What's on Mike's Worktable?

Three bottles of glue. The CA Krazy Glue for metal and resin bits. Model Master glue for plastic glues all my models together, great stuff, and the ability to put tiny amounts of glue in a particular spot makes a big difference in building models. The clear makes great windshields. The older Roco don't often come with them and this is a good substitute. It is a super-gap filling glue.

Model Master paints, terrific coverage. Gunze Sanyo water soluble paints.

Tamya paints, great colors, and they last a long time. The Smoke is good for weathering areas that have been burned. The Testors Silver is an old standby. Very thick, great coverage.

Bestine prepares surfaces to be glued. I use it on metal and resin mostly when I intend to superglue parts together. Get it at art supply stores.

The Rustall system. It will "rust" any surface. The a little backwash and some Dead Flat finish the effect. These are the products I used to make the Tiger II knocked out vehicle.

Operation High Jump

Ykreol is making two sets of figures for ultra-late WWII. There is a whole genre of historical / historical science fiction type wargames. They use various real, proposed and fantasy weapons made by the Germans and Allies. These figures are useful for playing games about the German base in Antarctica.

Before WWII the Germans explored Antarctica and there were rumors that hey actually built a base there that continued to operate for years after the war ended. Some even say that the Byrd Expeditions after the war were to attack those German bases.

During the war B-17 bomber crews attacking German were sometimes buzzed by aircraft that were not identified by the Americans. They were called FOO Fighters. Some speculate these were either ultra high tech German weapons or even aliens from space. Some claim the aliens were simply watching the war, others claim they were allied with the Germans.

Plenty of good wargame scenarios there.

Sherman Tracks

Paul Heiser Models plastic track in HO scale and new Paul Heiser Sherman track for the extended version.

Some versions of the Sherman were longer than the standard M4A3 and needed a longer track length.

Paul also makes a duck bill track. These tracks were extra wide. As the Sherman got heavier, they needed a wider track to make a lower ground pressure. They put these extenders on the tracks on many of the Shermans in Europe in late WWII.

Paul also makes the early style Sherman track, the same as used on the Lee / Grant series of tanks.

These chevron tracks have the duck bill end connectors. Compare the width with the standard block track. These should be out in the next couple months.

Composite Hull

Paul Heiser Models 1/87th scale HO composite hull Sherman tank.

The composite hull used both cast parts and welded parts to make up the major hull components.

This model will be out in early 2010, and will be sold by Fidelis Models.

The extra armor plates were welded on over the ammo storage. Paul Heiser models makes at least 22 versions of the Sherman tank and very soon will make 19 more!