Conversion and Lights

The decontamination vehicle uses a jet engine blasting water or chemicals from an on board tank onto vehicles as they drive slowly past.

It cleans the chemical agent off the effected vehicle with a massive jet blast.

It started as a cement mixer truck.

And a fuel tanker truck.

And a crane.

My new night time set up with extra lighting.

I can now paint at night.  I have one more of these lights but two was enough for this project.

It's like daytime!
 

Soviet Equipment

Work continues on the T54 tanks, nearly all Roco, but a few SDV, these are Roco in the photo.

I have been taking them apart, mostly, trimming off the flash, repairing problems and putting them together.  Not all of them have the little wheels and I am not replacing any that are missing.

Many of mine had two right side tracks!  That created a lot of problems later.

This is a conversion that I made using parts of three vehicles.

It is a chemical weapon decontamination vehicle.
 

Painting Stuff and Tips

For the last month or more I have been working on upgrading my Cold War Soviet / Warsaw Pact army.

These are all HO scale vehicles from a variety of companies.

There was a time when the Soviet Union was building an anti-aircraft gun system to replace or supplement the ZSU-23/4.

Similar to the West German Gepard system this was supposed to be a twin 30mm cannon with radar guidance. 

Usually I paint vehicles upside down first, with turrets off if they are easily removable.  Then I can flip them over when dry and paint the upper side.

I decant my spray paints into little jars using a funnel.  I label the paint with blue tape, and I always include the name of paint, the brand and the stock number.

It often does not last very long in these jars, sometimes a few days or few weeks.  I try and use it up quickly.  It is perfect for touch up where the spray paint missed or did not cover well.
 

Fixing the Van

I use this putty sometimes and it works okay.

I put a little bit on this aluminum foil and using a dental tool to fill in the bump in the roof of the van.

Put it on the roof to fill the dip.

Smooth it out with the tool.

Then sand it down with fine sandpaper. All better waiting for primer and paint.
 

SDV Kit

SDV makes a lot of Cold War era Warsaw Pact kits.

The parts are not marked with their construction number the order of construction and each part number is referenced on a sheet of paper.  So I usually cut most of the parts off the sprue, then trim the flash and finally organize the little piles in order of construction.

Here I am working on the suspension.  They go together pretty well and are sturdy when the glue is dry.  The tracks are one piece and slip over the suspension parts which is a good technique for lining up the road wheels and making them good and strong, yet preserving detail.

This is the crane part.

Here is the casement and the lifting gear bits.  This is a tank based armored recovery vehicle.
 

Roco Van Trailer

Roco van trailer.

Two doors, these are often missing from used models, but are easy to scratch build.

Logistics are important for warfare and big vans like this are good for carrying many kinds of supplies particularly those that are easily damaged by rain or wind.

The landing gear work but it is not a great design.

This is a simple model and very durable.

Front end.

Bottom with retracted landing gear, and spare tire.

The top is a big rectangle.
 

Painting Jeeps

I was in JROTC, ROTC and the USAR between 1970 and 1992.  This is the shade I remember as being used for most US Army vehicles at the time.  It is sort of a gray olive drab.  I don't know how accurate my memory is about that, but it's what I have chosen to use since I discovered it about 10 years ago.

Rust-Oleum calls it Deep Forest Green.

The light in these photos make it look more gray than olive.  

Roco M38 Jeeps that have never been painted getting some paint finally.

First they had the flash trimmed and all the parts replaced, restored, or adjusted to fit.  Often the wheels don't turn so the axles need to be bent, or the glue scrapped out of the tires and wheel well.  I have a lot of M38 Jeeps, when Roco and later Paul Heiser finally did a Willys Jeep for WWII a lot of these came out on the surplus market.  So I picked up about 100 of them  here and there.  Now I am working on bringing them back to life. I have had to resin cast a few wheels and gas cans, those often go pretty quickly.  Some I put a plastic sheet in the rear and use them with mounted machine guns or other weapons that don't really need to rear seat; those seem to go missing a lot too.

Roskopf made a 2 1/2 ton truck that was essentially a copy of the Roco.  One version had the canvas and the other had a bunch of tiny soldiers riding in the back.  I cut out the troops and now use them for Jeep drivers and passengers.  I also use a few of the Roco soft plastic figures too, but strangely those are actually kind of large to work well as drivers.  Often they go in the back seat.
 

Tires or Tracks?

2 1/2 ton truck with tracks to replace the wheels.

Roco Minitanks cab and frame, truck bed from Hot Wheels truck, and tracks from a Matchbox Frost Fighter.

1/72nd scale civilian for scale.

Ready for painting.  The US Army keeps experimenting with tracks that can be replaced with tires and tires that can be replaced with tracks.  This is one of those experiments.
 

Remote Command Center

Roco Dodge van and Paul Heiser Jeep, Airfix USAAF MP.

All three little trucks together.

Somewhere outside of Washington, D.C. a remote communications platoon is set up to prepare for a national emergency.

A squad of Military Police has been deployed for site security.

The microwave communication van is set up.

The command van is ready for the emergency.  Flying saucers, Rhedosaurus, Martians, or Reds, they are ready.