Tank Maintenance

Note the road wheels.  The front of the vehicle is to your left.  The gap between the first and second road wheel is supposed to be to the front, as it is in this picture.  It's hard to see but the small front wheel has sprockets on it.  The sprockets are supposed to be on the back wheel.  So you can assemble the vehicle wrong with the road wheel gap at the rear or wrong with the drive sprocket to the front.  Maddening.

The upper and lower hulls often don't fit well together, so they have to be glued and held in place with clamps.

Sometimes the upper hulls can be so warped I have had to use some very big clamps.  I selected having the road wheel gap at the front because it is more visible than the sprocket teeth.  I could cut the teeth off the drive wheel at the front to make it look more like an idler wheel, but that's more work that it's worth to me.  I could also use plastic rod to make new sprocket teeth and glue them on the rear idler wheel but unless I was only making one or two of these the amount of work is just too much.

The missing hatch has been replaced with sheet plastic and a bit of paint splashed over it for now.  It will cover up nicely when spray painted.  Note the little white tab inside the gun mount.  It helps to keep the gun from drooping by making the space where the gun fits into the turret narrower.

I put a little Model Master liquid cement, wait a moment and then place the very thin bit of sheet plastic on the inside of the turret opening.  I push it into the dimple with tweezers.

I had to do this on probably 80% of my T54 models.  Most are very old and have been campaigning for decades.

I got these tanks used decades ago, and yet, I could match the color from my paint collection.  It's exact.

Many of these old tanks were painted with the turrets on!  So the space under the turret was not painted.  Not a problem until the asymmetrical turret turns and shows the original Roco plastic color!

This buff old soldier has been touched up, tuned up, and revved up and is ready for war.  Games that is.
 

More Rock Monster

Giganto is a monster that has been associated with Fantastic Fours first villain foe, Mole Man.

Mole Man had a monster called Giganto who does his bidding.  He has had several looks and this figure certainly would work for a 1/72nd scale version of that monster.

The rock in his hand is removable.

Without the rock he has a nice gripping pose hand.

Shown here with an unlucky Matchbox WWII US Army soldier.  About 1/76th scale.

So a decent sized 1/72nd scale monster.  They make a couple versions of rock and lava monsters that are similar to this one.
 

Rock Monster

Rock monster.  I think he works for Fantastic Four villain Mold Man, by Schleich.

He is a very durable figure, and nicely poseable.

These guys make lots of animals and fish models.

I think this might also work as a monster for Marsha Queen of Diamonds, a Batman 66 villainess.

They are a German company, but I am not certain if this is made in Germany or not.

The monster would also be a good horror piece, or space monster.

Closed mouth.

Open mouth, note the eyes!
 

Tree and Building

The tray for the tree makes a nice planter.

Caesar Miniatures Japanese figures, 1/72nd scale.

They look nice here with these two buildings.

Sometimes just adding a few buildings can create a very different atmosphere in a set up.

I think these look nice together.
 

Asian Building

One place to get terrain is in the pet department of your local stores.

Reptile and fish tank decor can be usable.

It can be difficult to get Asian themed buildings in model shops, so I picked these two items in Walmarts pet department.

This little pagota has a rather short door, but I am considering cutting the resin and making the door larger.

Here is a 1/72nd scale figure, he has a thick base and a big headdress so he looks about 2mm taller than usual.

Here a Caesar Miniatures figure in the same location.
 

M47, T54 and M48 Tanks

I am doing a big sweep through my Cold War Soviet Union collection.  As you can see from the Roco T54 hatches I have been replacing hatches.  I have been painting stuff a lot.

These are die cast trucks and vehicle made in Eastern Europe and a few from  China.  I use them as part of my Cold War Soviet Union support vehicles.  I have been masking the plastic glass, and spray painting them.  After it's dry, I remove the masking tape and paint the area around the windows.

Some of my command vehicles have Roco tank commanders.

I am painting over the markings and touching up some places that did not get painted by the original owner.

Here are some Roco M-47 tanks.  Can you tell me what is different about them, from the standard M-47 tank?

A few years ago this M48 and three other tanks came on a bit of cardboard with a plastic dome over them.  They all had M48 type suspensions and upper hulls and turrets of a sort of Panzer IV, and a Leopard, that were not very good.  The M48 was the best of them but it was really too small for HO scale, just by a little.  The cupola is pretty good and I may use it to update a few Roco M48s. 
 

Painting Tricks

While I have an airbrush, I much prefer a rattle can for spray painting.  I use the airbrush mostly for aircraft, and only for tanks or ground vehicles when I need a color I can't approximate with a spray can.  Sometimes I want to spray the same vehicle as soon as possible.  Some paints are ready for a second coat immediately, some in 15 minutes and others in an hour or more.

Rather than bother to look at the clock and try to remember what 15 minutes after 2:37 is, while the spray paint is drying, I just got a little timer.  I found it in the kitchen gadget section of Walmart, but I am sure similar timers are in many places in many stores.  Twist the knob and it makes a noisy buzzer when time is up.  So if I am distracted with a phone call, Internet, building a kit, watching a TV show, my trusty timer is on the job.

Did you know that Rust-Oleum sells paint by the same name with different stock numbers?  I have found the DEEP FRST GRN with this number and a shorter number.  I suspect different numbers refer to different retailers, rather than actual paint differences, but I am not sure.  They seem to be the same, or at least within the margin of error.

I am using this color on my Cold War Soviet vehicles.  Here some SDV stuff gets painted.  Note the black circle on the spray can lid.  That is an indication the paint can has been used.  It helps me to find the open can, and helps me with inventory control.  Just a quick circle with a marker pen.

The paper towel I use to wipe off the nozzle after every few sprays.  It helps keep it from clogging.  I keep a paper towel on the can lid of every open paint can so it is handy when needed.

I spray paint most of my stuff on a wooden board, or sometimes on poster board, or even cardboard.  Cardboard is nice because I just take an old Amazon box, cut it up and use it a couple times and toss it out.  Less flammable material laying around.  Same with poster board.  My wooden boards are just scrap lumber from previous projects.  In this case you can see there are Popsicle sticks white glued around the perimeter of the wood.  That helps keep wheeled vehicles from rolling off.  There are also holes drilled in the wood so I can put the Roco turret pins into the holes and paint the turret as it sits flat on the board.  It also keeps the turret from being blown around by the paint.

The cardboard box from Sam's Club is there because this day had intermittent rain.  So I would rush out, paint a couple vehicles and sneak back inside.  If we started to get a few drops of rain, the vehicles would be covered enough by the box to prevent rain getting on them.  Rain and spray paint is a bad mix.  You can get little water blisters of spray paint on the tanks.  Voice of experience.  It means paint stripper and starting over!  The glass brick is square and heavy so it keeps the box in place.  Having the box open allows more air flow to prevent too many fumes.

Comment below if you have a spray painting tip to share!
 

Erikenstein Rod

This looks  like a great, tough vehicle.

Erikenstein Rod is a Hot Wheels designed hot rod truck.

It is not a real vehicle, it just exists as a model.

It is a really tough vehicle.

I might use it as a Batman Villain vehicle.

Or it might become a rat rod.

Or maybe some other criminal gang vehicle.

The vehicle certainly is not meant to carry boxes.

It's not the most aerodynamic of vehicles.

But it looks cool.