Armored Car Tires

Top view of the toy armored car.

I pulled it apart so I could cut off the flash.

I need to find some wheels for the armored car and make axles for it.

Wheels are spare Roco.

They are similar but different, being on different sides I figure it won't matter too much.  The hatches are resin cast that I made to replace the missing ones.
 

Armored Car

A friend of mine sent this toy armored car to me.  He buys a lot of army men on eBay and often when buying collections you get a few vehicles that are unneeded.  So he sends them to me sometimes.  Thanks Clarence!

I think it is a British armored car but not a very good likeness.

Shown here with a WWII German figure in 1/72nd scale from Odemars.

Figure has had his arm modified so the pistol is firing ahead.

 Bottom of the toy.

More Zero

This model kit was missing the engine cowl.

One of my other kits came with extra cowls and I used it to fix this one.

Fit just fine.

I add the little metal loop on the top of the canopy at the balance point of the airplane.

I use it to hang the planes from the ceiling so they can fly over the wargame table.  I do paint my aircraft but I paint them in groups and decal them together so that they look uniform.
 

Zero

Heller 1/72nd scale Japanese Zero.

I used to shop at kit collectors shows in Southern California.

For years I purchased aircraft to build once I retired.

I seldom paid more than $2 for a single seat aircraft.  Mostly they were in zip lock bags.  The kit collectors wanted the boxes often not the kits.

Now I am building the models one at a time at first.  Then once I got a few of the kits put together I built them two at a time.
 

Troop Organization

 Most of my 1/72nd scale figure collection is unpainted plastic figures that are not based.  It consists of well over 100,000 figures. Maybe double that many.  It's a lot.  I store most of them in plastic underbed storage boxes.  Those boxes are housed on shelves under my wargame table.  That way they are handy when I need them.  Each underbed storage box is labelled with the era and the figure or vehicle types.  here WWII German Inf stands for World War Two, German Infantry.  They may not actually be infantry or even solders, but they are from the World War Two era and they are Germans.

  

 Inside the underbed storage box I have two rows of boxes of figures.  In this case the boxes are short enough that they can be stored on their side making it easy to read the contents.  Most of these boxes originally held lunch meats.  Note they are all red, I mostly use red top clear boxes to store my World War Two German figure collection. It makes it easier to keep track of them.  While the underbed storage boxes cost between $12 to $15 dollars each, these boxes are free with the purchase of the cold cuts.  We eat about two to four of these boxes worth of lunch meat per month.  So I get about 25 to 30 boxes per year.  So in ten years, I get about 300 boxes.  This underbed storage box has two dozen food storage boxes, each will hold several hundred figures.

 

Since many battles in World War Two were fought in Germany itself, I have included a box of German political officials.  Each of these is a political district from a large apartment building to a large region of the country.  They were expected to organize the Volksstrum in their jurisdiction.  So they functioned as military commanders in some areas.

Often these boxes will contain a specific brand and type of figures.  These are the World War Two German Paratroopers set by Pegasus.  Sometimes other bits of equipment or figures will be included in the box that are part of this unit.  So there may be heavy weapons in metal, or plastic tents, or other items to help flesh out the unit.  Typically I just flip over the label and mark on it the contents of the box.

Over the past few years I have been working on bringing greater organization to my German Armed Forces.  The post it note indicates this box contains troops from an Eastern Front division, it is an infantry company, from the third battalion of the second regiment.  This is the second of three for that companies for that battalion.  It is the first box out of four boxes that contain this group of Caesar and Ykreol figures.

These Caesar Miniatures Panzer Troops are part of my SS Panzer division, it is the 5th motorized infantry battalion.  My collection has no fewer than four under-strength divisions so far organized into two corps as one SS Panzer Army.  Sometimes I use the cardboard figure box lid as the box cover for the food storage box lid.

The organization process continues.

Aircraft

I knew that when I retired I would be unlikely to have much money.  So one thing I did was buy models whenever they were on sale.  That way when I retired, I would have models to put together.

I got a lot of Japanese and US WWII aircraft and modern US and Soviet aircraft, in 1/72nd scale.

In the last year I have put together at least 36 WWII Japanese planes, mostly Zeros and other single engine fighters and small bombers.

They get a little loop in the middle on the top, it enables me to hang my airplanes from the ceiling so they don't interfere with anything on the tabletop.
 

Old School Wargame

 

Roco SWS halftrack with Airfix figures, first series Germans and Afrika Korps and a Marine.

This is how my old wargames used to be played.

Often unpainted vehicles, unpainted figures the norm.

Airfix first series USMC figures as US Army in 1/72nd scale.

Limited weapons choices, no mortar or heavy machine guns.

It does have a bazooka team and unlike most of these sets loader and firer.  Game played on indoor / outdoor carpet.  I got the Germans used and so they are painted, same for the German vehicles.

Little Nellie

Little Nellie.

From the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice.

It is a real aircraft and they used one in the movie, 1967.

The movie version was armed with rockets, missiles, and machine guns, and a flame thrower.

1/72nd scale one man gyrocopter.

Made by the Japanese company Kyosho sold in blind boxes along with a variety of cars and a boat.

James Bond style figure from Caesar Miniatures SAS set in 1/72nd scale.  Model comes assembled and painted.
 

Bond

I am working on a spy project, James Bond, Man from UNCLE, and others.

These are Caesar Miniatures figures that work as spies.

This one looks like James Bond, he comes with the Caesar SAS set.

I will likely paint these figures eventually.

The one on the left is WWII German but he could pass for American from 1930's or '40's.
 

New Heads

Original WWII German soldier.  This is an excellent figure, not the fine details.

I needed the hats and so I have used some surplus heads so I can still use the figure after his head has been removed.

I have a bunch of WWII German heads that were left over from various conversion projects.

This guy is now a member of the Afrika Korps with his little shorts.

I also moved the heads around so he looks pretty different in each pose.

This one has had the arm moved into a shooting position.

Five different versions.

Shown here with an Airfix Afrika Korps figure for size comparison.