South Pasadena and Other Cities

I am working on a project for War of the Worlds.  My plan is to create US Army troops to fight a Martian invasion that happens without warning in 1898, 1918, 1938, 1958, 1978, 1998.  So every 20 years for 100 years.  I want police, local militia, National Guard, Army Reserve, and Regular Army forces who can respond locally to the invasion.  My hope is to have a thousand or more troops for each era.  So I am sorting out my various troops for those eras  into platoon, company, battalion and regimental organizations.  Each little section at the bottom in the photo is a platoon of about 50 troops per platoon, and going up toward the top of the photo you have four platoons per company.  Then going across and adding columns I get a battalion with every four columns.  Each unit has a supply wagon and higher units add a field kitchen wagon and other wagons.

I am also adding horse cavalry, field artillery, and coast defense artillery.  There are also specialized units of engineers, and headquarters, medical, and supply units.

Here are two supply columns, one is oxen drawn and one is horse drawn.  The wagons are the Imex Conestoga wagon and the oxen are Atlantic conversions of their long horn cattle.

I am also working on some science fiction figures, these are for Space 1999.  I take various books, wargame rules, radio programs, comic books, TV shows and movies and mix and match those things that I like to create a cohesive universe.  So Space 1999 is my outer space planet or moon base people.  I use Star Trek the original series as the basis for my interstellar exploration, law enforcement, border security, and search and rescue service.  I use Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as my Earth based planetary and Solar System defense forces.  Then Starship Troopers are the heavy infantry for ground combat.  I use figures from board games, conversions, toys, and many others to create these forces.

Part of my War of the Worlds plan is to have Martians land in one of several areas, including Gettysburg, which is one of my American Civil War battles that I try to re-fight.  As such, I need monuments for the National Park.  So I got a bunch of ACW figures in various scales from a variety of donors and sellers and made these monuments.  Of course, these monuments could serve in any ACW battlefield and in city parks and other places.

This is my police forces for the period from 1898 until at least 1998.  I am building police forces that will work for each of the War of the World eras, for each of the following law enforcement agencies based in California:  City of South Pasadena, City of Los Angeles, Sheriff County of Los Angeles.  California Highway Patrol, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Park Service Rangers.  Again these will be first responders to any Martian invasion.  The idea of a Martian invasion is that the US is attacked without warning in a place of the enemies choosing.  While I certainly have "Martians" to conduct the invasion, it could also be other aliens, or even Earth humans from some other country.

I also am working on and off with my James Bond collection.  These are mostly Henchman for Blofeld based on the movie On Her Majesties Secret Service.  They are conversions of various Revell, Airfix, and civilian figures.

The last project is my world capitals, this one is Moscow, Red Square.  Here we see it in the WWII era configuration with T-34/76 tanks from Roco on parade.  The Square is mostly photo print outs pasted on a sky background and a wooden and plastic Lenin's Tomb that I scratch built.  I have been painting generic civilians for use on such set ups. 

My plan is to do Moscow, Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, and several American cities, South Pasadena, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Malibu, CA, New York, NY, Grover's Mill, New Jersey, and Gettysburg, PA.  This is essentially all I am doing for Moscow.  I will do similar small, specific locations for London, Paris, and Tokyo.  I will do more for Berlin and Washington, D.C. since much of WWII was fought in Berlin and Washington, D.C. has a lot of wargame potential.  NYC will also get more attention and other places.
 

LCV

 

Two Airfix LCM in soft plastic, one gray and one green.

Aurora landing craft inside an Airfix LCM.  Airfix USMC figures for scale.

Through the ramp.

Cabins.

Overview.

I think the Aurora kit is a Landing Craft, Vehicle, LCV which preceded the LCVP and used essentially the same hull.  The LCV was 36 feet long and this model is 36 scale feet long in HO 1/87 scale, which is the nominal scale of the vehicles and figures in the Aurora Anzio set.

The Airfix poly LCM on the beach.

MPC Ring Hands Bag

There is an outlaw biker board game called Sons of Anarch, Men of Mayhem.  It comes with this little cargo bag in white plastic.

This 60mm MPC military figure in blue plastic is carrying one of these.

If fits perfectly as a small tool bag, or medical bag.

Here the running man pose with the same gear bag.

About two dozen of these bags come in the game.  Might also work as a satchel charge explosive.
 

Roco Heiser Sherman Tanks

Here is yesterdays Sherman tank.

I think it turned out well, and I have a second technique on how to fix the Roco Sherman rear hull problem.

This is one way...

This is the other way.

When Paul Heiser first had his plastic Sherman tanks produced there were several of them cast in gray plastic as test models to insure the mold worked fine.  He cut some of the upper hulls in half to build other versions of the Sherman and he gave me the back parts that he was not going to use.

This gray part had been chopped in half about 30 years ago and has been sitting in my spares box since then.  I trimmed it up and glued it onto the front end of a Roco Sherman hull.

 This gives me a hybrid Roco / Heiser Sherman tank hull.  The Heiser tank is a tiny bit wider and I sanded it sown.  There are also some minor differences in the upper hull that required a bit of sanding and cutting so the turret would turn.  What this does is give me an M4A3 Sherman rather than just hiding the rear hull grills and have an M4 Sherman.  The US produced over 6,700 M4 and over 1,600 M4A3 tanks.

Junk Tanks and Fixing the Roco Sherman

This photo shows the key to fixing the Roco Sherman tank.  The Heiser M4A3 on the left, has a different rear end from the Heiser M4 and Roco tanks in the center and on the right.  The M4 has a notch cut out of the back hull panel.  So this is the key to what Sherman the Roco Sherman should become.  The notch is consistent with the M4 tank with the gasoline Continental R975 radial engine.  So convert your Roco Sherman rear hulls so they appear to be an M4.

I have been working on my Sherman tank collection for the past year and I set aside all my Roco Sherman tanks for inspection.  Many of them have had their upper hulls completely replaced.  Decades ago Paul Heiser made a resin Sherman tank upper hull, before he made his plastic Sherman tanks.  He used them to show his mold makers to get the mold correct.  He cast a bunch of them as extras and I purchased them from him.  I used them to make M4A1 cast hull Sherman tanks.  Over the years I purchased many Heiser Shermans but now and again I would have a used Roco Sherman fall into my hands.  So I gathered up all my Sherman tank bits and found I had Roco Sherman tank upper hulls for seven tanks.  Some were missing the lower hull, or the turret, or the tracks.  So I started looking for bits and pieces to start replacing the parts.  I was still short two lower hulls so I cast them out of resin and solved that problem.  Then I found a couple sets of Sherman tracks in the spares box and a set of M10/M36 tracks and managed to fit all of them onto the Shermans that were missing a lower hull and or tracks.  I cast a turret front also.  The tank above has a resin cast lower hull, Roco upper hull, Roco tracks from an M10 (primer white paint on them), a Paul Heiser Models turret and gun, and a resin cast turret front.  But to fix the M4A3 rear hull engine grill problem I covered the grills with supplies and gear.

This view shows the sanded down the grill hinges and I glued a super thin piece of sheet styrene over the grills and then glued on the gear.

The front shows the resin front turret.

The other side of the Sherman.

A closer view of the gear and the rear hull.

 

The tracks had to be glued on with super glue to glue resin to plastic, with additional 5 minute epoxy glue for resin to plastic, and Testors Liquid Cement to glue to plastic tracks to the plastic upper hull.

 

Here you can see the tank looks more like a gasoline Continental R975 radial engine version now that the rear grills are covered up.  I think once painted it will look pretty convincing.  The Heiser turret also distracts from the Roco hull.  Over all it makes a convincing fix to the Roco engine problem and it was nice to bring a dead tank back to life.

 

What's Wrong With the Roco Sherman Tank?

This is the rear hull of the Roco Sherman tank.  The rectangle on the top is a feature of the gasoline Continental R975 radial engine found on a welded hull M4 tank, like the Roco Sherman?

The rear of the Roco Sherman tank also has this massive pair of grilles which is a feature of the gasoline Ford GAA V8 found on the welded hull M4A3 tank, like the Roco Sherman?

So the Roco has features found on two different types of Sherman Tank engine, you can't have both of those features because Sherman tanks don't have two different engines in them.  The tank on the far left tank is a Heiser Models M4A3 tank, the middle tank is a Heiser Models M4 tank, and the one of the right side is the Roco with features of both of them.

You can see here the rectangular part under the turret bustle, and the grill on the Roco.

Here a close up comparison of the M4A3 tank engines.

 The rear ends are also different between the M4A3 on the left and M4 tank rear end on the center and right side tanks.  The Roco is on the right side.  So what is the solution to this problem?

What Has Mike Been Working On?

For the last two years I have been working on catching up with projects that have been languishing, in some cases for 20 years or more.  This is my M47 tank project.  I had to buy a few more to get as many as I needed.  The plan is to have a full battalion of 54, an "anti-tank" company of 20, an additional company of 17 tanks using vehicle modifications that were not generally fielded by the US Army but were tested or at least studied.  Most of those are not yet finished.  I also wanted two reconnaissance units with one M47 each.  One unit in Arctic white and the other in olive drab like the rest of these tanks.  I also did three M47 as Tiger II tanks for the movie The Battle of the Bulge.

My World War One, Interwar, and World War Two artillery was in need of some work.  So you see a lot of towed artillery here.  They include 4.2 inch gun conversions of the Roco 155mm towed howitzer, several versions of the French 75mm gun, and several version of the Roco 105mm towed howitzer.  Some of them are conversions to the initial production version with small shield and wooden wagon wheels.  Others have been converted to the Airborne 105mm howitzer with the short barrel and no shield.

My spares box was filled with junk truck parts and so I cobbled together a number of different radar, and communication van vehicles.  There is also a bunch of Heiser 2 1/2 ton trucks built just as stock trucks, a few Roco 37mm AT guns, and artillery towing Caterpillar tractors.  The upper left corner are some toys made in the 1930s that I use for huge coast defense mortars.

I am also working on my Sherman tanks.  I purchases and built a full battalion of Heiser Models Sherman M4A3 tanks and built them all as identical versions. Then I built and tidied up all my remaining Shermans and Sherman bits from the spares box.  Most of these are primer painted waiting for the olive drab.

Now I am building Lee tanks and here is some of the progress on that project.  Not pictured are a bunch of other trucks and artillery that is not finished getting painted.
 

Lee Tank Information

Late production Lee with cast hull, long barrel 75mm cannon, and heavy suspension, with Canal Defense Light turret.  You can see in the background there are spare gun turrets and more CDLs.

I put a bit of wooden dowel on the bottom of the CDL turret to make it fit better on the Lee.

The workspace as the Lees get built.

M3A5 Lee tanks for Makin Island.

M3 Lee for the US Army in North Africa, Germany, and eventually the USSR.

A few mis-cast parts that were replaced by Reviresco, without charge.  Great customer service.

The typical Lee M3 tank used by the US Army from the Reviresco package.

So my total Lee / Grant plan is:

3 Grant tanks for US Army with the British Army in North Africa.

17 Lee M3A5 diesel engine tanks for Makin Island battle.

2 Lee M3 Lee tanks for WWII German.

54 M3 Lee tanks for US Army North Africa.

36 Lee tanks of various makes for use in CONUS along with the 17 Makin Island tanks, to include two M3A3 diesel engined welded hull tanks that can be swapped out for two of the Makin Island tanks.

10 Lee M3 Lee tanks for the USSR Lend Lease.

122 total Lee / Grant tanks.  Nearly all are Reviresco, but a few are Heiser Models.