure has been slightly modified to make him a horse training supervisor.

Plants and Barriers

This organization was responsible for training German horses in World War Two.

This barrier has been repainted, and then flocked.

I also added some extra plantlife for a more interesting piece of terrain.

The plants come in several colors and they just stick on.

I add a little extra glue to help hold up to wargaming.

Horses and Air Defense

Here are some horse trainers.

These are some HO scale horses that I got and mounted onto bases.

Extra horses wait their turn in the background.

Since they will be in my WWII German units, I added a few Air Protection League figures to watch for Allied air attack.

I keep most of my figures in plastic boxes and label them like this, the era, the nation, and the specific figure types on the lid of the box.