Tires or Tracks?

2 1/2 ton truck with tracks to replace the wheels.

Roco Minitanks cab and frame, truck bed from Hot Wheels truck, and tracks from a Matchbox Frost Fighter.

1/72nd scale civilian for scale.

Ready for painting.  The US Army keeps experimenting with tracks that can be replaced with tires and tires that can be replaced with tracks.  This is one of those experiments.
 

Cars and Spiders

Hot Wheels car with spider markings on it.

It's from a TV show, that I don't watch.

I got one of these same cars a while ago, one in pink.

Girl spider, and boy spider cars.

Maybe Batman 66 Black Widow and perhaps her consort.

In a two episode story arc, consort would likely appear in only the first episode with Black Widow.
 

Frogs and Crickets

In the movie Killers From Space, the main character is shown the aliens plans for conquest of the Earth.  They are growing giant insects and intend to release them on humanity.  Our hero is shown many cages of different kinds of giant insects, and a few reptiles.  So I got this set to do that as a set up.  Here are giant ants, can't have too many giant ants.

Giant crickets, which can attack people in their small size version.

Frogs.

The giant mantis is a nice touch, you don't get those in miniature much.  They have then here in Kentucky and I see one now and then.  They are very cool.

Tarantula, and he stands on his feet.

You can see his little body is off the floor.
 

Reptiles and Bugs

1/72nd scale figure with three horned toads.

I got this set at Dollar Tree, actually I got three of them.  The set is called Reptiles and includes a lot of bugs and very few actual reptiles.

In theory you get one of each critter in both red and black plastic.

I practice you get what's in the bag and like it.

Note the scorpion is standing on his legs, many bug toys just lay on their tummy with their legs straight out, but these stand up pretty well, mostly.

The underside of some it detailed, but not all of them.  1/72nd scale figure for size.
 

Painting Little Trucks

Paul Heiser Models 2 1/2 ton truck with tires behind the cab show it is an artillery prime mover.

Overall it gets spray painted Rust-Oleum 2X primer, then Testors Olive Drab spray paint.  Most of the details get painted with Tamiya, like this winch cable.

Gloss black for the windshield.

And then flat black for the tires.  Testors 1164 Flat Green for the canvas, lots of touch up around the tires and canvas.

Painting the spare tires is a chore.

Each jar of paint gets a little sticker on top with the name and sometimes the number of the paint inside the jar.  I also include other information such as US Army Troops if it is a color I use for uniforms.  The jar lids get a black marker circle around the rim once it's opened.  I often have multiple jars of the paints I use a lot, so it's helpful to prevent me having multiple open jars of the same color.

Testors 1164 Flat Green and Testors 1165 Flat Olive.  I have probably used this paint for more than 50 years, and could have painted my house with all of it I have used.  It was about 5 cents per jar when I started using it.

 Their Flat Olive is a perfect match for Testors Olive Drab spraypaint.

Remote Command Center

Roco Dodge van and Paul Heiser Jeep, Airfix USAAF MP.

All three little trucks together.

Somewhere outside of Washington, D.C. a remote communications platoon is set up to prepare for a national emergency.

A squad of Military Police has been deployed for site security.

The microwave communication van is set up.

The command van is ready for the emergency.  Flying saucers, Rhedosaurus, Martians, or Reds, they are ready.
 

Truck Conversion

Resin truck with a Roco van body with a parabolic dish on the roof.

Paul Heiser Jeep and Airfix USAAF MP for size comparison.

Here it is with the other ambulance body truck.

Now the third version is the Dodge van body truck with the dome and antennas.

I figure I can use the dome as a cover for a radar dish.

Or some other antenna.

I have several missile systems from the Cold War era some real, and some imaginary.

So these little trucks could be range control, maintenance, or other ancillary vehicles to the missiles.

In olden times missiles and rockets needed a lot of attention.

So having a fleet of repair and maintenance vehicles was important.
 

Small Truck with Radar?

The small van body truck with a Paul Heiser Models Jeep.

This is the Interwar halftrack I made using the Dodge truck front end.

The tracks came from this Roco halftrack.  The US Army used four of these with military police units in the Washington, D.C. area into the 1950s as a quick response unit.  So a spare truck cab becomes a van, a damaged truck becomes a halftrack, and a halftrack becomes a truck.  Nothing is wasted and I get new and unusual vehicles for my collection.  I did four each of the halftrack and armored car conversions.

And so I was left with this van body from one of the Dodge trucks.  It already had a hole in the top, the previous owner had put holes into the tops of several vans and trailers.  Some had a clear bubble inserted into it, I think for air traffic control?  Or other observation.  This one had no bubble.

Decades ago, Hot Wheels made a six wheeled vehicle designed for use in space on the moon and other heavenly bodies.  It had this little radar dish on it.  Somehow I ended up with an extra dish, I don't know how or why.  The truck cab is another orphan resin truck cab from the junkyard.

This truck had two holes in the roof where the radio antenna were molded on in the original Roco truck.  So I filled the holes with two bits of nylon brush bristle.  Cheap, easy, and does not break.  One black nylon parts brush has provided me with dozens of bristles / antennas for decades.

My plan is to use this as a point to point microwave truck.  The British No. 10 set used two dishes and was operational by D-Day and performed well during World War Two.

This can be used as an experimental set, or more of a tactical set.

Or perhaps it is a death ray.

Or maybe a listening device.

Or perhaps something else useful or sinister.  Comment below on what you think it is useful for.