Mike is Collecting Troops

For the last couple years I have been sorting out my collection of US Army figures from the period 1898 to 1998.  I am doing American Army troops that work for that whole period with touch points at 1898, 1918, 1938, 1958, 1978, 1998.  These periods essentially conform to our involvement in several wars.

I got some trays from Dollar General stores and I am using them to help me sort the troops by one platoon per tray, four platoons per company.  Sadly, hundreds of my Esci, and Airfix troops went brittle and will have to be replaced.

The cost of getting replacement troops has slowed the project by years.  I am also arranging them into companies, battalions, regiments, with the over all plan to be able to field the combat elements of an infantry division.

I am very vaguely, basing these troops on actual units.  The little photos are paintings of actual US Army units from these eras showing their uniforms, headgear and personal equipment.

All these Esci Zulu Wars British Infantry figures went brittle and will need replacement.  It's at least 8 boxes of figures.  The Italeri version of these troops have about a dozen fewer troops per set than the Esci figures sets and fewer riflemen.  So I anticipate having to buy 10 to 12 Italeri sets.

I am using this book as a guide to uniforms and equipment at the small unit level for each era.  This book is a great resource.  The collection will include private, local, and state militias, organized guard units and other militarized groups.  The US Army actually used saucer caps, Montana Peak hats, garrison caps, M1917 helmets, M1 helmets, pith helmets, pickelhaube helmets, and several other types.

My plan includes Boy Scouts, and US Forest Service men.  The Boy Scouts often performed search and rescue, and other auxiliary duties in the World Wars.  The US Army guarded the US Forests in World War One because wood was a strategic asset in World War One for airplane building and light ships.  They were special units that were the only US Army Federal troops issued lever action units.
 

Jonny Quest Update

Doctor Zinn, arch nemesis of Doctor Quest.

Almost ready for final touch up.  The lady is James Bond villainess from Thunderball.

Professor X donated his head to Doctor Zinn.  Jade is almost done.

Jonny and Bandit.

Cute little doggie.

A little more light, Race, Hadji and Dr. Quest.
 

UFO Driver

Solidified electricity is what we call the material in the helmet.

Aliens come to our planet and give us an ultimatum to surrender.

They don't know us very well.

ElastoWit figures in 1/32nd scale and the face shows the ancient age of the alien invaders.

Excellent rubber type plastic figures, limited production.

Perfect for skirmish wargames, dioramas and collecting.
 

Paint and Painting Tricks

I use a lot of spray paint.  I have an airbrush and I use it when I really want to do good camouflage or if I need a color I can't get in a spray can.

Sometimes the spray paint gets clogged up.  So I started saving the nozzles when I toss out an empty can of spray paint.  I found that I always have a surplus of nozzles because they don't get clogged up that often.  I put the old nozzle in the lid of the can I used.

That way each nozzle is color coded with the paint it had in it.  You can use the "wrong" color nozzle, it does not seem to matter, but I don't like to take chances.

Another thing I do is take a bit of paper towel and put a few drops of paint thinner on it.  As I spray paint I wipe the nozzle every few sprays when I shake the can again.  That really helps reduce the clogging.

Long term project, as I get in the mood to paint I have been painting cheap unpainted or poorly painted civilians that are sold in bulk on line.  I glue them to a base and batch paint them.  Paint the flesh.  Next, get some denim blue paint and paint the pants or jacket on a dozen or so figures.  Then get some green, or red and paint the rest of the clothing.  Then paint the shoes brown, or black, or whatever.  Finally paint the base.  In a crowd of a couple hundred they look great and it does not take long.  I am color coding the bases, most of them are a kind of paving stone reddish brown.  But some are light gray, or dark gray, or even green.  Then I can designate the green ones as being undercover police, or enemy agents, or some other specific group that is not readily apparent.  And by using a lot of base colors, but with over half of the bases the reddish brown, it makes it hard to tell who is who unless you know the color to look for.
 

Strelets American Infantry on the March, American Civil War

Strelets new American Civil War set, #149 US Infantry on the March.

Here they are at Dumont Hill, site of a major ACW Union encampment.

These troops are great, just walking along.  They could be walking towards a battle.

They could be walking around a battlefield, but not in contact with the enemy, nor expecting them right away.

Much of war is just walking from one place to the next.

Many troops walked a thousand miles from their home to go to battle.

Or at least walked to the train station.

Red Box Italian Sailors

Red Box Italian Sailors from the 16th to 17th Century.

In 1/72nd scale soft plastic.

While I don't care about 16th Century Italians, as such, my intention is to use these with my Conquistadors in the New World.

I will mix them in with my Spanish figures.  I have a lot of ships that need crews.

And like the Spanish, I am not too concerned about where they come from.

I have read these are supposed to be for a galley, but I think most will work for rowing ships boats too.

The others can work the rigging and the deck.

Crews of sailing ships from the Mediterranean Sea often were mixed from many lands.

Drummer may get transferred to the Zulus, or Aztecs, or other native peoples, after a suitable head swap!

People

While on eBay I found a few people.

Modern civilians that were listed as 1/75th scale.

They were in a pack of 100 with ten poses.

Five male and five female poses, the seated male looks like a fighter pilot.

Not a bad group, most of the women look about 1970 or more recent since four out of five are wearing pants.

New Product Line

Very soon I will make a very special announcement about a new hobby product.

1/72nd Scale Soft Plastic Figure Sets to Make

There are many 1/72nd scale soft plastic figure sets that I would love to buy, if some company would make them. I am certain that they would be popular enough to sell well.

Pre-history
Cro-Magnon man
Male and female and children, with throwing spears, clubs, knives, bows and arrows

Neanderthal man
Male and female and children, with spears, clubs, knives

Prehistoric Mammals
Saber tooth tiger, giant sloth, giant birds, mammoth, bison latifrans

American Civil War
US Navy Sailors Naval Landing Party

First World War
US Army Cavalry 1918
British style helmet with Springfield rifles, .45 pistols, .45 revolvers, and sabers

US Army Heavy Artillery 1918
British style helmet with Schneider 155 mm French howitzer,
Do the same gun with a WWII era US Army crew with rubber tires for WWII

Interwar Adventures
Spies, secret police, espionage people
Fedora hats, trench coats, cameras, pistols, submachine guns, male and female, German, British, American, and Soviet

Oilfield and Construction Workers
Hard hats, jump suits, shovels, picks, axes, transits and surveyors, big hammers and wrenches and jackhammers and toolboxes, wheelbarrows

Scientists and Archaeologists and Paleontologists and Hunters
Pith helmets, fedora hats, bare headed, male and female, kneeling with brushes, dental picks, working with test tubes and chemical glasses, microscopes, cameras, guns

1920’s American Roaring 20’s Gangsters, Police & Citizens
Police with revolvers, Thompson submachine guns, shotguns, Browning Automatic Rifles, Colt .45 pistol, Gangsters with Thompsons, sawed off shotguns, various handguns, male and female and citizens with double barrel shotguns, and walking, running

World War Two
US Navy UDT Frogmen Divers
Swimming trunks, with flippers, mask, snorkel, demolition charges, knife, small assault team with Thompson submachine guns, Colt .45 and M1 Carbines, Hard hat divers with hammer, wrench, knife, cutting torch

US Navy Landing Party For Raiding and Amphibious Landing Control
Helmets, and Sailor hats, Thompson submachine guns, Colt .45, Springfield rifles, demolitions charges, signal flags, ship to shore radio, Aldis lamp, Officers with maps and binoculars

American Infantry Philippines Bataan 1941/42
British style helmets, M1 and Springfield rifles, BAR, Browning water-cooled machine gun, Colt .45 pistol and revolver, Lewis guns, grenades

26th Cavalry Philippine Scouts 1941/42
Campaign hats, Colt .45 pistols, M1 Garands mounted and dis-mounted

Russian Panje ponies and wagons

Heavy and light baggage wagons for use by Russian and German troops

Hungarian Infantry

Dutch Infantry, European and Far East, Pacific

Cold War/ Cuban Missile Crisis 1963

US Army Infantry
M-14 rifles, M-1919A6 light machine gun

Cuban Infantry
Mix of US and USSR weapons, beards, Ridgeway hats

To the best of my knowledge none of these sets are in the pipeline from any soft plastic figure company. I think these sets would be popular and would sell well. All of these sets come up over and over again in discussions of new figure sets. Since I don't do ancients, or Napoleonics there are no sets from those eras.