T34 Bridgelayer

A long time ago I made a bunch of T34 tank bridgelayers.

The standard Roco T34 model tank with the turret removed.

Then take the little clips that hold the small wheels on the bottom of the tanks and use them to make the rack that holds the bridge.  Easy and inexpensive conversion.

Then take some sheet plastic with a pattern on it like lumber.

And glue more of those Roco clips to the back of it.

Then some heavy, thick plastic strips get glued to the clips and the sheet plastic.

Makes a simple and effective bridge model.

Perfect for miniature wargames.
 

Flamethrower

The tanks seem to want to press on pass the roadblock rather than stand and fight.

There are more and more tanks showing up.

The ones at the back of the row are barely moving.

The ones at the center are picking up speed.

The machine gun fires trying to hit the vision blocks of the tanks.

Flamethrowers standby.
 

Soviet Union T-34/76 Tank

Roco Minitanks T-34/76.

World War Two era Soviet Union medium tank.

Nice bow gun, these were used from the beginning of the war to the end.

Three external fuel tanks, two on the one side and one on the other.

Roco made two versions of the hull, this is the second version.

On the first version the upper hull snaps into the lower hull with "hidden" hardware.

Standard Roco Minitank wheels on the bottom.

T-34 Tanks

Take out the shredded paper, then take out the tanks.  Then dust off the tanks, then clean out the box, then put corduroy cloth and bubble wrap back in the box to form a non-slip lining.

Then put the vehicles back in the box.

Here a Soviet 65 tanks are returned to a box.

Roco Minitanks T-34/85 models in HO scale.

Safely returned to their storage box.  A little room left over for additional crewmen, and support vehicles.

T34 Tanks

More of the Russian collection.  Sometimes I use cardboard boxes inside the plastic box to prevent vehicles from sliding around.

These little Tyco tractor loads from flatcars make good Soviet tractors.  Caterpillar opened a factory in the Soviet Union and most of the tractors went to the military.

Sometimes just a change in the smoke stack makes a big difference.

Original plastic colors for these were silver, orange and yellow!

The Roco T34/76 collection.  65 of them.

Replacement resin cast hatch in yellow.

At 40+ years old  many of these needed work, but I am getting things organized.

WWII Soviet Union Trucks and Tanks

Part of the WWII Soviet Union collection.  Mostly trucks and armored cars.  Trucks for supplies, and buses for command posts, ambulances, and personnel transport.  Dump trucks and boats for engineers.

Van trucks for technical work, and light infantry guns.

The Soviet Union had the largest truck factory in the world in WWII, it was a Ford factory that they purchased.

Most of these are at least primer painted, many are resin, all are HO scale.

Tank battalion with armored recovery vehicles.

Mir T-34/76 tanks.

These tanks have finished their preparation, flash trimmed, and parts glued.

T-34 Tank Repair

My T-34 collection has vehicles in it that are as much as 50 years old.  Some are in poor condition.

Some I got new, and some I got used.  Many are missing the bow MG, a missing turret hatch, and other problems.  I found one with M110 howitzer tracks, half a dozen had wooden hatches.

I replaced the wooden and missing hatches with new ones made out of styrene plastic.

I repaired broken bow machine guns with wire and replaced missing machine guns with resin casts ones that I made.

The whole Russian collection needed work, and I am getting it done.