1/72 Multiverse

The Matériel de 75mm modèle 1897, aka the French 75 was a field gun used in conflicts starting from around the time of it's introduction, and all the way into WWII.

The first 1/72 models of the gun were in resin [and metal?], but it wasn't until the HäT versions were released that models finally appeared in plastic (albeit the rubbery stuff that HäT seems to prefer nowadays).

The two HäT sets include French and American guns with caissons, and differ only in the color of the plastic and the nationality of the crew.

When assembled, the abattage (wheel anchors) are fixed in the travel position, but few will probably notice this detail. The gun shield also seems to be at more of an angle than it should be.

The first injection plastic kit of this gun was from MAC, but it is pretty rough for an injection kit.

The model includes pneumatic wheels and a German crew, neither of which I have any use for.

Clean-up of the pieces and carving out the barrel rollers from the solid piece of plastic at the end of the barrel was made easy by the soft consistency of the plastic.

I found the assembly instructions to be somewhat vague because it relied mainly on one angle to show all the steps.

Pictures of the assembled model on the MAC website, were not very helpful, as it seems to be a different (prototype?) kit (different tow ring, different wheels, fewer/missing parts), and it had the gun shield attached the wrong way.

I was trying to figure out how part 7 was positioned, since the instructions only show it viewed from the rear of the model.

In fact, the only gun I was able to find with this feature (some sort of canvas bag) was from a display in the National Museum of the Marine Corps, so I'd suggest not attaching the part at all in most cases.

The body of the gun carriage is made of a nice firm resin. Holes need to be drilled into it for the metal axle rod and hand wheels. Some plastic pieces are also included for this part, but are not used in the build.

There should be a v-shaped notch here...

The front of the carriage forces the barrel to be in an elevated position. Some of the resin needs to be removed if the model is to be displayed with the barrel in a horizontal or depressed position.

No real location is indicated for the seats either (I may have attached them too far back?).

The metal axle needs to be clipped so that it protrudes by 7mm on each side, and a bit of putty is needed to fill in all the imperfections in the trail.

A really nice feature of this kit is that the abattage looks like it can be assembled in either raised or lowered configurations (I'm going for the later). A shield for the sight will also need to be scratchbuilt.

The most recent injection kit of this gun comes from First to Fight, and is identified as a "75mm wz. 1897 Schneider". From all appearances though, it is the Canon de 75mm Mle 1897.

The majority of sources I've looked at attribute manufacture of these guns to Atelier de Puteaux rather than Schneider. In addition, many sources attributing the guns to Schneider simultaneously claim that manufacture occurred at Atelier de Bourges, which was another state run arsenal.

It has a lot of very delicate parts, and care needs to be taken when cleaning them up. The abattage looks as if it is supposed to be built in the travel position, but I think it would be easy enough to convert it to the anchored position.

The model itself, is a lot smaller than either the HäT or MAC guns. If the two other kits are accurate in size, the First to Fight model has dimensions that range anywhere from 1/76 all the way down to 1/87.

I was so disappointed in the disparity in size, that I did not bother completing my build.

For the following comparison shots, the HäT parts are blue, MAC are tan, and FTF are green.

According to the stats given at Wikipedia,
the length should be 37.3mm in 1/72 scale.

The carriage and trail of the FTF kit is also a lot shorter (by about 8mm) and narrower than that of the other kits.

The trail is assembled from two halves, and will need a lot of putty to hide the seam, or it will give the appearance of having a split trail.

In the early years of the Cold War, a number of interesting experimental tanks were developed for the battlefields of that era. Most however, were never pursued beyond the prototype stage. For most mainstream model companies, these unique tanks have been too obscure to merit a release.

To fill part of this void, TOPOP, a Beijing based company that creates merchandise for various video game franchises has chosen to release three experimental heavy tank models as part of their Iron Fist line of diecast armor. These models were created in conjunction with the World of Tanks franchise, and represent Soviet, American, and Chinese heavy tanks from the WoT game.

I have the T57 and WZ-111, but not the IS-7. However, that may change if I can find the IS-7 for a low price.

The T57 was built on a M103 heavy tank chassis, and features an oscillating turret. Only a single prototype was built.

The model is mostly plastic, but it has a metal lower hull to give it a bit of heft.

The turret and upper hull have decent detail, though handrails and vision ports are the simplified style typical of diecast models. The turret is able to rotate about 45° to each side, and can oscillate up and down.

The wheels are also a bit simplified, and are attached to the hull on the reverse side by a rail that I presume is there to facilitate the mass production of the model.

The WZ-111 was based on the IS-2 and IS-3, but also had some design features of the IS-7 and T-10 tanks. The turret was still under development when the chassis was undergoing testing, so I don't think that any complete prototypes were ever produced.

The model has a plastic turret and upper hull, while the lower hull is made of metal. For some reason, the tank was dry-brushed in copper to simulate wear, making it look a bit unusual.

The details of the hull and turret are not bad, with the handrails on the side of the turret being actual plastic rods. Again though, the wheels are attached to the hull by means of a rail like on the T57.

The final model I want to present in this post is the Object 279 from the Russian Tank Collection. This tank was designed with four tracks, CBRN protection, and a uniquely shaped hull that was supposed to reduce the likelihood of flipping over in event of a blast wave from a nuclear explosion.

The model itself is let down by the running gear which was not assembled particularly straight. This, in conjunction with the soft rubber material used for the tracks makes it difficult to arrange all four sets of tracks so they look like they are properly aligned.

The wheels only have detail on one side, with the back being featureless disks, but the tracks hide this deficiency, so it's not a huge issue for me.

The TOPOP models are better assembled than the Russian Tank Collection model and have much better paint jobs, but they are a lot more expensive.

For all three of these models, the main deficiency is the running gear. The plastic rails used to attach the wheels of the TOPOP models are not too obvious from a distance, but I still don't like that they are there. Those of the Russian Tank Collection model on the other hand, are just poorly assembled.

Still, the T57 and WZ-111 are probably difficult to find in any scale, while the only other Object 279 that I am aware of in 1/72 is a resin kit that is probably at least four times the price of the Russian Tank Collection model.

The giant panda of central China is a member of the family Ursidae, its closest relative being the spectacled bear of South America. It has the curious distinction of being part of the order Carnivora, but having an almost exclusively herbivorous diet.

The pandas of Sichuan province have the typical black and white coloration we are familiar with.

Pandas of the Qingling Mountains in Shaanxi province however, can have brown and white coloration.

I've been on the lookout for 1/72 pandas for a while now, so when I saw a panda figure in a package of Safari Ltd. "Good Luck Minis" today, I went ahead and bought the set.

The average length from snout to rump of an adult panda is about 5', but they can reach up to 6'. The figure is over an inch long, so it represents a very large panda.

If anyone is interested, here's a link to the Panda Cam at my local zoo (unfortunately, they don't give any indication of when the camera is turned on).

Master Box Ltd. makes a number of British Mk I tanks, including versions that were part of the Machine Gun Corps of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.

A nice build review of the kit can be found at Armorama. When I started my own build, I got stuck half-way because the instructions were missing the pages with steps 5–10. Luckily I was able to find some scans of the missing sections from an AMPS review of the kit.

The "special modification" advertised for the kit are supports on the roof used to facilitate attachment and removal of the sponsons. However, the only picture that I could find of a tank that had these supports was "Sir Archibald".

Most pictures of the Mk I tanks used in Palestine did not seem to show them with these supports.

In any event, the tank I wanted to model was "Ole Luk-Oie" (Old Shut-Eye), named in honor of Colonel Sir Ernest D. Swinton, who used Ole Luk-Oie (the God of Dreams from a story by Hans Christian Andersen) as a pen name for his published fiction.

The kit was built pretty much OOB except for the following modifications.

Part A3 was partially filled with Elmer's Tack to ensure that the barrel would stay in place when raised or lowered.

The ends of the barrels were drilled out.

The "special modification" (steps 17–19) was not added, but I substituted a framework used for securing stowage on the roof of the tank instead.

In hindsight, I should have attached the brass bars before closing up the hull, but it still worked out fine.

The "L" from the H.M.L.S. decal of another tank was taken to change the misprinted "OIE-LUK-OIE" decal to "OLE LUK-OIE". The smaller decal I just left alone because the misspelling won't really be noticed due to its size.

I scored the tracks where they wrapped around the end horns to try to avoid having the plates look overly curved, but I don't think it really made any difference.

The final steps will be to paint the tracks, apply weathering, and maybe add some stowage before I can call this model finished.

Amazons were titled Androktones (Killers of Men) by Herodotus, who said that this name was a direct translation of Oiorpata, the name they were known by in the Scythian language.

There are various claims surrounding the origins of the Amazons, but the majority of those believing Amazons to be historical fact agree that they came from somewhere in Central Asia. Evidence is provided from excavations of kurgans containing remains putatively identified as women warriors.

Others note that Amazons are always encountered outside of the confines of the civilized Greek world, and see them more as allegorical representatives of barbaric lands where law and rationality were completely inverted from the norm.

In ancient Greek imagery, Amazons have frequently been depicted as wearing Scythian dress, with headgear representative of the enemy du jour.

Amazon wearing Scythian cap.

Amazon with sagaris wearing Phrygian cap.

Amazon wearing Persian (?) cap.

At other times, they are depicted as wearing Greek-style armor and helmets.

Hippolyte (mounted) in Greek-style armor, while her
companion wears Scythian garb with a Greek helmet.

Heracles taking down an Amazon wearing Greek-style armor.

Modern imagery is varied, but ranges from typical fantasy cheesecake armor, to what is more or less Greek-style armor.

Anyway, the first set of plastic 1/72 scale Amazons were produced last year by Dark Alliance. They followed up this year with the release of Modern Amazons.

The initial set of Amazons, are dressed in a mix of fantasy and quasi-historical armor.

Archers from Set 1

Sword and spears from Set 1

Spear and sword from Set 2

There was a lot of flash on the figures, and I found the plastic used for the production of these figures to be particularly difficult to work with when trying to clean them up.

The latest set of Amazons have a modern aesthetic that includes a mix of medieval plate armor, cleavage, and bare midriffs.

They are figurative rather than actual Amazons, and fall more accurately into the classification of "fantasy female warriors".

Swords from Set 1

Dual wield, polearms, and archer from Set 1

The archer seems to be different from what is shown on the back of the box. The figures I received had short, unfeathered shafts in their quivers.

I'd be interested to know if others buying this set actually get fully cast arrows for their figures.

These figures had even more flash than the previous sets, but the plastic has a firmer consistency, making clean-up somewhat easier.

I thought it was particularly funny that for more than half of the figures, no matter how heavily armored they were from the front, that their backsides were always exposed.

Looks like an album cover for 2 Live Crew...

The set of Mounted Modern Amazons may be of particular interest to many because of the mounts included in the set.

There was very little flash with this set, and the plastic has a harder consistency that makes clean-up very easy.

Finally, I present a couple of Ral Partha Amazons (Personalities and Things that go Bump in the Night 01-085) portrayed in heroic nudity, and a [Amazon] High Priestess from the Wizards and Clerics box set (The Adventurers 98-001).

A comparison of some of the taller Dark Alliance Amazons, and a Ral Partha Amazon.

The set of War Trolls from Dark Alliance include 8 figures in 4 poses.

They are made of the same type of plastic as the Dark Alliance Mounted Modern Amazons, which I think they should use for all their figures going forward.

These figures are essentially modeled after the design of the Olog-hai battle trolls from the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies and associated media.

In the novels, trolls were presented as creatures of Morgoth, created in mockery of Ents. The Olog-hai were a newer breed of troll which were immune to being turned to stone by sunlight, and described as "taller and wider than men, with hide or armour of horny scales".

The movie derived Olog-hai seem to be at least twice the height of a man, and the Dark Alliance figures look to reflect the size very well.

I'm not sure how they scale out compared to the GW Olog-hai miniatures, but from this post from The One Ring, I get the impression that some of them may be very comparable in size to the Dark Alliance figures, and could possibly be used alongside each other without any issues.

The Cimmerians were a tribe of steppe people who (according to Herodotus), were driven from their homeland north of the Black Sea by the Scythians.

Battle between Greeks and Cimmerians shown on a sarcophagus from Clazomenae.

They migrated southward, sowing chaos in their path for a century or so, before being broken by the Assyrians and Lydians, and passing into obscurity.

Battle between Assyrians and Cimmerians shown on a bas-relief from Nimrud.

The popular perception of the Cimmerian however, comes from the fiction of Robert E. Howard, who characterized them as the descendants of Atlanteans, and the progenitors of the Gaels.

It is more in the image of these later Cimmerians that the Dark Alliance Cimmerians were made.

The figures are essentially the male equivalent of the Dark Alliance Modern Amazons, with mostly bare-chested, mighty thewed, hair metal barbarians.

The set is advertised as having 40 figures in 10 poses, but there are actually 44 figures in 11 poses. The figure on the far right in the following picture is part of the set, but not shown on the back of the box.

The figure on the far right in the following picture is the lone unmounted figure from the Mounted Cimmerians set.

He is obviously modeled after the former Governator of my state from his breakout role in Conan the Barbarian.

The second set contains figures with more of a death metal/chaos warrior look, who might fit as a modern interpretation of Homer's description of Cimmerians as "dwellers in a land of fog and darkness, at the edge of the world and the entrance of Hades".

The figure on the far right in the following picture is a bit of an oddity in that he is dressed as a berserker, but appears to be wielding a magician's staff (perhaps Dark Alliance was taking the description of berserkers as shamanic warriors too literally).

One thing that I noticed with these sets, was that there was a high percentage of particular figures that were short-shot. Three of the four figures of the spearman pose from Set 1 did not have a properly formed spear tip (I thought the figure was wielding a magician's staff at first).

All of the figures of the single-bladed axe man pose from Set 2 were missing the left horn on their helmets. I reconstructed the horn from melted sprue for the figure in the picture above.

Otherwise, I like these sets. I can see swapping parts between these figures to create Thorgrim and Rexor from the Conan movie, and even the Kurgan from Highlander.

The new Orc Warriors from Caesar arrived in the mail today, so I've prepared a quick review.

My set contained 35 figures in 13 poses, two of which come with separate arms. The material is less pliable than the plastic used in the older Caesar fantasy sets, but takes CA glue very well.

The orcs come in a dark forest green plastic which was very hard to photograph. I had to adjust the image levels to make the details show up better, so the pictures do not reflect the actual color of the plastic very well.

I like the sculpts because the jaw size of these orcs is more subtle compared to the previous set, making them less cartoony despite still being influenced by the Warhammer/Warcraft look.

Unfortunately the subtlety did not carry over to their feet, and the orcs seem to be wearing huge clown shoes.

The swords and macuahuitl-like weapons used by some of the orcs are over-sized, and joined to the hand by a very narrow section of plastic. It seems like they may be prone to breakage due to the thinness of the plastic, but I may be wrong.

In any event, they match up pretty well with the previous set of Caesar orcs, though they seem to be slightly taller on average.

Orc Warriors Set 1 (in gray) v. Set 2 (in green)

Another recent acquisition that I want to present in this post is a set of the revised Heritage Goblins (Dungeon Dwellers 1240).

I don't know how many years it's been that I've been looking for these miniatures, but they seem to be particularly difficult to find.

People may be more familiar with the original Heritage Goblins, which (to me) have the look of goblins from the Rankin/Bass Hobbit and Return of the King TV movies.

The original and revised versions of the goblins match up fairly well in size, but the heads of the original goblins are even bigger than those of the revised versions.

Despite their over-sized heads, I will still incorporate these figures in my orcish hordes.

Where there's a whip, there's a way!

The number of fully nude male figures in the miniature world are few compared to the number of fully nude female figures, but if humanoid figures are included, it raises the number significantly.

The problem with most of these humanoid figures however, is that they are sculpted with Ken doll anatomy despite being ostensibly male.

I find this akin to not supplying WWII German aircraft models with swastikas for the vertical stabilizer. Some people may find the swastika offensive, but it was part of the aircraft's markings, just as the naughty bits are part of the male anatomy.

Even the Finnish hakaristi gets the swastika treatment.

Anyway, I'm not suggesting that sculptors need to make more naked men or anything (although I have been trying to find some proxies for herd men and oasts), but I do think that sculpts should be anatomically correct.

Anyway, outside of some trolls and balrogs by Tom Meier, here are some of the other naked male humanoid miniatures that exist.

The first figure is a Bad Hairy Nude Thing from Heritage (Der Kriegspielers Fantastiques 1158), while the second is a RAFM Gibbering Howler (Monster Mash 3405).

The Heritage figure is anatomically correct, whereas the RAFM figure does not really appear to be so, though it is relatively faithful to the image of the Gibberling from the Fiend Folio, which it is supposed to represent.

The final set of images are of Minot's Miniatures Armoury Sprites from the Thane Tostig Range.

In the first picture is King Debobmik Fen (TT8), the Court Jester (TT10), two Palace Guards (TT11), and a Standard-bearer (TT13).

Due to his size and pose, I'm guessing that King Debobmik is a petulant child ruler. The second guard has a halberd that seems to be slightly different than the first (though I'm not sure if it is merely miscast).

In the next picture are a Sprite with war horn (TT14), a Sprite drummer (TT15), and three Sprites with pole-axe (TT19).

The second figure with the pole-axe may have been modified by bending the axe-head, but the third figure seems to definitely be a variant, with tassels attached to the base of the axe-head.

Next are a Sprite with glaive (TT20), a Sprite archer (TT21), a Sprite with a rock (TT22), and The Vile Wood Witch, Hangbeffor (TT30).

Hangbeffor is neither male nor completely nude, but I added her to the picture to complete out the set of miniatures that I own.

Finally are a stretching rack operator (TT23), a Torturer with whip (TT27), a Torturer with ripper tongs, (TT28), and an Brazier Attendant (TT29).

The sprites are supposed to be dwarf-like creatures in the Thane Tostig setting, but they work well as human-sized creatures in 1/72 scale.

Some of the figures are done up in an old-school gloss finish, and I'm really conflicted about whether to leave them as is, or to strip them down and completely redo the paint.

Some great info on the range can be found at the old school blog, Dear Tony Blair.

After the American forces in the Philippines surrendered to the Japanese, hundreds of independent guerrilla units composed of both civilian and military personnel formed throughout the Philippine Islands.

Many of these groups were recognized military forces that worked under the command of MacArthur's SWPA General Headquarters.

In 1944, the recognized guerrilla units were inducted into the Philippine Commonwealth Army to take part in operations to retake the Philippines from the Japanese.

I think that figures representing Filipino guerrillas only exist in 20mm, and are produced by Sgt Major Miniatures.

The two sets (RAID4, RAID5) are part of a line of figures that represent the forces that took part in The Great Raid.

The figures are a bit on the chunky side, but are among some of the better sculpts produced by Sgt Major for their 20mm line. Two of the figures are duplicated between the sets.

Two other sets that I purchased from the line are Raiders (RAID1, RAID2) representing members of the 6th Ranger Battalion.

I think these are the only American WWII figures in 20mm (or 1/72 for that matter) that I've seen wearing Daisy Mae hats and field caps, which is why I bought them in the first place. Unfortunately, the figures are tiny and almost like 15mm figures.

I think the two crouching poses of the second set could almost pass for 1/72 scale, but I'll probably just decapitate the other figures and reuse the heads with more suitably sized bodies.

The Takara Ships of the World (世界の艦船) product line consists primarily of pre-built 1/700 scale surface vessels and submarines, with a scattering of 1/144, 1/100, and 1/72 models.

The 1/72 scale models were only produced in series 1, and consisted of two Marder mini subs. Each box contains an insert with a base, a clip, and a sprue with the front sight.

The first model (Series01 No. 10) is a Marder with torpedo, 1944 (マルダー・実戦用弾頭 1944年).

The second model (Series01 No. 11) is a Marder with training torpedo, 1944 (マルダー・訓練用弾頭 1944年).

The length of the submarine seems to be accurate, but my first impression after looking at various period photos was that the positioning of the cockpit seemed too far back. This was probably due to the angle of the shots, and possibly because many photos are actually mislabeled.

Having some scale reference in the photos helps, and the model seems to look pretty close to the submarine shown in the following image.

The models also look good when compared to the illustration of the Marder in the Osprey book on Axis Midget Submarines.

Leonardo da Vinci is most well known for his paintings, but he was an inventor and engineer among other things. Some people credit him with the invention of flying machines and the tank, but both claims seem like a stretch to me, since he did nothing beyond make designs for these machines. If anything, these designs should be considered the first paper panzer and Luft' 86 projects.

The da Vinci armored car is still popular to this day, with a modern reconstruction displayed at the Burning Man festival, and an appearance in the Assassin's Creed video game.

RetrokiT offers a 1/72 scale version of da Vinci Tank (RetroSF RSF016) in resin.

It comes in 16 pieces on 7 blocks, and includes a decal sheet bearing three fleurs-de-li.

The resin is good quality, but the huge casting blocks on the upper and lower hull made clean-up difficult, and resulted in damage to the edges of the hull pieces that required repair.

I'm not sure why the kit came with the fleur-de-li decals since the armored car was designed while da Vinci was under the patronage of the Duke of Milan, but I guess they could be used if someone wanted to model a French beutepanzer.

The RetrokiT model differs from the original sketch in that it has six cannon which protrude through the upper hull. The sketch on the other hand, shows a vehicle with a multitude of cannon that protrude from the lower hull.

I was undecided about how to paint the tank, but decided to go with a natural wood color.

However, after painting the Milanese Bissa heraldry on the front, the model just didn't seem to look right. Now I can't decide whether to paint the hull in different colors, strip the heraldry. or just leave it as is...

Anyway, to go with the armored car, I purchased the Leonardo da Vinci mounted and on foot set (HOT102) from 15mm.co.uk.

The bearded 15mm figure looks like a dwarf compared to George (the mounted da Vinci even more so, due to having shorter arms).

I embiggened the figure by widening and lengthening the body. The arms were also lengthened, but the head and feet I left alone.

After this first layer of Kneadatite hardens, I'll finish up the arms and refine the sculpt with some details.

There he sat, big as life even at that distance. His hair was silver, his face was pink, his collar and shoulders glittered with more stars than I could count, his fingers sparkled with rings, and an incredible mass of ribbons started around desktop level and spread upward in a flood over his chest to the very top of his shoulder, as if preparing to march down his back too. His face was rugged, with an odd, strangely shapeless outline; his eyes were pale, almost colorless, with a choleric bulge. His small, compressed mouth was sharply downturned at the corners, with a lower lip which suggested a pouting child as much as the no-nonsense martinet. It was a welcome, rather human touch. Beside him, lying in a big chair, was Willie, the bull terrier. If ever a dog was suited to his master this one was. Willie had his beloved boss’s expression and lacked only the ribbons and stars. I stood in that door staring into the four meanest eyes I’d ever seen.

– Bill Mauldin

George S. Patton Jr. was a colorful and controversial military figure who was considered a central figure in the development of American armored warfare doctrine during, and between both world wars.

His peers in the North African Campaign included Montgomery and Rommel, but unlike the later two who have likenesses in plastic, metal, and probably resin, you'd be hard pressed to find a figure representing Patton at all.

I only know of one metal 20mm figure from Sgt Major Miniatures in the General Patton set (GUTS).

The figure is wearing a B-3 bomber jacket, and has a pair of Colt SSAs at his hips. The stars on his helmet are overscale, but can be easily removed if so desired.

A 15mm figure in the General George S. Patton set (Flames of War US885) from Battlefront Miniatures also exists, but the set is only useful because it comes with a figure of Willie which is more suitable for 1/72 scale than 15mm.

I increased the size of the figure a bit to bring it in line with Patton's actual height.

Patton had his flaws (some pretty spectacular ones at that), but I think he was a lot more complex than what detractors or conspiracy theorists make him out to be.

Document everything, leave nothing to chance...
because one day, some cockroach will crawl up
out of the latrine and deny all this ever happened.
God damn them!

Table Top Scale produced the Force20 line of miniatures which included figures for science fiction, modern/zombie, WWII, and pulp gaming. The company seems to have disappeared after a website hack a couple of years ago, but some of the figures have re-emerged from Covert Intervention Games.

I purchased some of these figures from Elhiem Miniatures in their recent sale, and have to say that I was a bit disappointed with what I received.

I ordered two sets of pulp figures. The first set is the G Men/Gangsters pack (DS02), consisting of 10 figures.

The sculpts are on the chunky side, and their weapons are way out of scale, but I'd say that generally they look about right for 1/72 scale.

The second set is the Smugglers! pack (DS08), consisting of 10 figures.

These figures are nicely proportioned, but they are tiny figures that are more like 15mm miniatures.

DS08 left, DS02 right

It's bewildering that there is such a disparity in size within a single range of figures, and it makes deciding whether or not to buy other sets from the range very difficult.

The next two sets are from the SWAT-X line. SWAT-X set 2 (SX02) consists of five figures.

I really like the poses, but they are very chunky, and in fact are probably closer in proportion (if not size) to 25mm figures.

The figures in SWAT-X set 3 (SX03) are the same style. The set includes two dogs (not shown).

The final group of figures are from the zombie line. The first set is the Zombie Hunters pack (ZH01). The set consists of 12 figures (11 human, 1 canine).

The other figures which I didn't photograph, are duplicated from SX02 and SX03. Again, most of these figures just seem too bulky to work with 1/72 scale miniatures.

To me, the best set is the Modern Zombies pack (ZC01). The set includes 11 zombies and (I believe) one human.

I think the guy with the chainsaw
is a survivor and not a zombie...

The sculpts are a bit rough, but that can be forgiven for zombies. A few of these zombies are armed with guns and knives as well.

The final set is of the Zombie Wanderers (ZW01), which consists of five figures.

These figures are not as nice as the Modern Zombies, and a couple of them seem a bit oversized, but I'd probably still use them in a crowd of zombies.

I didn't order any of the WWII or science fiction sets, so I can't comment on those, but looking at some of the old postings by Table Top Scale on the internet, they seem to divide their figures into the categories of "heroic 20mm" and "true 20mm". I'm guessing that the heroic 20mm figures are like the SWAT-X figures, but I'm not sure what they consider to be true 20mm.

I purchased the turret from the fictional IS-W dieselpunk walker tank created by Noah Li from Shapeways just because I thought it looked cool.

The IS-W model is supposed to be 1/100 scale, but it looked like it would work fine for 1/72 as well. I considered buying the full model for a second, but decided against it since the total price would have been close to US$100.

The design is very similar to the KV-2X Heavy Walking Tank made by the now defunct MIG Productions in 1/35 scale many years ago.

The turret looks a lot like the conning tower of a submarine.

I'm not going to use the gun that came with the turret because it is way oversized. Here is the turret with a D-10T barrel.

I originally envisioned the turret with a ML-20 barrel like the IS-152 designed by Kow Yokoyama for the Panzer Front game (not to be confused with the real life ISU-152).

Here's the turret on a IS-3 chassis.

I dunno, doesn't look very convincing. I wonder if the T-10 chassis might look better...

Here's the turret on an E-100 chassis for purposes of showing it on a larger hull.

A little better? Perhaps. The turret probably still looks best with it's original walking tank body.

The West Coaster Toy Soldier Show has been around for 28 years, but I've never had the chance to attend until this past weekend.

I've been aware of the show for a few years, but traditionally it has been held in March, and always conflicted with my schedule.

This year, the show took place in the ballroom of the Wyndham Hotel in Anaheim, and it looks lilke it had a decent turnout.

The primary focus of the show is definitely for large scale figures in metal.

Working toy cannon

There were vendors with vintage plastic figures as well, but very few had anything in 1/72 or "HO" scale.

Bins of plastics

I ended up buying one bag of random plastic animals just so that my trip would not be a complete wash. The figure that really caught my attention was the gray sabertooth cat in the upper right-hand corner.

I have no idea of who manufactured any of these miniatures.

The body is modeled after the much larger Marx figure, but the sculptor got lazy with the head which looks almost like something from a lion dance costume. I'd really be interested in knowing who the manufacturer was, and if they made any other similarly scaled creatures.

Some of the figures would be useful as sources of inspiration for sculpting as well. I don't know what this animal is supposed to be, but the sculptor really managed to convey the poofiness of the fur.

Marmot? Squirrel-dog?

Here are the remaining figures from the bag. I think there are some old Marx and Timmee items in there, but I have no idea of who the other manufacturers may be.

I think that the models that impressed me the most in the show were 54mm metal models made by Bruce Hebron of The Metal Shed.

The models are all hand crafted from sheet metal, and come with many moving parts. I'm not sure how long it took to construct the railway gun, but Bruce estimated that something like a Rolls Royce armored car would take him about 20 hours to put together.

12 inch railway gun

How I wish someone would make a Big Bertha in 1/72.

Big Bertha

Peoria scout car

Gotha G.V

I probably won't attend this show on any sort of regular basis, but I enjoyed my time there. There were a lot of friendly people who like to talk about old toys (and new) as both vendors and attendees. It was also nostalgic to see many of the toys I had as a child, and to see that the mistreated ones were damaged in the same way my own old toys were!

Known to the locals of the Comoro Islands by the names of "Mame" or "Gombessa", the coelacanth was brought into public awareness after a specimen was discovered in the catch from a fishing trawler by museum curator Marjorie Courtenay Latimer in 1938.

The coelacanths are members of an order of ancient lobed-finned fish with primitive lungs, the majority of which became extinct in the Late Cretaceous period.

Modern coelacanths are about 2m long, but prehistoric specimens like Mawsonia could reach 4–6m in length.

Kaiyodo makes a model of Axelrodichthys in their UHA Dinotales line (series 1), but the fish of this genus are pretty small (~40cm long). However, I think these models can easily pass for the similar looking, but much larger Mawsonia which belongs to the same family of coelacanths.

The brown coelacanth is the standard color miniature, while the blue coelacanth is the alternate color version of the miniature.

The lindworm is a northern European dragon typically depicted with just two front legs. The name is derived from lindorm, a Scandinavian word used to describe dragons in general.

Lindworms are a common motif in the marginalia of medieval manuscripts, in illustrations of alchemical texts, and featured in the Norwegian fairy tale Prince Lindworm.

A related creature is the Tatzelwurm which has been reported to have been sighted in the Alps even within the last 10 years.

Two miniatures of this creature have been made. A metal Medieval Wyrm (HOT110) from 15mm.co.uk (left), and a plastic Tatzlwyrm (Legends of Golarion #28) from Paizo (right).

The Medieval Wyrm takes its inspiration from a picture showing Hans Fuchs encountering a Tatzelwurm in 1779.

The unfortunate Herr Fuchs suffered a fatal heart attack from the encounter, but was able to describe the creature before dying as being 5–7' in length, with clawed front legs, and a cat-like head.

Subsequent stories of the Tatzelwurm throughout the years were similar, albeit the length was typically reported as being closer to 1–3' in length.

Both of the figures look perfect for use with 1/72 scale figures. I'd say that they were more Lindworm than Tatzelwurm since they have traditional draconic heads, as opposed to cat-like heads.

The only figure that I can think of which fits the description of the Tatzelwurm is Madcoil from the Ral Partha Elfquest Personalities boxed set (Elfquest 96-003).

Madcoil is much larger and bulkier than the other figures, but it definitely has the feline head.

The Soviet T-26 was one of the most widely used tanks of the interwar period, and took part in many conflicts that are of particular interest to me.

Two quickbuild models which I have assembled are produced by Pegasus and Minairons.

The Pegasus kit is only 15 parts, and goes together pretty easily. The only real criticism I have with the kit is in regard to the track assembly.

The return rollers, appear as single cylinders, as opposed to being two joined wheels. The same applies to the rear idler.

The tracks have a little too much sag, and are on the crude, chunky side, but they still give the appearance of being proper tank tracks.

It has been mentioned that the tracks stick out a little too much on these models, but I only noticed that on the left front corner of my build (I had already painted the tank by that time, so it was too late to do anything to fix it).

The Minairons kit has 10 parts, and can be built as either the double turreted A version, or the single turret B version. The kit goes together without issue, but it seems less detailed and more toy-like when compared to the Pegasus kit.

The main gun of the Minairons kit does not reflect the appearance of the actual gun, but that was a minor issue I could overlook.

A larger issue was that I had to inscribe additional panel lines to define the second hatch on the turret. The second hatch seems to be present on the 1/100 models, so it's unclear why they would be missing on the 1/72 version.

The panel line needs more work to make both hatches match.

The tracks are simplified with a very shallow pattern. The return rollers are featureless cylinders that protrude directly out from the sides of the hull. The drive sprocket and return idler are similarly rendered.

I glued the track assemblies so that the bottom edge was not flush with the hull, since during test fitting it seemed that not doing so would make the tank sit lower than the Pegasus kit.

The Pegasus T-26 was given Finnish markings, while the Minairons T-26 was painted with Republican markings from the Spanish Civil War.

Here is a comparison of the quickbuild tanks with a diecast Altaya/Eaglemoss T-26.

This particular Eaglemoss kit is made with a metal hull, and has quite a bit of heft. It even has the triangle security screws underneath, so maybe it is from some old Altaya stock.

I visited Harvard University over Spring Break and found an interesting display of weapons and armor at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, which runs through 2017.

Armor from Kiribati in Micronesia with a porcupinefish helmet.

Front

Back

Tlingit armor from the Pacific Northwest.

Ring mail fashioned with Chinese coins

War helmet representing totemic killer whale

Pictures of other pieces of armor in the collection.

Spanish breastplate

Moro armor from Mindanao

Yi armor from Western China

Ifugao shield from Luzon (left)
Papuan shield (right)

Shields from Papua New Guinea

Spanish shield (Adaga) from Mexico (top left)
Pueblo shield from New Mexico (lower left)
Kayan shield (Kliau) from Borneo (right)

Indian shield (top)
Persian shield (middle)
Ethiopian shield (bottom)

African shields

Pictures of various weapons in the collection.

Maces

Clubs

More clubs

Spear throwers

Axes and daggers

Swords and daggers

More bladed weapons

There is also an online exhibition which features some of the weapons and armor on display and additional items in the collection.

The final picture is of a small scale model (not quite 1/72) of the main temple at Tenayuca that is on display with the museum's collection of Mesoamerican artifacts.

Mlle. Soixante-Quinze

Experimental Heavy Tanks

Giant Pandas

Ole Lukøie

Oiorpata

Olog-hai

Cimmerians

Orcs; Take 2

Male full frontal nudity...

Filipino Guerrillas

Takara Ships of the World

DA VINCI!!

Old Blood and Guts

Force20

IS-W

The West Coaster Toy Soldier Show

Coelacanths

Lindworm

T-26 Quickbuilds

Arts of War: Artistry in Weapons across Cultures