is back from Council of Five Nations.
Normally we stay on the ground with military vehicle and soldier models. However, Fidelis Models now has some great 1:72 scale aircraft models available. Act now because they won't last and we aren't planning to get any more.
Coming Soon – "Select" Models
We often receive collections of models which have been expertly assembled and painted to a high standard. Sometimes the models have been customized and/or modified to versions of vehicles not available in 1:87 scale. We've even seen some fantastic conversions.
Soon we will be offering these "select" models which have been carefully chosen to meet a higher standard. Each "select" model will be individually photographed for our website, and will be shipped in a clear plastic box.
What To Do With Unwanted Vehicles
From time to time, we all end up with a surplus vehicle or two, or three, or ten. You buy a lot of vehicles on eBay and get several unwanted vehicles. Someone knows you collect military vehicles and they give you some vehicles that don't match your collection. You are rummaging through old boxes and find some old vehicles that no longer fit in your collection. What do you do with them?
Of course, my 'go to' solution is to expand the collection! Rather than collect platoons of tanks, start buying companies of tanks. Then when you have companies of tanks, bring them together to form battalions.
Build another era, or another country. Most nations that make their own military vehicles export them as well as use them domestically. American World War Two vehicles were used all over the world, and some are still in use today. American light tanks and medium tanks are in use in South America today.
Sometimes you can put together a smaller nation. I build primarily the U.S. Army, but I have started a small collection of Post-WWII Danish Army forces. The nice thing is, Roco makes many of their vehicles, because the Danes received American aid after the war. During the Cold War, Denmark used American trucks, Jeeps and artillery.
Use the surplus vehicle as the basis for a conversion. Roco is inexpensive and, being plastic, it is very easy to make conversions of their vehicles. I had an extra M47 tank hull, and it did not have a turret. What to do with it? I did have a surplus Roco M48-based Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge. So I combined the two kits and made an M47-based AVLB. The U.S. Army did not ever field an M47-based AVLB, even the prototypes were tested on M46 hulls. However, had the M47 seen longer service with the U.S. Army, it's not unreasonable to think they would have fielded an M47-based AVLB.
The Roco T-54 Russian tank model usually came with a T-44 tank turret. The post-World War Two T-44 tank had a different hull from the Roco. I retrofit ten of the hulls to create a World War Two T-44. The T-44 was used as a training tank in World War Two, but did not see combat. The T-44 does come up on the used market and is often comparatively inexpensive.
The Roco T-34 tank makes a great basis for an armored recovery vehicle. The Russians often used T-34 tanks without a turret as tank retrievers. A fast conversion of the T-34 is simply taking off the turret and then plate over the space where the turret would have been. I like to add a few cables, jacks and tools, with maybe a few chains or fuel drums.
The Sherman tank was made in vast numbers and many variations. I have taken a few Heiser's Models Sherman tanks and the Roco Sherman tank and mixed and matched parts to create different versions. By using the spare parts from a plastic Heiser Sherman, the Roco Sherman can be made into a better model and a mid- or late-war tank. The extra storage is also nice to detail the Roco Sherman.
In the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army converted both 2½-ton trucks and 5-ton trucks into gun trucks. Having an extra U.S. truck is an excellent opportunity to make a gun truck out of it, especially if you are missing a few bits. A few sheets of styrene plastic to make boxes on the truck bed and add a few machineguns, and you have a gun truck.
One of the most fun conversions for a gun truck is to take a U.S. 5-ton truck and put an M113, without the tracks or road wheels, into the truck bed. Many M113 were damaged and were dumped in military scrap yards. Many of them ended up in the rear bed of 5-ton trucks as instant gun trucks. That's a quick-and-easy conversion and makes use of two common old HO model kits.
My final use for old, miscellaneous vehicles is to create a small, fictional, Third World nation. I am gathering any old vehicles and I am giving some to one side and some to the other. One side is going to be painted using Zebra-style camouflage and the other side is going to use Giraffe-style camouflage.
So don't toss out those old, oddball vehicles, re-deploy them in your collection for a more eclectic and complete army.