More Police Figures

Roco Minitanks US tank commanders and cheap plastic figures.

Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department required mandatory helmet wearing for several years in the 1980s and it looks a lot like the tanker helmet.  So I am doing head swaps for these guys.  You can also see a Cold M1919 machine gun with a white barrel.  It is a replacement barrel for an air cooled machine gun barrel that had broken off.

I am working on making bases for my police figures.

This is my standard figure basing plastic for basing figures.

The plastic is trimmed into pieces with 2 x 3 squares making a small rectangle.

Sometimes I leave them with sharp corners or smooth the corners down.

This is the bottom half of a WWII German figure by Odemars.  

Uniforms like this were very common in the US for polices, particularly those who rode on motorcycles.

So I switched his head with the head of an Airfix WWI British soldier.

The original arm position is at a low ready, but I moved the arm to more of a shooting pose.

These will become motorcycle police.  From 1910 to after WWII motorcycle police were very common because motorcycles were less expensive than automobiles and some cities fielded large fleets of them.
 

Santa Globe

In the movie The Santa Claus there is a huge globe on display in Santa's village workshop.

So finding this snow globe at Dollar General seemed a natural acquisition for my Santa collection,

1/72nd scale Odemars / Ykreol Santa Claus figure in plastic.

Top view.

It says this is not a toy, for decoration only, so apparently it will have to decorate my wargame table.
 

Figures and Roco

Odemars WWII German commanders in a ruined building.

With a guard from Caesar Miniatures.

Tiger III tank with the small turret.

Roco Tiger II with an old Roco Panther turret and replacement 88mm gun.

Troops use rangefinders to insure first round hits against advancing Soviet tanks.

Odemars German Commander figure with Roco sound detector from an SWS halftrack, in place as a ground mount.

Roco Kubelwagen.  I got it used; the previous owner did a great paint job.  Window frame is broken but has since been repaired.

 Odemars German Commanders, Revell German Artillery, Caesar Miniatures German Artillery Crew.

AA Guns in the Snow

Versuchsflakwagen fur 8.8cm Flak 41 or as we know it the Roco Grille Z-105 model was a self propelled gun made in late World War Two by the Germans.  Only three were produced, however the same gun mount and shield was used as a ground mounted gun in both the anti-aircraft and anti-tank role as early as 1943 in Tunisia. 

I have converted 12 into ground mounts to use with my German troops. 

Over 300 of them were built during the war.

I am also making a few to paint in desert scheme for my Germans in Tunisia.

The crew figures here are from Caesar Miniatures.

Platoons of four guns, with a company of three platoons for a total of 12 guns.

Figures are from several different sets of Caesar Miniatures as well as a couple from Odemars, all in 1/72nd scale.

Troops in a snow trench.
 

Odemars, Roco, and Ceasar on the Russian Front

We only get a few days a year with any snow accumulation here in KY, USA.

So when I get a little snow, I like to take advantage of it by setting up a few figures in the snow.

This snow is about 2-3 inches deep.  I took a 2 inch paint brush and used it to brush the snow into trenches.  I made gun emplacements by pushing a water bottle into the snow to make a circular impression for the guns.

This set up uses Roco Minitanks, mostly very old ones.  This is part of an SWS halftrack, the "sound detector."  I removed the dish and mounted it on a ground mount.  I use it variously as a radar dish and as a sound detector.  1/72nd scale figure by Odemars.

Roco Tiger II converted into a Tiger III.  It has a Tiger II hull with a Roco old Panther turret.  The turret has been modified with a new vertical turret face and the addition of the Tiger II gun.  The Roco old Panther turret is very similar in size and shape to the Trident Models Panther small turret version, Panther F.  The Germans determined that making the turret front face narrow and then sloping out the sides they could decrease hits on the face and more readily deflect hits.  The M60A1 American Patton tank has a similar configuration to the turret.

The buildings are some resin kits I got 20+ years ago.  I don't know who made them, or even where I got them anymore.

Odemars German Commanders and Caesar Miniatures figures in the upper floors observing the action, both are 1/72nd scale.  When I started collecting in 1963 the only sets were 1/72nd scale figures by Airfix and 1/87 scale vehicles by Roco.  I was not allowed model glue until a few years later and so I needed the snap together construction of the Roco.  Also Roco had a vary large number of vehicles on offer, far more that all the 1/72nd scale companies combined.

Roco Grille gun dismounted and turned into the ground mount version.
 

New Heads

Original WWII German soldier.  This is an excellent figure, not the fine details.

I needed the hats and so I have used some surplus heads so I can still use the figure after his head has been removed.

I have a bunch of WWII German heads that were left over from various conversion projects.

This guy is now a member of the Afrika Korps with his little shorts.

I also moved the heads around so he looks pretty different in each pose.

This one has had the arm moved into a shooting position.

Five different versions.

Shown here with an Airfix Afrika Korps figure for size comparison.
 

Head Swaps

Odemars Germans and a couple Airfix WWI Americans.

I plan on some head swaps.

The US Army often used the garrison cap, or side cap.

With a quick head swap the Germans become RCMP.

Working on creating more RCMP, Boy Scouts, and WWI Americans with side caps, and a few Germans with helmets rather than side caps.