SS Dollar Tree At Sea

The crew is at sea, preparing the nets as the storm is subsiding.

Still a heavy sea they seek some relief from the winds behind some small islands.

It seems things are calming down a bit.

Yep, everything is just fine.

Until giant tentacles break the water and reach over the boat! 

 

Part Three SS Dollar Tree

Rear view, I kept the net to use for salvage operations.  Note the life ring on the cabin.  Bollards also added at the bow end.

More progress on carving out the entrance door.

Antennas for communications, direction finding and radar.

Small anchor at the bow.

1943 forward antenna array with radar.  Note small light on the front top.

Pre 1943 antennas with direction finding and communications.

I made two removable inserts so the ship can serve for a long number of years.  Small craft like this are often used in harbors and in close to shore for all sorts of routine work.  Small diving and salvage jobs, cargo and personnel transfers, message delivery.
 

Part Two SS Dollar Tree

Strelets WWII US Navy sailors man the SS Dollar Tree.

Here I have made some improvements to the ship.  I used my Dremel tool to buzz off most of the chian.

I added a bumper, anchor, ladder, box of cargo, a pump for a hard hat diver, and various antennas and lights.

View without the crew.

The air compressor pump is removable so I can have the live bait tank or pump in place as the scenario demands.

I am also making the rear window into a split window with a doorway on the starboard side of the ship.
 

SS Dollar Tree

A small fishing boat I got at Dollar Tree a while back.  Not a bad paint job.

Only a few inches long but about 1/72nd scale, more or less.

Lots of anchor chain, probably more than necessary for a little fishing boat like this.

Big net on the back.

Bottom of the boat with the price sticker removed, needs a little glue scraping.

Top view.  I did not get a fleet of these but it is a nice sturdy, resin model, one piece.  I will likely tidy it up a little before it sees service.
 

Kubelwagen, SWS and Others

Roco Tiger II, HO scale, this kit is probably 50 years old.  Roco kept them in production for decades.

Slightly different view, I have a lot of these and have formed most of them into battalions.  Three are 4 in a platoon, 14 in a company, and 45 in a battalion.  Of course, late war finding a whole battalion together in one spot was pretty rare.

This was an experimental vehicle and no more than 5 vehicles have ever been claimed for production, with other sources claiming three, and most sources saying none were every completed.  I opted to have one in my late war German army as that seemed reasonable.

German infantry man a roadblock.  I like to have as many different vehicles in my collection as possible, but when it comes to experimental vehicles I prefer to limit the numbers to no more than a platoon of 5, 4, or 3 depending on the type of vehicle.

Another Roco Minitank, this time a Kubelwagen.  This particular model I got used and was pretty beat up.  I fixed several problems and now it soldiers on.  Infantry from Caesar Miniatures.
 

SWS and Ruins

German Hetzer light tank destroyer and E25 heavy tank destroyer cover the intersection with the support of infantry.

The building in the back with the green plants is Stately Wayne Manor from Funko Pop Town.  I don't think it is based on any specific Batman series but several of them from the animated versions look like this building.  I think it also makes a good government building from the WWII era.

SWS halftrack from Roco and the E25 from Filament Fighters, 3D printed model.

The SWS has been detailed by adding a machine gun to the front of the cargo compartment and a Jerry can to the rear side.  It is a very old model but with a good paint job and a little extra detail I think it holds up well for being 50 years old.

I have a wire mesh table that is oval shape, so I took a couple 2x4s and two sheets of chip board and bolted them all together so my table is about 4x8 feet outdoors on my gravel patio.  It looks towards the property boundary which is marked by a barbed wire fence and treeline.  I spray paint outdoors on this tabletop and make no effort to protect the top from overspray.  It makes for a varied table color and with the irregular surface of the chip board works well for urban ruins.  I have no idea what the other buildings are, they have been in my collection for over 20 years and I source building from wherever I can find them.
 

Late War German City

Very late war, Germany.

Could be Berlin.

Maybe Hamburg.

Perhaps Cologne.

By the end of the war the cities looked all about the same.
 

Red Square

Four years ago I began significant work on my National Capitals project.  My intention is to build Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, and Tokyo.  I am taking a Hollywood approach for most of them.  If you see a large city and the Eiffel Tower and Arch de Triumph are in the background, then you are in Paris.  None of the other buildings matter and so when the scene switches to the New York Street portion of the MGM backlot, since all the signs are in French and some men are wearing berets you still think you are in Paris.

In keeping with that plan I built Moscow represented by Red Square and Lenin's Tomb.  Most of it is paper stuck onto foamcore boards.  The Lenin's Tomb is mostly wood with some plastic.  It has a detailed interior.  My intention is to us this mostly for James Bond espionage games.  This set up is on one of my four side tables.  If more Moscow space is needed for a car chase or something, I can set up other more generic buildings on the main table.  Once the scene is set with this Red Square, then the other buildings just need a few Cyrillic alphabet signs and a poster of Stalin to continue the illusion.

The Saint Basil's Cathedral is a bird house with Christmas tree decorations for the domes.  My concept is that it does not have to be perfect, it has to be recognizable.

I printed out a computer generated Kremlin and GUM department stores that I found on line.  The posters are all from World War Two, or around that time.  Most feature Stalin, military vehicles or Red Square, or all three.

This tower is 3D cardboard with paper covering.  It creates a nice balcony for observers, security personnel, spies, or whatever.  The little trees are from Dollar Tree.  I also have the post WWII tombs on several famous Soviets behind Lenin's Tomb.  I started this project with the purchase of the bird house cathedral in about 1995.  I don't operate on a Five Year plan like the Soviet Union.
 

105mm Howitzer Upgrades and Backgrades

For the last several years I have been working on a long term project to repair, upgrade, convert much of my collection.  My Roco 105mm howitzers were greatly in need of attention.  Many were missing parts, many were broken, some had no wheels, few were painted, and some were just piles of parts.

This one had trails that were broken, the little taps the clip into the shied have a tendency to break off, some of them had no tabs at all.  I solved this problem by using clay to hold the shield in position while the trails were glued both to the shield and the other end to a bit of sheet plastic.

I am also back dating some of these to an older style tire.  This is the same type often found on the Interwar French 75s and several other medium guns.

I am removing the small front shield and cutting down the main shield.

Here is the small shield removed.  I try to retain these pieces in case I need them for the next gun!

The shield is cut down.

Here is what it looks like after trimming.  Starting in 1938 the US Army began a massive mechanization project to replace all the wagon wheels on their artillery with pneumatic tires.  They wanted to do it about a decade earlier but the Congress would not spend them money.  Even starting in 1938 by the end of 1941 only about half of the inventory was upgraded.