Tiki Bar

I got this little building at Dollar Tree a while back.  

I want to use it for some 1/72nd scale figures but it is taller than I would like.  So I used my belt sanders to buzz the base down about 3mm.  I then used my Dremel too to buzz out some of the bottles because they are too large.

Original versus the modified version.  Still buzzing out the inside.

These are the three tools I am using to cut out the inside of the tiki hut.

The big X-Acto knife is helpful for scraping off some of the excess and smoothing out the line.

Dremel tool, probably 20+ years old.  It's my new one, the other one is much older and I still use them both.

Bottles and sign cut out now.

How it looks so far.  Obviously it needs paint and maybe some more work.
 

Cowabunga Dudes

No fish, just the waves they came with.  They are easily broken off and the tab on top cuts off easily.

Using a bit of sheet plastic I made two surfboards and planted a couple surfers on top.

These are not glued, there is enough flat on the top of the wave for the figures to sit nicely.

I collect surfer figures for several reasons.  Surfing was popular in Hawaii near Pearl Harbor even before the Second World War, Joker and Batman had a surfing competition to see who ruled the waves, Apocalypse Now informed us there was surfing in Viet Nam during the war, I am doing "American Cities" as part of my collection and one of those cities is greater Los Angeles where surfing has always been popular.

I may get a few more, I think they look pretty good as is, but of course a blue water base would look better.
 

More Beach Action

In California and in Beach Blanket movies car culture and surfing overlap.  This little car has Malibu on the side of the car and depicts a surfing doing a wipe out.  I have been to Malibu a few times, many TV shows and movies are filmed there and have been for decades.

This car is the Mantaray.  It was in a Batman TV show episode and also in a movie called Bikini Beach.

The original car is a pearl white color, but Hot Wheels has released it in several color schemes.

Dune buggy parked in the parking lot along the beach front.

Two different dune buggies; they are sometimes production vehicles but often they are custom built.

Chicks dig the car.
 

Beach Vehicles

One of my collections is American Cities.  As part of that I have some beach culture.  I grew up in Southern California and spent a lot of time at the beach, and even worked at a fishing bait store for several years.  I use the American cities for World War III games, science fiction games, and role playing games.

The beach culture includes swimmers, sun bathers, scuba divers, fishermen, lifeguards, beach combers, and dune buggy drivers.  Sometimes it includes others like motorcycle riders, and campers.

Here are two dune buggies and a custom surf car.    You can see a lifeguard truck in the background.

Dune buggy on the beach.

Traditionally lifeguards wear red uniforms.

Some places have grass on the beach before it becomes all sand and water.

In California while it is legal to have a home or other private property near the beach, private beaches are prohibited a certain distance above the high water mark at high tide.  The idea is the beaches and coastline are public property and must have public access.  Other states allow private beaches.

I get cheap styrene figures, repaint them and add bases to make my figures for this group.  Based on the Beach Party genre of movies I include a motorcycle gang as a counterpoint for the surfers.  The movies depict them as a two groups that compete for women, bars, and other facilities.
 

Yellow Dune Buggy Part II

Maesto dune buggy.

It's a cute little vehicle and for a really cheap vehicle it is pretty good.

I got a few of these for my Beach Blanket Bingo collection.

I will likely disassemble a couple of them and repaint them.  The paint job is good, but I want more colors.

Shown here with an army Meyers Manx.
 

Surf Woody

1932 Ford Woody.

This is 1/64th scale and is a Wal-Mart exclusive.

The are about 25 cents cheaper than Hot Wheels or Matchbox and are similar to those brands before they increased the price about a year ago.

Back then the cars lacked an interior and the wheels were getting cheap.  Since the price increase they are much better.

Still, for $1 this is a perfectly usable car, in 1/64th scale.

It will work well for my Beach Blanket surfers.

So the size problem does not bother me.

I suspect I will get a few of these and the will have surfboards mounted on the roof, or out the rear window.

And I will likely repaint them so they are not all red, and perhaps change up the wheels.
 

Motorcycle

I got this trailer and motorcycle as part of my biker gang collection.

It is a sub-set of my Beach Blanket Bingo collection.

There is a biker gang called the Rats that appear in most of the movies.

I managed to get only one of these, my plan is to cut the motorcycle off the trailer and mount a rider on it.

Checking ebay they are too expensive to cause me to buy more there.

So for now I only have this one.

Maybe someday I will get some others.

We shall see.
 

Mighty K

Hot Wheels Mighty K.

A small vehicle that I will use for my Beach Blanket adventures.

It's called Surf Skate.

In olden times skateboarding was called sidewalk surfing.

It's a cute little truck.

With a Hot Wheels license plate.

And a skate board in the back.

Easy addition to the collection.