More RAF

RAF Personnel guy with a bomb.  1/72nd scale soft plastic from Airfix.  I may use him for WWI US Army Air Corps.  Put an M1917 helmet on him perhaps.

I like that these figures have essentially no flash and the thin bits like the handles here are excellent.

Camera, can be uses for my US Army Air Corps.

These may be used for race cars, they often have big tool chests and other gear containers.

The rockets are cool, but not sure how I will use them, maybe WWII US Army Air Force.  Perhaps swap the headgear to ball caps.

Chocks away, good figure for US Army Air Corps.

If you love your machine gun, give it a hug.

I think this guy is putting air in the tires of a big airplane.  But not really sure.

Pilot and officer, probably US Army Air Corps the officer just US Army WWII, it looks like an Ike jacket.

Fueling and ammo feeding.  These guys will probably become 1938 US Army Air Corps.
 

RAF Personnel

 

These are the Airfix RAF Personnel set.  I have a few already that I use for WWII German Naval Aviation troops.  The Kriegsmarine patterned some of their uniforms after the UK and much of this type of clothing is similar in style in this size anyway.  I got another set to break up and use for several purposes.  This guy is perfect for a 1930s aviator, several super hero types flew planes in that era so at least one of these guys will take on that role.  I may also use them for 1938 US Army Air Corps pilots.

The woman in the skirt will likely become an police officer for my US police project.  The women with .30 caliber machine guns will deploy with my Lee / Grant tank factory.  Women were used in that factory and often even test drove the tanks.  As part of my 1938 War of the Worlds project there may even be an anachronistic female tank crew from that factory.  Maybe they will staff an M2 medium tank rather than the M3 Lee.

Two well done figures.  I need more of the one in the skirt, so if you have any extras, let me know in the comments!

I may try and remove the machine gun and try and figure out what else this pose is good for.

Only one of these comes in the RAF set but I would like a dozen or more.  Not likely to buy that many of these sets just for the one figure.

One of the sprues.  The camera men and paddle men may work in my race car crews.

The pilot in this sprue is very nice too, again at least one will likely become a 1930's super hero.  The fueling guy would world for auto racing.  The officer in the lower right corner probably 1938 USA Air Corps.

Bicycle riders could be US Army, or maybe even early police, or even civilians.  The rocket carrying guys may get ladders or pipes or something.  The men pushing the cars are likely pushing a car for auto racing.

The final sprue, chocks away for the USA Air Corp, ammo guy and machine gun guy also Air Corp, or maybe tank crews.  Man towing the cart not sure yet, and the other guy with air gun filling plane tires?  I think

Back of the box is nice. 

For a set that is 50 years old it has held up very well.

More on My Desk

These Hot Wheels vans have a go cart molded inside rather than seats.  So I am taking the van apart, and cutting out the go cart and replacing it with bench seats.  It will then be repainted for one of several uses.

These are the van interiors with the go cart cut out, I am doing a total of five.  The go carts are stacked up next to the wooden sphere.  The wooden sphere is the handle to a pin vice.  A pin vice holds very tiny drill bits to let me drill extremely small holes, perfect for axles, trailer hitches, and radio antennas.  The white blobs in the tray are soft clay.  Perfect to hold small parts or even hold things together.  The large white mass is a paper towel.  I tear paper towels into 1/4's and stack them on me desk to clean brushes, and other jobs.  I get paper towels that are perforated into quarters.  The white cylinder is a little plastic round box; I put my open jars of paint in it to help keep them contained and lessen the chance of them falling over.  I think it originally had cinnamon roll icing in it.

Two spheres are Hot Wheels from Jurassic Park.  They have seats inside and you ride around the park immune from T-Rex attack, in theory.  Several classic cars that may end up working for Batman.

Mostly I am just comparing sizes and styles.  The red one is a Tootsietoy about 60+ years old that I restored a few years ago.

This deer was just outside my window, probably 30 feet from my office desk chair.  Hard to see though the double pane glass due to the glare.  These critters come by several times a week, usually 1 or 2 at a time.  Or record is 8 all at once.
 

Mike's Desk Top Projects

My desk and workbench.  I always have at least a small rubber mat on hand to minimize cuts, scrapes, and glue getting onto the desktop.  After 30 years it has not been completely successful.  This was my old desk when I was a patrol supervisor for Westec Security.  When the company remodeled the building they let us have the old furniture.  It saved them the trouble of disposing of it.

My little resin trucks are now in fire engine mode.  Years ago I got some cheap trucks at Dollar Tree and now I use their rear ends for these trucks.

Fuel truck and submarine.

Hot wheels van getting a new interior, the white and blue thing, the submarine and fire trucks and if you look carefully you can see one of the pick up trucks has had the glitter and Christmas tree removed!  That's a Johnny Lightening Lost in Space Chariot behind the sail of the sub.

Actually, it's just the glass dome part of the Chariot.  You can see another one of the vans waiting for an interior swap out in the lower right corner.  The submarine will be repainted, and decalled.  It has wheels underneath and I intend to use it as one for undersea exploration, sabotage, espionage, and commando raids.

I decant spray paint into these pancake syrup bottles to use for touch up.  This is the fire truck color.  By spray painting the spray paint into a bottle it allows me the perfect color match for small touch ups.  I get the bottles when I go to a local restaurant and dispose of them rather than try to clean them after use.
 

Robots

A new robot addition to the collection.

While having breakfast at a local Cracker Barrel restaurant, I found this in the gift shop.

It is Red Rocker and Blue Bomber of the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robots.

It is a product line called Worlds Smallest.  They make miniaturized versions of various toys.  I have their Rubic's Cube in my Batman 66 Jokers lair.

You get a blue and red robot and he works just like the original.

Work the controls on the back of the neck, hit the other one in the head, and his head pops up, signifying he's lost the round.

These levers work perfectly.

One leaver for each arm.  They have a very scary 1950s monster movie robot look.

Eagle Games Troops

I have been working on the Eagle Games figures.

These are 1/72nd scale figures for ACW and Colonial.  Figures are rather generic and a bit thin.

They come with two horse riding poses, a standing firing rifleman, and five cannons, 12 pound Napoleon types.  No horses you have to buy them separate. 

The ACW set also gives you a flag bearer, and the Colonial set gives you a heliograph team of  two men.  I like them because they fit okay with most plastic troops of the era and really help to bulk out a firing line with standing shooting figures.  The cannons are sturdy, one piece gun and carriage and two separate wheels.  I use the wheel for other wagons, as I don't quite need this many cannons.  However, I also have cut up the cannons and used the barrels to make naval carriage guns, or as monuments with cannon on them.  I also have cut the gun off the carriage and flipping the carriage over, used it as a limber for other guns.
 

Army Staff Car

 WWII US staff car.  These should be olive drab in combat zones, but glossy olive for US Army, and glossy gray for US Navy in the United States.  Painted in glossy black they would probably work as a car to transport FDR or President Truman.

https://fidelismodels.com/collections/3d-filament-fighters-models/products/cadillac-series-75-staff-car

 

Cadillac staff car used for high ranking officers in World War Two. They were actually very common in Europe after the Normandy invasion, with olive drab paint jobs and full tactical markings.

 

This is a 3d printed Filament Fighters model sold by Fidelis Models in HO 1/87th scale.

 

I have about 50 Filament Fighters models and generally I like them a lot.  This particular one comes in a front and rear half.  It requires a little bit of sanding to make the roof as smooth as I like but it's not very time consuming.  I have one so far but I am sure I will get more of the staff car. 

SWS Halftrack

Roco SWS halftrack.  When Eadai made an SdKfz 251 I purchased a lot of them as they were 1/76th scale and there were none in HO 1/87 scale.  Eventually, Paul Heiser Models and Trident made the SdKfz 251 in a variety of versions and so I disposed of my Eadai ones.  I kept the forward machine guns, and mounted them on Roco SWS munitions carrier halftracks.  I use them as ersatz personnel carriers or as an armed munitions carrier.  I also added a bit of track from a Fujimi PanzerJager I model on the side of the cab.  You can also see a Roco shovel on the back, and a Jerry can from somewhere on the side.  All those extras really perk up this old model.

Roco Grille, modified with the earlier 88mm gun.  One of these was produced and saw service in Italy.  This version of the 88 was more reliable but the other was more capable.  Crew are Italeri German anti-tank gun crews and an Odemars WWII German Commanders figure.

It's a two minute conversion and gives me a unique vehicle.

And rather good looking I think.  This probably and Airfix 1/76th scale gun and shield and it might look better with a Roco HO scale 88mm but I don't have a spare one.  I think it looks okay.

Here you can see the front of the SWS.  It was not unusual for them to have a spare tire on the front.  I have done that with a few of them, but obviously not on this one.

The little sign designated the command center for the artillery company.  The fire direction center is located there for the whole company, each firing battery also has their own FDC.  It's hard to see but there is also a supply dump there too.

Commanders watch the action from a tall building.  Observing the fall of shot for indirect fire.

Marx tree in the snow.  Guns at the ready.