Cool Cars

I got two of these cars.

My plan is to leave one as is.

And paint one of them red, or maybe black.

It's amazing how it looks so much like this old car from 50 years ago.

Maybe even longer.

I like them both.

Very cool vehicles.
 

Cars for Batman

A Tootsietoy die cast car.

The new Matchbox car version.

The Tootsietoy is decades old and the Matchbox is new.

I think the red car would be a great vehicle for young Dick Grayson to drive.

The flashy yellow car would be perfect for playboy Millionaire Bruce Wayne.

This is a very nice car model, look at the grill!

The pipes on the engine are good details too.

Nice boat style body.

The top up is a nice touch too.

 

Tootsietoy MG Sports Car

A friend of mine sent me a few bits and bobs recently.

It included this Tootsietoy MG sports car.

After it got the minimal amount of paint that was left on it, it looked pretty good.

So far I have removed the axles, removed the paint, and primer painted the underside.

Still gotta primer the top, but ran out of primer paint!

Air Defense

 During the Interwar period many nations developed massive listening machines to detect aircraft acoustically.

 I took some toy musical instruments from the dollar store to use as the horns.
 

The base is probably at least 50 years old, it's a base from a Tootsietoy searchlight.

Shown here with a few 1/72nd scale troops for size.

After painting it looks a lot less goofy.

For a junk toy coupled with a few dollar store bits, I think it turned out okay.

It will work as an air defense for my 1938 US Army.

The finished device with painted wheels.

8 Inch Gun

Tootsietoy made a 155 Long Tom toy about 70 years ago.  This one I got on eBay.  I stripped off the paint, made some minor repairs, replaced the tires and repainted it.  I use it for my 1938 US Army.

I also got this one from eBay but the barrel was broken off and the back end was missing too.

I took a Roco 203mm cannon barrel and put it on the broken Tootsietoy to make an 8 inch gun.

I reconstructed the back end using sheet plastic.

This barrel is shorter and wider than the original.  The real Long Tom came in both 8 inch and 155mm versions.

Since I am using these for my fictional 1938 US Army, I only wanted one firing battery of 155mm of four guns and the damaged 8 inch

Tootsietoy

Painting resin cast wheels.

This is a Long Tom 155mm howitzer made by Tootsietoy.  

I buy them, in very poor condition, from eBay.  

Strip all the paint from them, prime them and repaint them.

Resin cast some new, and more realistic wheels and it's off to war.

Here is the gun with a Strelets WWI era US Army crew.

Lee

These tanks were in rough shape when I got them.

That's the key to buying these tanks is to buy them in poor condition.

The collectors want pristine and original ones.  I was able to strip the paint, prime them and replace missing wheels with no problem

A trip to Wal-Mart and I got a $1 can of flat white primer spray paint and a $4 can of camouflage paint from Rustoleum.

Deep Forest Green is very close to olive drab from Testors, and I like it a lot.  Both cans of paint went on smooth with no problems, just like the most expensive hobby spray paints.

Five tanks, all lined up and ready to go with a couple 1/72nd scale figures for size.

TootsieToy Lee

After three years of searching and working, I am nearly done with this project.

This is the Tootsietoy Lee tank, in a new paint job.

The holes repaired, seams patched, ridges filed down and ready for action.

I also added the cupola machine gun with a bit of wire and a dollop of glue on the end as the flash suppressor.

Here is the tank with a 1/72nd scale US Army soldier from Italeri.  Not a bad size match.

I plan on using these as heavy tanks with a 105 howitzer in the nose.  Something the real M3 Lee did not have.  These tanks are also much larger than a HO scale Lee but about the same size as an M6 heavy tank.  So in my alternate universe, these are heavy tanks that saw combat alongside the Lee series of tanks.