Roco And Other Conversions

Filament Fighters M18 Hellcat.

Earth vs the Flying Saucers anti-UFO ray truck.

WWII US Army 4.5 inch howitzers.  Roco 155mm conversion with extended barrel.

105mm Self-Propelled US Army halftrack, WWII.  Roco conversion that I upgraded from my original version when I got more information.

Conversion of the Roco Dodge weapons carrier and Heiser M3 halftrack to make the M5 halftrack.  Also Roco and metal 75mm mountain guns.
 

HO Scale Military Vehicles

French 75s in two by Caterpillar tractors.  These are 1938 versions with the pneumatic wheels, upgraded for high speed towing so they could be towed by trucks or high speed tractors rather than horses.

Filament Fighters Burma Jeep crane and truck, and Cadillac staff car.

I make pallets of supplies that fit my Roco trucks, mostly US 2 1/2 ton and Opel Blitz trucks.  Greens and grays for general cargo, wooden for general cargo, but could be civilian, red for explosives, and white for medical supplies.

Filament Fighters M18 Hellcat, and customized Roco trailer.  With a dome on top it can be used as a mobile aircraft control tower.

Roco 2 1/2 ton cargo truck for my medical unit on laundry day.
 

Primered Truck

Old time truck, primer painted.  Note the rear axle is still installed, the disc at the end is a pin from one of the bricks that has been cut off of the brick.  I drilled a hole in the pin and use it as an inside spacer to hold the wheel away from the side of the truck.  The front axle will have one also.

You can see the interlocking bricks on the bottom.

Fenders have been added, they are Evergreen plastic tubing that has been cut up into arches.

Steering wheel, seats and side rails to the seats are visible.

This is the paint I used.  My plan is to paint these several colors so I am priming some gray and some white.

Rust-Oleum makes several versions of some of their paints, but this is the specific Flat White I used for this project.

 Eagle Games colonial soldier next to the truck for scale.

What's All This Then?

Got a call to come round and see about a bug.

Bit larger than the average bug.

I hope we don't have to try and take that bug into evidence.

The Inspector discusses insect licensing and permits.

We will let you off with a warning.
 

UK Police

Hot Wheels race car / police car.

Sort of a off road on road on track cop car.

Probably not something you would see on patrol much.

But it says POLICE so in my world, it's a cop car.

So look for it soon in your rear view mirror.

Nice open back.

Hi vis on the top.

Low vis on the bottom.

I got two of them.
 

Steve Snark Institute

Big shout out to Steve who helped me obtain some big bugs.  Here is Steve at his institute.

Greeting Doctors Medford as they arrive for the conference on ants.

A special display for a giant grasshopper has been arranged for the meeting.
 

Giant Bugs

I have been buying giant ants from Dollar Tree.

Sadly, they seem very hard to find and I have fewer then 20.

The giant grasshoppers are hard to find too.

I think I have about 6 of these.

A few years ago I got some pretty good giant grasshoppers and these fit nicely with them, a bit smaller and slightly different detail.  Color scheme is the same.  I intend to use these as "hoppers" younger grasshoppers that can't fly.

I got them at Dollar Tree.

So far I have visited 6 different ones and most did not have any.  The giant flies seem common and I did pick up a few scorpions, but I only wanted 5 of them anyway.  I did not get any flies.
 

Old Timey Truck

My old  time truck.  Driver is a HaT Colonial Service Wagon driver.  The US Army and many police agencies used similar headgear around 1900.

Seat and steering wheel.  Glues easily with Plastruct Plastic Weld cement.

Bottom side, axle is inside a bit of tube that has been sanded flat on one side to be glued onto the truck bottom.

Show here with a WWI era truck.  Some of these older trucks would likely have been around with the US Army by WWI but I can't imagine any were sent overseas.

And a WWII era truck.  By  1945 these older truck would have been long gone.

Eagle Games Colonial Era troops, I use them as American 1900ish.

Airfix American WWI figures good for about 1900 to 1945 depending on specific unit and location in the world.
 

Van with White Tires

Building trucks.  Interlocking bricks are no longer under patent so lots of people make cheap ones.  I got most of these at Dollar Tree and some at Constructive Playthings.

They fit together just fine,  I have no quality issues with them at all.

I am making late 19th / early 20th Century trucks.  Early rubber tires were white.  About 1915 they  added carbon to make them more durable and it changed the color to black.

Here is a mock up one.  The wheels are not permanently attached because I still have to paint it.

It's makes up a nice little van.  These are not based on any specific vehicle but just photos of various similar vehicle that I have seen photos of.