Tank Battalion M60 Tanks

The unpacking continues as I pick through mountains of shredded paper and packing peanuts to real tanks, and troops from all of history.

This box is Roco Minitanks in HO 1/87th scale, with about three from Tomy.

It's an American tank battalion from the Cold War era.

The vehicles are M60, M60A1, and M60A2 tanks.

They are still a work in progress as they are waiting for final painting and decals.

Soviet Headquarters

Each artillery battery gets a fire direction center or headquarters.

Battery RA 1 is Russian Artillery, first battery.

It's a 1/76 scale Fujimi tent with added "wooden" walls of sheet styrene.

Inside is a wooden floor, a spool of wire and a field expedient table.

On the table a map, bottle of vodka and a radio.

Everything to keep the artillery where it needs to go.

Map is just a sheet of painted plastic.

Another Soviet headquarters.

Soviet Heavy Tanks

The JS III tank was developed in the very last days of World War Two. 

They did not quite make it to Berlin in time for combat.

They are part of my WWII Soviet Heavy tanks.

These T34 tank hulls compose an armored recovery vehicle with boom and three 37mm anti-aircraft guns.

It is a notional vehicle, I have never seen a photo of such a vehicle, but it certainly is plausible.

Mechanized Corps

I have been organizing the WWII Soviet tanks.

I have 198 T-34/76 tanks, that make up a Mechanized Corps.

This Corps is all Roco, many are 40 years old or more.

I have been repairing all the minor damages.

Some needed new hatches, so I had to cast a few of resin.

There are also armored recovery vehicles in the organization.

Some of them were missing parts and they were replaced from the spares box.

Next year they get their final paint and decals.

Roco Rocket Trucks

Roco HO scale US Army 2.5 ton truck.

Many of them were shipped to the Soviet Union in World War Two.

Some were converted to rocket launchers, by adding the Russian Katyusha rocket system.

Roco did not make the Katyusha rocket system. 

 So I took this one from the Zvezda 15mm rocket truck and grafted it onto the Roco.

The Zvezda model only gives rockets for either the top or the bottom.

So half of mine have rockets on top and bottom and the other half have no rockets.

Battery of four rocket trucks.

Panzer III Conversions

The Roco Panzer III is a very old kit, they have been around since the 1960's.  As such, it frequently shows up in used collections.  It's pretty good for a kit that's so old.  This one has an old Roco Panzer IV turret with machine gun on top.  It was not a vehicle that was fielded, but it could have been.  I like to have the occasional unusual vehicle in the collection, for use in Weird War Two games or for other one off games.

Mid to late war the Panzer III was often protected with extra armor in the form of side skirts and a horseshoe collar.  Some of my collection includes tanks like this with armor made from sheet sytrene, and others with armor converted from the old Roco Panzer IV.

Panzer III as engineer vehicle.  Open top box superstructure, crane on the back, and wooden beams for bridging.

Flamethrower version, slip a small metal tube over the regular barrel to simulate the thicker flamethrower barrel.

Supply vehicle with canvas cover.  Remove the turret and replace with a "canvas."

Munitions carrier, very common in Tiger companies.  Tiger ammo was large and heavy.

Roco Panzer III

Bog standard Roco Panzer III M.

Panzer III N with the short barrel 75mm gun and a small box on the front fender.

Artillery observation vehicle, with extra antennas, and a fake gun and a machine gun where the regular gun usually goes, and track link on the front hull.

Another version of the artillery observation vehicle.  These were important because they could keep up with the tanks, and provide both radios and protection to the observers.

Panzer III, notional version with the L/43 medium length 75mm cannon as found on the mid production Panzer IV, never put into production.

Halftrack Mortar Carrier

Roco M16 halftrack modified into a 120mm mortar carrier.

The mortars are from some M106 carriers that were converted to other uses, and the mortar was surplus.

Israel mounted a 120mm mortar post war in the halftrack.

These are made up as a field conversion, as far as I know the US Army never did this in WWII.

I only did four since it's unlikely to have actually existed.

Welcome to my readers from Italy!