Secenery and Shermans

This particular set up required a lot of elements.  The Arc de Triomphe is an end table from a furniture company.  It is probably my second most expensive single hobby purchase ever, but at almost perfect HO scale I could not resist it.  It is a giant, heavy piece of resin and is perfect for a Paris diorama or wargame.  I got it by mail from a company called Design Toscano which sells decor items.

The Eiffel Tower is four feet tall, and I got it at a building supply store called OSH in California, that has since gone out of business.  It was intended as outdoor lawn decoration.  I just purchased another one on eBay that is four feet tall.  This one will become the Tokyo Radio Tower which was designed after the Eiffel Tower and is taller than the Eiffel Tower.  This one will be painted red and white like the Tokyo Radio Tower, it's those colors to be more visible to aircraft.  The Tokyo Radio Tower was built in 1958.  Godzilla destroyed a similar but shorter tower in Tokyo in 1952 and the new, three foot tall tower will do double duty as both the Eiffel Tower and the Tokyo "Godzilla" tower.

The building in the left is a Christmas building from WalMart, they go for about $15 so they are very inexpensive.  I painted out all the "snow" and so it is usable for other times of year.  I temporarily added the sloping roof so it fits with the other buildings.  The bright pink and purple buildings are from Dollar Tree.  I get two, remove the roof from one and stack them to make a two story building.  They are a bit large and would likely work for 28mm.  My long term plan is to add a balcony and glue the building together and paint it.  They have a "hinge" on the side so you can attach two of them back to back and make a full building.  The back is open like a dollhouse.  They come with rather nice furniture that will be used for a number of projects.  I changed the movie marquee to the movie "Casablanca."  I showed MRS Bunkermeister and she said, "We'll always have Paris."  She gets me.

The trees are Christmas trees from Dollar Tree.  I washed them to remove the "snow".  They were about 40 cents each, so very economical.  The lampposts are also from Dollar Tree and are once piece resin.  The potted plants are also from Dollar Tree.  The roadway is from Michaels craft stores, they put this out for their Christmas buildings.  I try and pick up at least one of these vinyl mats every year.

This is another resin tank from Paul Heiser Models, it's the M4A6 Chrysler multi-bank engine Sherman tank with lengthened hull which did not see combat with US forces.  But I got a platoon of them anyway because they did see service with the US Army in training in the USA.

M4A1 Sherman from Paul Heiser Models, all plastic, easy to assemble, great kit, inexpensive and easy to put together.

This is an elderly Roco Minitank Sherman.  It has the rear deck of the M4A1 and the M4A3 vents so it's likely inaccurate unless there is some very odd Sherman with that deck out there.  I have only three of these unmodified Old Soldiers in my collection.

This one is a Roco Minitank Sherman with a Paul Heiser resin upper hull.  I was able to get a few of these about 30 years ago, and converted most of my Roco Shermans to the correct upper hull.
 

Wargame Terrain

There are certain buildings that when you see them you know where in the world you are located.

The Eiffel Tower you know you are in Paris, France.  The tower Big Ben and Parliament building you know you are in London.  The Diet Building and you are in Tokyo, Japan.

Lenins Tomb in Red Square you know is in Russia.  The White House you know is in Washington, D.C.  The Reichstag for Berlin.

 A while back I decided to do certain national capitals for wargaming purposes.

Rather than do the whole city exactly like it is, my plan is to build or obtain certain key architectural elements of the city that are instantly recognizable, such as the Arc de Triomphe and  Eiffel Tower for Paris, France.  In this case the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower are not this close together, nor on the same side of a river.  But in a wargame model those things can sometimes be overlooked.

I think building wargame terrain is not unlike building a movie set, you have to give the audience the impression of the location without having to build it exactly.  Not unlike people who build battleships out of matches or toothpicks.   From a distance they look just like the New Jersey, but on close inspection you can tell they are just a pile of sticks.  And for most wargame purposes, that's enough.
 

Parade Test

Working on some upgrades to the parade by adding more background buildings.

Also looking at adjusting the color.

They look really good in black and white.

The look like Munchkin Land in Technicolor in a color photo.

In real life the Effiel Tower is not close to the Arc de Triuomphe.

Testing the height of the model.
 

The Bulidings Roads and Sky

Tim Mee 60mm marching troops, some of these I have always had in my collection, continuously for over 60 years.

The Arc de Triomphe is a resin coffee table.

I got it about ten years ago from some company called Design Toscano, they sell home decor.

It's really big and all one piece as near as I can tell.

It's about two inches too short to be HO 1/87 scale high.

But toy soldiers often compress scales, and I think it looks okay with 60mm troops.

Of course, it looks awesome with Minitanks scale troops and vehicles.

The roadway is vinyl Christmas village roadways.

Sold at Hobby Lobby and other craft stores at Christmas time.

 Here is the full set up, the background is paper sky, also sold at craft stores in rolls.

Marching 60mm

US Army troops marching in Paris.

Straight lines of troops.

Carrying the US and US Army flags.  The US Army flag is usually white but the Field Version has a blue background.

The flags are just printed out on the computer with a little plastic coated wire for the flagpole.

The Arc de Trioumphe is a large resin piece. The figures are Tim Mee 60mm, some may be as much as 60 or more years old.