Southwest Chief Train Modeler: What are the red/white missiles on the two trucks? They are Lacrosse missile trucks. That's the early test paint for the missiles (white and orange) instead of in service drab green. I The tanks pictured are M41 Walker Bulldogs. I'm currently looking for one or two Roco M48 Patton tanks if I can find them. Hard to find the old out of production models. The trucks are all M35s. I know they are appropriate for the late 1950s, but the older CCKWs have that neat vintage look to them so I'm wondering if I should get more of them instead of the M35s.
Train Modeler: What are the red/white missiles on the two trucks?
They are Lacrosse missile trucks. That's the early test paint for the missiles (white and orange) instead of in service drab green.
I
The tanks pictured are M41 Walker Bulldogs. I'm currently looking for one or two Roco M48 Patton tanks if I can find them. Hard to find the old out of production models.
The trucks are all M35s. I know they are appropriate for the late 1950s, but the older CCKWs have that neat vintage look to them so I'm wondering if I should get more of them instead of the M35s.
Thanks for clearing up my questions and on the tanks, one or two looked like M60s to me in the pics. I've seen the M48s on ebay as I'm sure you have too.
The CCKWs look neat, but the Ms seem more prototypical for the mid to late 50s(which now that I'm thinking about your red Honest John must be the case), so I would stay with those. Having one or two holdover/transition units might be fine too.
Did you have to paint the rocket red or did it come that way? BTW, I had to build my missile (the original white was missing-thankfully in a way) and rebuild the M289 too--as I recall I modeled the 2nd generation service green version.
BTW, you seem very good at staying to prototype. So, I'm wondering about transporting the missiles separate from the launchers?
Richard
I believe the M35 truck was introduced late 1953 and was manufactured by Reo.
Train Modeler Did you have to paint the rocket red or did it come that way? BTW, you seem very good at staying to prototype. So, I'm wondering about transporting the missiles separate from the launchers?
Did you have to paint the rocket red or did it come that way?
Yep had to paint all the trucks actually. I used Model Masters Marine Corps Green. Darker and greener then olive drab with a little touch of gloss. So to me it looked good for that 1950s military green. The star decals come from the Microscale set (#MC-4279).
The Honest John missile color is Model Masters International Orange. It came in white plastic.
As for transporting the missiles, you are right they should be transported separate from the launchers. They definitely would not have been transported like that on rails. The thin aluminum was too weak to be transported out in the open on a train. From what I've read, the missiles were typically transported in boxes (unassembled). But I thought they looked neat and gave some color difference to the trainset although being totally inaccurate.
Not sure if I'll keep them on the flat cars or not. And actually I have a set of Intermountain flats on order to replace the Athearn flats you see in most of the photos. So the trainset will be changing.
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
Took some new photos of the base tonight. It's slowly progressing.
The new building is Micro Trains HO scale barrack. I just assembled it this past weekend so it still has to be painted and the roof isn't glue yet (just held by tape right now). But nice that Micro trains finally offered one of their military kits in HO scale.
The gate house gate is now more detailed with black and white stripes. And behind it you can see some fencing barriers in the dry river. I'll eventually tie this into a barb wire fence around the base.
Here's a close up of the barriers in the river:
F.Y.I. When in USAF in Germany in '57- '58, we had several olive drab camo M35 Six-bys made by Studebaker, in our aircraft crash pickup crew. TTFN.....papasmurf
P.S. Your Base brought back some good memories of my time working for Uncle Sam...Thank You!
Nice work.
As to more CCKWs - the M-series trucks replaced a lot of the WW2 stuff. I believe that about 1955 there was a big push by the Army to get rid of the last WW2 equipment. Fortuantely over the years Roco has provided us with several decent looking military trucks. The CCKW is a great model in HO, but is dated, the early Roco trucks (from the 1960s production, in the low Z-100-series numbers) are pretty basic, but could be used as "fillers" or in the background - they had water tanker and shop van bodies as well as cargo trucks. The M54 5-ton cargo truck is a little hard to find at a "good" price but is a decent model. Roco also produced an M62 wrecker, both of these are 1950's trucks. The M35 started production in the 50s, just remember that the multi-fuel variants didn't come about until the late 50s or early 60s. It's too bad there aren't models readily available of the M135/M211 GMC trucks that were so common in the 50s, along with the M37 3/4-tonner. Being a base in the CONUS you can mix in pick up trucks and military-owned cars as well as some civillian POVs. For color contrast you could also have an Air Force pick up from a nearby airbase visiting.
You could have a couple of really beat up WW2 vintage trucks sitting in the corner waiting their trip to an Army surplus outlet.
The Sherman tank was declared obsolete about 1956. You could show some older Sherman tanks, with plenty of wear and tear, ready to be towed out to the ranges as targets, a common fate for older tanks over the years. You could also use Heiser's resin M24s or such too. Don't forget that target tanks would be stripped of all accessories, tools, and usable parts.
Thanks for the detailed info on military vehicles.
I just got in an order of six ATSF Intermoutain flat cars to add to the two I already had. So this gives me lots of room to finally put the M35s I've been collecting.
Your right that a lot of the lder Roco models had multiple variants of the M35. What I've been doing is using some of these with newer more detailed (window glass and rubber tires) M35 cabs.
These are the M35 variants I have so far:
I might add some red crosses to the mobile workshop to make it look like a mobile hospital.
Then for tanks I'd like to find some M48s, as this awesome online video series was a big inspiration for choosing to name our layout base Camp Irwin:
Vintage Camp Irwin Movie
Southwest Chief:
Glad to see what folks are doing when it comes to military instillations. Been working on mine for a while, would like to share.
Civilian workers get to work early as things ratchet up on the base.
Even the steam units are already at work.
Military and even a civilian flights gets ready for take off.
A new area is being graded for planes.
Runway clear for take off.
Final take off.
Keep up the good work.
Robert Sylvester, WTRR
Action at Dunkerque, Operation Dynamo:
Robert S,
Are the aircraft in your scenes 1/72? most of them look pretty good, & you have interesting scenes!
Very cool scenes. I like
Yes are those planes 1/72? They look really good.
I was thinking of adding a flying wing YB-49 over the base. Yes I know they were gone by our layouts era, but I've always liked that plane since first seeing it in the movie War of the Worlds. The kits are 1/72 which might be too big for an overhead model. Can't find any kits in 1/100.
Looks nice, Im planning something similar to go with a train consisting of 50 shermans on flatcars. I think a chainlink fence defining the perimeter would be a nice touch.
Some more progress.
New things include, water tower (still needs painting), roof shingles, roofs painted, a few window air conditioners, and some of the window glass has been installed. Oh and the General got a brand new Ford Fairlane.
In the second photo you can see the highway overpass I'm mocking up with cardstock as well as a new building being test fit.
Ive had ho trains for over 30 years and always amazed by the millions of cool stuff i see at shows,stores, on line . it just everywhere !! now that i have my own house with a full and finished basement i hope to set up my currant trains and expand on all the ideas in my head . ive never made much of a real layout because of space ,money and so on . i would be greatful for any help you can offer . i have a couple of layouts in mind harry potter , logging camp layouts i found . but army base , and normal town not so much . i would be greatfull for any idea's you have . many thanks Carrson
Some more progress, as of Nov 5, 2012.
First an overview to show what it looks like now:
And here are some interior shots:
And some night views:
Very nice, really looks good. The barracks bring back memories.
Bob
Photobucket Albums:NPBL - 2008 The BeginningNPBL - 2009 Phase INPBL - 2010 Downtown
Wow,
Great job on the barracks, etc. How's your Honest John being transported now?
Train Modeler How's your Honest John being transported now?
How's your Honest John being transported now?
In a box right now