South Pasadena and Other Cities

I am working on a project for War of the Worlds.  My plan is to create US Army troops to fight a Martian invasion that happens without warning in 1898, 1918, 1938, 1958, 1978, 1998.  So every 20 years for 100 years.  I want police, local militia, National Guard, Army Reserve, and Regular Army forces who can respond locally to the invasion.  My hope is to have a thousand or more troops for each era.  So I am sorting out my various troops for those eras  into platoon, company, battalion and regimental organizations.  Each little section at the bottom in the photo is a platoon of about 50 troops per platoon, and going up toward the top of the photo you have four platoons per company.  Then going across and adding columns I get a battalion with every four columns.  Each unit has a supply wagon and higher units add a field kitchen wagon and other wagons.

I am also adding horse cavalry, field artillery, and coast defense artillery.  There are also specialized units of engineers, and headquarters, medical, and supply units.

Here are two supply columns, one is oxen drawn and one is horse drawn.  The wagons are the Imex Conestoga wagon and the oxen are Atlantic conversions of their long horn cattle.

I am also working on some science fiction figures, these are for Space 1999.  I take various books, wargame rules, radio programs, comic books, TV shows and movies and mix and match those things that I like to create a cohesive universe.  So Space 1999 is my outer space planet or moon base people.  I use Star Trek the original series as the basis for my interstellar exploration, law enforcement, border security, and search and rescue service.  I use Buck Rogers in the 25th Century as my Earth based planetary and Solar System defense forces.  Then Starship Troopers are the heavy infantry for ground combat.  I use figures from board games, conversions, toys, and many others to create these forces.

Part of my War of the Worlds plan is to have Martians land in one of several areas, including Gettysburg, which is one of my American Civil War battles that I try to re-fight.  As such, I need monuments for the National Park.  So I got a bunch of ACW figures in various scales from a variety of donors and sellers and made these monuments.  Of course, these monuments could serve in any ACW battlefield and in city parks and other places.

This is my police forces for the period from 1898 until at least 1998.  I am building police forces that will work for each of the War of the World eras, for each of the following law enforcement agencies based in California:  City of South Pasadena, City of Los Angeles, Sheriff County of Los Angeles.  California Highway Patrol, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Park Service Rangers.  Again these will be first responders to any Martian invasion.  The idea of a Martian invasion is that the US is attacked without warning in a place of the enemies choosing.  While I certainly have "Martians" to conduct the invasion, it could also be other aliens, or even Earth humans from some other country.

I also am working on and off with my James Bond collection.  These are mostly Henchman for Blofeld based on the movie On Her Majesties Secret Service.  They are conversions of various Revell, Airfix, and civilian figures.

The last project is my world capitals, this one is Moscow, Red Square.  Here we see it in the WWII era configuration with T-34/76 tanks from Roco on parade.  The Square is mostly photo print outs pasted on a sky background and a wooden and plastic Lenin's Tomb that I scratch built.  I have been painting generic civilians for use on such set ups. 

My plan is to do Moscow, Washington, D.C., London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, and several American cities, South Pasadena, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Malibu, CA, New York, NY, Grover's Mill, New Jersey, and Gettysburg, PA.  This is essentially all I am doing for Moscow.  I will do similar small, specific locations for London, Paris, and Tokyo.  I will do more for Berlin and Washington, D.C. since much of WWII was fought in Berlin and Washington, D.C. has a lot of wargame potential.  NYC will also get more attention and other places.
 

Medical

Working on my WWII German Berlin flak tower I need a hospital.  This is a gurney that I made to cart around the 1/72nd scale wounded.

Take them to the X-ray machine.  Made out of sheet styrene, wire mess, and other bits.

It is one of a couple I made.

The gurney fits under the X-ray machine

I copied a medical poster and shrunk it down to fit my X-ray equipment for added realism.  It's also in German.
 

Flak Tower

Two men stand guard at one of four entrances to the Zoo Flak Tower.

Four tanks prepare for a parade.

The crews stand by their vehicles as a parade of infantry march past.

They salute the officer has he leads his men past.

Boley Jagdpanther and Caesar Miniatures Marching Germans.
 

Berlin Zoo Tower

For about 20 years now I have been working off and on building a WWII German flak tower for Berlin in 1/72nd scale.  The water table was high in Berlin so building underground air raid shelters was difficult.  So they built three massive above ground shelters and this is the one called the Zoo Tower.  Each main tower had a secondary tower that was smaller and had radars on it.  The guns on the main towers would knock out their own radars from the concussion of their own firing, so radars were put on a nearby smaller tower.

The towers had big windows covered with massive steel doors, this was my project for today, install the shutters over the windos.

They are getting glued on with E6000 glue.  It has great initial stickyness and so the shutters can be stuck on even though they are vertical and won't fall off.  Different glues for different jobs.

I made the master and cast the shutters, 144 of them.  Then painted them gray and then weathered and rusted them.  You can still see a few of them on the ruins of the tower in Berlin.  I left space for the shutters when I painted the flak tower so they would adhere to the wood not the paint.  Before picture.

 After picture.  More tomorrow, come back soon and leave a comment.

Berlin

One of my long term projects has been to build the government sector of Berlin, April, 1945.

I started with a flak tower.

It's not finished, but it's well along.

I have finished my Victory Column.

Battle of Berlin

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am working on many projects.  A Lost World with dinosaurs, Super Heroes with Batman, American Cities including Washington, D.C. and New York City, Russian WWII, American WWII, The Pentomic Army, Cold War Russians, War of the Worlds in several eras, but also Berlin in WWII.  This is my almost finished Flak Tower for Berlin.

Two sides have drawers so I can model the inside and move troops around inside the bunker.

These are the swallows nest were 37mm flak guns are located and the space above is a Ykreol German Commanders figure who is standing were the twin 128mm flak guns will be installed.

My Battle of Berlin includes several landmarks, the flak tower is only one of them.

Berlin Wagon

My friend Richard who writes WARin15mm found a book about Berlin for me.  This photo and several others show a double decker horse drawn wagon on the streets of Berlin.

Here is the cover of the book, Berlin, by Dieter and Anke Adler.

Here is something else Richard got me, a double decker horse drawn wagon.

The figures are perfect for 1/72nd scale.

I am not sure of any of these were pulled out of storage in WWII, but certainly it will make a great addition to my Berlin project!

Embassy

I have been working on my Battle of Berlin project and here is my almost final list of embassy units that might make an appearance.  I still have perhaps one more to add and this list may not be fully accurate, but I am working on it.  Comments are welcome.

Protectorate of Bohemia & Moravia

Protektorat Bohmen und Mahren
Allied with Germany

Independent State of Croatia, Ante Pavelić

Allied with Germany

Denmark

Puppet Government of Germany

Kingdom of Hungary

Allied with Germany

Provisional Government of Free India

Government in Exile
Allied with Germany

Italy

Repubblica Sociale Italiana
RSI government
Allied with Germany
                  
Imperial Japan
大日本帝國  or 大日本帝国
Allied with Germany

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem

Government in Exile
Allied with Germany

Manchukuo

Puppet Government of Japan
Allied with Germany

Norway

Puppet Government of Germany

Portugal

Neutral

Romania, Iron Guard Regime

Government in Exile
Serbia, Nedics Regime
Allied with Germany

Slovak Republic

Slovenská republika
Tiso Regime
Allied with Germany

Spain

Neutral

Sweden

Neutral

Switzerland

Neutral

Vichy France

Allied with Germany

Vatican

Neutral
Papal Nuncio, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps
 

Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen

المملكة ‏المتوكلية اليمنية
al-Mamlakah al-Mutawakkilīyah al-Yamanīyah
Neutral

Berlin

I continue to work on my Battle of Berlin project. One of the things I am doing is setting up the embassies and legations for the friendly and neutral powers. Many maintained embassies there to assist their nationals during and after the battle. Here is some of what I am working on for embassy staff.

I use
Dapol, Preiser, and other civilians for the various staff and swap heads as
much as reasonable for a different look for the figures. I also use traditional clothing for the various
ethnic peoples, like Japanese and Chinese. Each embassy will have several staff people.

Embassy
Staff

Ambassador

Wife of Ambassador

Deputy Chief of Mission

Dean of the Diplomatic Corps

Diplomats

Attaché –

Military

Cultural

Economic / Business

Scientific

Envoy
Heads the Legation of Minor Nations

I am also planning on a building or at least a couple rooms for each of the nations. I am also giving most of them some sort of pet or mascot that is similar to their national animal. The Vichy French for example will have a French poodle dog. I will have pictures soon as I make more progress on this project.

Karcuss Zoo Tower!

This photo is a close up of my Berlin Zoo Flak Tower.

The photos are about ten years old, it was a work in progress then. I upgraded to double 128mm AA guns and I added doors and windows. This thing is massive. Those are 37mm guns in the swallows nests. Also look on the ground to the right. That's the Brandenburg Gate by Britannia Miniatures, long out of production.