Soviet Skip Loaders and Painting Eggs

I buy a lot of little Chinese made die cast vehicles.

Many are generic construction equipment such as this skip loader.  I am no expert on skip loaders so they all look about the same to me.  So now that it has been painted, it is officially a Cold War era skip loader from the Soviet Unions' Red Army.  Along with it's comrades in the back.

More die cast vehicles, this time two decontamination trucks and a cargo truck.  Various countries in the old Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe made military equipment and sometimes it was used by the old Soviet Union.  Decon trucks are conversions from three vehicles.

More T54 tanks in for servicing and some freshly painted cargo box trucks.  Note tanks without hulls in the background of the photo.

I use this tube on the end of my electric drill motor to mix cans of spray paint.  It goes 40 seconds one way and 40 seconds the other way.  I use an old rag to help keep the paint can firmly inside the pipe.  Then just pull the rag and it drags the paint can right out.  Makes a lot of difference on mixing the paint well.  I also shake it up and down the old fashioned way a few shakes and as I paint.

I keep a bit of rubber exercise mat by the basement door and use it to kneel on sometimes if I need to be low and close in while taking photos or spray painting.  Gravel is hard on the knees.

Easter is a nice time to harvest a selection of eggs.  These formerly colorful eggs are being painted gloss white for use by Batman Villain Egghead.  They have been flipped upside down and are waiting for a second coat.  It will probably take three coats.  A couple of the sort of foam plastic eggs are not likely to pass inspection, their surface is scruffy looking when not colorful!
 

Tank Maintenance

Note the road wheels.  The front of the vehicle is to your left.  The gap between the first and second road wheel is supposed to be to the front, as it is in this picture.  It's hard to see but the small front wheel has sprockets on it.  The sprockets are supposed to be on the back wheel.  So you can assemble the vehicle wrong with the road wheel gap at the rear or wrong with the drive sprocket to the front.  Maddening.

The upper and lower hulls often don't fit well together, so they have to be glued and held in place with clamps.

Sometimes the upper hulls can be so warped I have had to use some very big clamps.  I selected having the road wheel gap at the front because it is more visible than the sprocket teeth.  I could cut the teeth off the drive wheel at the front to make it look more like an idler wheel, but that's more work that it's worth to me.  I could also use plastic rod to make new sprocket teeth and glue them on the rear idler wheel but unless I was only making one or two of these the amount of work is just too much.

The missing hatch has been replaced with sheet plastic and a bit of paint splashed over it for now.  It will cover up nicely when spray painted.  Note the little white tab inside the gun mount.  It helps to keep the gun from drooping by making the space where the gun fits into the turret narrower.

I put a little Model Master liquid cement, wait a moment and then place the very thin bit of sheet plastic on the inside of the turret opening.  I push it into the dimple with tweezers.

I had to do this on probably 80% of my T54 models.  Most are very old and have been campaigning for decades.

I got these tanks used decades ago, and yet, I could match the color from my paint collection.  It's exact.

Many of these old tanks were painted with the turrets on!  So the space under the turret was not painted.  Not a problem until the asymmetrical turret turns and shows the original Roco plastic color!

This buff old soldier has been touched up, tuned up, and revved up and is ready for war.  Games that is.
 

M47, T54 and M48 Tanks

I am doing a big sweep through my Cold War Soviet Union collection.  As you can see from the Roco T54 hatches I have been replacing hatches.  I have been painting stuff a lot.

These are die cast trucks and vehicle made in Eastern Europe and a few from  China.  I use them as part of my Cold War Soviet Union support vehicles.  I have been masking the plastic glass, and spray painting them.  After it's dry, I remove the masking tape and paint the area around the windows.

Some of my command vehicles have Roco tank commanders.

I am painting over the markings and touching up some places that did not get painted by the original owner.

Here are some Roco M-47 tanks.  Can you tell me what is different about them, from the standard M-47 tank?

A few years ago this M48 and three other tanks came on a bit of cardboard with a plastic dome over them.  They all had M48 type suspensions and upper hulls and turrets of a sort of Panzer IV, and a Leopard, that were not very good.  The M48 was the best of them but it was really too small for HO scale, just by a little.  The cupola is pretty good and I may use it to update a few Roco M48s. 
 

Mr. Freeze or Spider-Man Van?

While this is a great van, it's not really what I want.

Hot Wheels and others make some decent Spider-Man vehicles so I don't see a need for any more Spider-Man vehicles.

Nice graphics but the pink legs are rather weird.

Good detail on the roof.

Underside is rather plain.

So what to do with this van?  I am going to change it up to an ice cream truck for Mr. Freeze.

In at least one episode of Batman TV show Mr. Freeze operates a large ice cream van.

So my plan is to strip off the paint, and repaint it to go with my fleet of Mr. Freeze vehicles.

I already have several Mr. Freeze vehicles and a large number of henchmen.  So this van will be a good addition to that fleet.
 

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.
 

Wrecked Cars

As a little bonus with the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks you get a little crushed car in the package.

There are several different ones and they are all one piece plastic.

Very simple, and ironically, durable.

They come with a pin on the back and roof.

And a receptacle for the pin on the hood and the front.

The pins allow you to pose the cars in many different ways.

I take my sprue cutter and remove the pins.

Then I insert the pins into the receptacles and mostly fills the holes.  I use a bit of Plastruct glue to hold the pin in.  I then paint the cars over all rust color.  I am sure if you took a little time with them you could make decent wrecked cars for dioramas of traffic accidents, battle scenes or even auto junk yards.