21st Century #20003 1/32 Scale German Infantry Series 1 - Pt 3

Here's the second of six figures from 21st Century's Series 1 German Infantry. I love the animation on these and look at his right hand - is that a wound? dirt? and he's stepping over a comrades helmet! Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

21st Century #20003 1/32 Scale German Infantry Series 1 - Pt 2

Again, time is limited so for the next few days we'll just post the photos of the individual figures from this terrific set. You be the judge as to the wonderful sculpting and detailing on these gems. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

21st Century #20003 1/32 Scale German Infantry Series 1 - Pt 1

Did you ever get rid of a collectible only to regret it later? Yup, I've done that so many times I've lost count. Case in point: the gorgeous WWII figures produced by 21st Century. I had the whole series at one time only to sell it off. Wellll, it's back to the drawing board as my interest in military toys grows again. Oh well. Today we'll start a new series of posts looking at this 21st Century set from 2000, one of their earlier offerings. It was around 2001 when 1/32 scale diecast and plastic WWII airplanes, armor, and figures started catching my eye and I bought (seemingly) every shiny bauble on the shelves. After years of laying around The Cave though, with room running out to store toys, I started getting rid of them. Right now there's maybe a handful of toys left out of the dozens that were gathering dust out there, some were sold, and many unopened toys were given away at Christmas toy drives. 

Okay, fast forward to today and I've wanted to start playing a little with these things and decided, "Hey, maybe buying back some of this stuff would be okay." Soooo, here we go. My first re-acquisition of a set sold off a year or so ago. As you peruse the photos over the next few days, you'll see why these were some of the finest 1/32 scale sculpts on the market. AND they were very price-worthy at about $10-$12 brand new. Today this set goes for ~$20-$24 which is still within reach. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

The same artwork is on all four sides of the box

The set consists of six figures molded in plastic with painted details. As the individual poses are posted over the next few days you'll get a better appreciation of the detailing.

Gas Tax Act Service Station Jack & Al's Standard Sevice - Pt 2 Conclusion

Well. I finally got around to building the Gas Tax Act Paper Service Station. Here's what ya get when you wake up at 5AM just so you can get a few hobby tasks done AND when you end up building kits on top of the wash machine in the garage! Actually. I was able to cut out the components at work during break times and the assembly was done atop an old piece of foam core plopped on the washer. Here's what I did:

1) Scanned the building components (two sets of walls, roof, awning/overhang)

2) Inserted scans into a Word doc

3) While in Word, I drew in tabs to aid with gluing (I've found that if tabs are omitted I occassionally cut the pieces right at the artwork's edge giving me no place to put the glue on! - DOH!)

4) Cut out the components

5) Braced the interior walls with stripwood - I use 3/16" square stripwood, it seems to be a good workable size for me

6) Glued on the roof

7) Braced the overhang with pump island as it was very flimsy. I ended up using a couple of different sizes of stripwood and had to do a little trimming to fit.

8) Glued the overhang in place on the roof.

Here's the original scans so you can make your own Service Station

There's an odd lean to the overhang

On the original, you can just see a crease below the front of the overhang in an attempt to make it look straight

I scored the cardstock just below the triangular front of the overhange and it helped to give a straighter appearance. You can see here some of the stripwood bracing - perhaps one day I'll paint the bracing, or not :-)

Here's a view of the bracing. My buildings tend to suffer the indignities of my rough handling and the bracing really does make them sturdy

While the scans were nice and bright (see the scans at the beginning of the post), the printed cardstock looked washed-out and weak looking so the finished product looks 'paler' than the original.