T34 Conversion

Another Roco ARV conversion.

Sometimes the Russian built a box over the opening, not unlike many German ARVs.

I use a few bits of sheet styrene for the box.

Then I put another small, removable piece of sheet styrene and put tools and supplies on it.

Dismounted it makes up a small machine shop.

Band saw or drill press from a model railroad store.

Soviet Jeep with Roco Kubelwagen.

Side view.

T34 ARV

Easy ARV conversion.  The Soviets used many old T34 hulls as towing vehicles for disabled vehicles or those stuck in the mud.

Take and M113 hatch and glue it on the top of the T34 where the turret used to be located.

Glue the boom from the M577 along the turret ring.

Add a "steel" unditching beam.

And an extra resin cast road wheel.

Soviet Bridge Launchers

More Soviet WWII tank collection photos.

I did a massive upgrade on my T34/76 Roco tanks.

I cast replacement hatches, and roadwheels, and bow machine guns.

Many were missing parts or had droopy cannons, and upside down cannons!

I also made a few more bridge launchers.

I made a simple bridge and added supports to the top of the vehicles, and a life ring on this platoon.

Zvezda Russian Infantry

Zvezda 1/72nd scale Kursk Russian infantry.

A basic infantry platoon.

Figures are perfect and have all the standard poses.

I like it when companies make their troops the same size and general style.

The olive colored guy is from Pegasus, as you see, he fits perfectly with the Zvezda figures.

Pegasus Mortar Set

Pegasus 1/72nd scale WWII Soviet 81mm and 120mm mortars.

It's a great set, I have several and I am getting many more.

Four 120mm mortars and crews.

Two 81mm mortars and crews.

They are nicely detailed and fit together well.

The set even comes with field phone guys.

I like that.

P-39

This is a video of a WWII era aircraft found in a lake in Russia and recovered.

 

Recovery of artifacts and preservation in a museum is important to our hobby.  It gives us actual vehicles and equipment to look at and to copy so that our collections are more accurate to the historical examples.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid34757272001?bclid=0&bctid=87804472001

It gives us an opportunity to open a little time capsule and look back into time and find something unique.  Thanks to DOC Gray for sending this to me.

Plastic Soldier Company

The Plastic Soldier Company anti-tank guns are great values. 

A crew of four per gun, four guns, and extra bits including three different barrels.

Late War German Infantry Heavy Weapons.  Mortars, panzer faust and machine guns.

Hard plastic, excellent detail, and plenty of troops.

There will be more of these soon...

Russians in Prone Position

More Russians from Ykreol in 1/72nd scale plastic. Another submachine gunner.

This man has two grenades at the ready.

Most of the prone Ykreol figures have their heads up and look pretty good at ground level.

I have placed three of them together as if they are a mortar team. Imaging a Pegasus or Esci Russian mortar crew with three as additional team members arrayed around the mortar. That is my plan for many of them. A very useful set from my friend Yves at Ykreol.

Prone Russians

Ykerol 1/72nd scale WWII Soviet troops. The whole set is prone, part of their series of prone figures. This guy has a map with him. He would be ideal as an artillery observer, engineer or even an officer or scout on a recon mission.

PVT Ivan with his rifle.

Laying in wait with a grenade. This guy would go well with the rifleman to man an outpost.

Another rifle armed soldier. These guys would look good lined up along a tree line or in shallow trenches.

The very common PPSH submachine gun. I might use this guy as another machine gun crewman. Many sets only give you one or two guys for mortar or machine gun crews, this set would help to rectify that problem. I got these from my friend Yves for review.

Soviet Tanks Made in the USSR

Back in the olden days of the Cold War there was a series of models may by a company in the Soviet Union. Mir made a line of a few World War Two era Soviet Tanks that were similar to Roco Minitanks, in HO 1/87th scale. Last night, I visited Paul Heiser of Paul Heiser Models with Randy of Fidelis Models. I managed to get four of the T-34/76 tanks made by Mir. Randy got a number of the BT-7 tanks from Paul and they should be for sale on his website.

The models are fully assembled and come in a very small cardboard box with simple rather cartoon like box art.

The rather crude decal sheet comes in a couple different versions, this is one of the most common types. Cut the numbers out and use them to make any tank number you want. Having a bunch of these is necessary if you want any double numbers, like 224.

These tanks are just about he same size as the Roco, but since the little wheels on the bottom of the hull are rather large, these tanks do sit a bit higher than the Roco. Turret hatches do not open, and while the turret does turn, the gun does not move.


The tanks look pretty good with 1/72nd scale figures, despite being HO scale. A nice little bit of Cold War history in model form.