Ancient Bison

This is a Nature Toob model of long horn cattle from their Wild West set. A sturdy, painted steer that is probably about 1/48th scale.

























The same Nature Toob set also contains an American Bison in about the same scale.






















In prehistoric times the American plains were ruled by an animal that was sort of a cross between the two animals, a very large bison with very long cattle like horns. I cut off the bison horns and the cattle horns and then using epoxy glue I attached the long horns to the bison. The result was a rather convincing ancient bison. In reality, the bison is a tiny bit too large and the horns are too long for a real 1/72nd ancient bison, but since the Nature Toob is only about $8 and includes a good tee pee and wagon in addition to the animals, I can live with it.






















A group of Chinese soldiers confront an ancient bison, these are the WWII Chinese Soldiers from Caesar Miniatures in 1/72nd scale.






















A family portrait of the animals needed to make the new model and the finished product. With a few conversions and careful purchases most of the animals needed to make a great variety of prehistoric mammals in 1/72nd scale.

Eagle Games Big Figures

These are the Eagle Games figures that are 30 mm compared to some Strelets WWI German Dragoons and HaT WWII Germans.






















The Eagle Games figures are really nice but they are way too big to be used with 1/72nd scale figures. The photos don't actually do the Eagle Games troops justice, they are actually very big.

As you can see not only are the Eagle Games figures too tall, they are huge, very large fat figures. The detail is really nice and they have no flash and are well sculpted, but Eagle dropped the ball on this set and made these otherwise fine figures far too large.

Mammoths & Tar

Recently my wife and I visited the La Brea Tar Pits in downtown Los Angeles, California. While there we learned about how animals would wander into the tar and get stuck, and then predators would see them, attack them, and also get stuck into the tar. After a time they would sink to the bottom and become just bones.

While there we visited the gift shop and I managed to pick up a small herd of Woolly Mammoths. They have a mounted skeleton there and it is very impressive. The thing is huge. I could imagine myself with a pointy stick trying to kill one of those massive beasts.

http://www.tarpits.org/






















The last time I was at the museum, I picked up one small Bullyland mammoth model and it was really nice. It was $5.99 plus tax but all painted and ready to use on the wargame table, so a great value compared to those $25.00 monsters in lead the 28mm gamers use. The cute little red haired girl gave me a bit of a discount, so rather than 12, I got 14 of them and added to the one I already and and three smaller ones from Nature Toob I got a rather impressive herd.





















A small group of the Imex Friendly Indians in 1/72nd scale are interacting with a mammoth herd on the move. As you can see they are not having much luck in moving these massive beasts. These figures make excellent prehistoric men and I really like the guy with the deer skin and antlers camouflage! Highly recommended figures, mammoths and museum!

Command Car

The Germans in World War II used just about anything with wheels and that included luxury automobiles.






















This Mercedes 170V is made in HO 1/87 scale by Busch. It is new and there are several others from them.





















High ranking officers rated a nice car but as Allied air superiority got more and more dominant, they were in greater and greater peril from American and British aircraft. This car has been given a nice camouflage coating but if you look close you can still see all the tactical markings on the fenders. An excellent little addition to your staff, right out of the box.