Wespe Artillery

Painting my resin Paul Heiser Models Wespe self propelled guns.

Each battery of six guns gets two ammo carriers.

The primer paint gives a nice even texture to the model and sticks well to the resin.

Models are HO scale.

It was an excellent use of the Panzer II chassis to use it as a self-propelled gun and ammo carrier.

The ammo carrier was almost identical except it had no gun, just more ammo.

Boom Crane

More T34 armored recovery vehicles.  This time with a more complex cargo space.

Shermans are from Paul Heiser in HO 1/87 scale.

The Soviets used a number of Sherman tanks and they were generally well liked.

This is a Lee / Grant armored recovery vehicle.

Most Soviet ARVs don't have the luxury of a boom crane.

Fungus Fighters

US Army in the attack.

Fungus Fighters!

Weird War Two as Japanese Fungus Fighters take on the American troops!

They are small but they take a lot of killing!

Automatic weapons fire is the best thing.

Heavy slugs ripping into them.

But the monsters keep coming.

It's hard to kill something that does not bleed!

Armored Division

Sherman tank and crew.

Covering fire while others work.

Thompson, Grease Gun, and Colt .45 all use the same cartridge. 

Lots of activity in an armored division.

Maintenance to perform.

Repairs to be made.

Char B

Paul Heiser Models is owned and operated by Paul Heiser.  He has been a good friend for decades, long before he was Paul Heiser Models.  His latest project is a flamethrower version of the Char B tank.  It will probably be included with a regular Char B.  The flame gun will have to be glued on the spot occupied by the 75mm hull gun, which will have to be cut off.

There will be a French cupola, a German modified closed and open cupola nad a rear turret hatch.  There will be separate side door and escape hatch and a fuel tank for the flamethrower.  Paul is also planning on upgrading the SOMUA S35 tank as well.

I always recommend getting your Paul Heiser Models from Fidelis Models.  Randy of Fidelis is also a great friend of mine and has a huge collection of HO scale models.  Most of them are West German and post reunification German and USMC.

PHM Light Trucks

As part of my closet cleaning I came across a few more Paul Heiser Models.

These are some more HO 1/87th scale resin WWII German light trucks.

This one has a radio in the back. Germans had rather large radios in WWII.

They used a bewildering variety of trucks and cars. Both civilian and pre-war vehicles and even foreign vehicles were used by them.

A little convoy lined up for primer painting. I usually use Testors spray gray primer on resin.

251 Halftracks

One advantage of working part time is that I have more time than usual to put together the backlog of models. These are some Paul Heiser Models 251 halftracks that I put together recently.

They don't come with machine guns, so I had to round some up from the spares box to use for these models. I always keep an eye out for German MGs, knowing that I have a lot of PHM in the collection.

Paul makes several different versions of the halftrack. Note the fenders and the side armored flaps.

I got a couple extra wheels and I like to use them as spare tires. I also added a Roco tarp to the fender.

Six halftracks lined up, a nice platoon of vehicles. Actually they will probably be parcelled out to various units. HO scale 1/87th size vehicles. Resin kits can be very easy to put together. Paul Heiser kits are a good start if you never built resin. The resin is soft and works well with regular model tools. Glue it with super glue or epoxy. Sometimes I start with super glue and then use epoxy for added strength and gap filling.

PHM Trucks

The German Army was at war for a long time in World War Two.

As a result, they used a bewildering variety of different vehicles.

These light staff cars are resin models in 1/87th scale from Paul Heiser Models. They go together very quickly, have essentially no flash and are really easy models. I built them all in a day. They sat around in my unbuilt model collection for at least four years before I got around to building them.

As a size comparison, they are posed with some WWII German soldiers from Caesar Miniatures in 1/72nd scale.

Heiser Halftrack

Recently, I have been plowing through the junk pile and pulled out a few old kits that have been waiting for construction. Here are a couple old Paul Heiser Models kits that were in their for five or six years!

Like many of the Paul Heiser HO 1/87th scale models, this little halftrack has only a few parts. Main body, left and right tracks and two wheels.

Instructions are a simple line drawing showing the general layout of the models.

The ammo carrier has a small three part trailer too.

Despite being only one part, these models are highly detailed. The tiny bit of flash is easily removed with an X-Acto knife. Regular model building tools and techniques are used on these resin kits, but you have to use super glue or epoxy to hold them together.

Heiser Models Shermans

Here is the secret list of Paul Hesier Models Sherman tanks. The prices are tentative. Notice the numbering system has changed to permit the addition of the new tanks.

The 76mm tank gun was used by the US Army once it was realized that the Sherman with the French 75 based gun was outclassed by the German Panzer IVs and Panthers.

The US Army tended to us their tanks in the Infantry Support role and the short barrelled 75s were excellent in that role. They could even fire indirectly, like artillery.

The 76mm gun was a high velocity gun, designed as a tank killer, not as good as the Panther, the Army was behind the cure in fielding new anti-tank guns in tanks for most of WWII.

This 105mm version of the Sherman was made to provide close range artillery support to the tanks. Three per tank battalion was typical, they were very good at destroying bunkers or knocking down houses, or laying smoke. Look for all these models soon at Fidelis Models.

Heiser Shermans

In World War Two the US Army used almost all the M3A3 Sherman tanks produced. They sent fewer than ten to the UK and kept the rest of them.

Paul Heiser Models now makes more than 30 different Sherman tank variants, all in HO scale.

Some are in plastic, some are in resin, and others are multi-media kits with different combinations of plastic, metal and resin.

The kits are sold unassembled and un-painted. They are all very easy to put together with epoxy or CA type glues.

Paul's Shermans include a detail set with various machine gun choices and other small bits.