Zoo Enclosure

I got this little terrain piece at Michaels.

It is perfect for a zoo enclosure.

Since I have the Airfix Zoo set this will come in handy.

It was not expensive and it was the only one they had.

It came just like this and they did not have anything else like this in stock.

Here is the Airfix 1/72nd scale sea lion ready to jump in for a swim.

Now the Airfix polar bear is in the water.

So the sea lion is back out of the water.
 

Animals of Germany

Sometimes the Germans used unusual animals, here a reindeer.  Often I have seen them towing sledges.

Here are usual animals, horses, but this wagon, the Hf7 uses four or six horses, but only three in use this time.

The Germans did not use mules very often, but here are some with mountain troops.

A special litter for carrying the wounded in the mountains.

Falconry was a high art in Germany and it continued during the war.

Here a famous German plays with a lion cub.  Lions seemed popular in Germany.

Another lion plays with the air force.

Yak About Musk Ox

As part of my Battle of Berlin wargame I have been searching for animals of many different kinds. The Berlin Zoo naturally had a wide selection of animals, and while many of them were evacuated, but many remained all during the battle. I also wanted animals for the refugees, who would often be riding animals or animal drawn vehicles. Many of the farm people would be driving herds of animals to keep them out of the hands of the advancing Russian Army. During this I found a few other animals too. Given the massive size of my collection, cheap animals is an important consideration too.























Lakeshore Toys has a set of what they call Tub of Wild Animals that naturally enough is a big plastic jar filled with plastic animals. At only $20 for a Tub, you only have to find a few usable animals to make the purchase worthwhile. I got five musk ox, which when compared to the HaT WWII German 1/72nd scale troops shown above, look pretty good. If these were the only useful items, the cost would only be $4 per musk ox; not too bad.























They also include five large gorillas. They are too big for use as standard gorillas in 1/72nd scale but I plan on using them for those adventure in the jungle games.





















These HaT WWII Germans shown with the gorillas. The giraffes looked good too and so did some of the others. Despite the fact that most of the animals in the tub are too large to use, the usable animals make it worthwhile. More in the next few days.