O Totoro

I bought a couple of keychains made by Cominica with Totoro from the Miyazaki film "My Neighbor Totoro" at AX last year because they looked like they were pretty close to 1/72 scale. Chu Totoro is definitely over scale in this set, and there is another set (which I did not get) with an over scale Chibi Totoro as well.

Anyway, I removed the eye screws from the top of the figures and then filled the hole with putty. I then painted the patched area to match the rest of the figure.

It's actually difficult to say how close the figure is to scale since the O Totoro's size seems to fluctuate between two to three meters in height at various times in the film.


I googled around a bit to see if I could determine how high the bus stop sign in the movie poster was, but was not really successful. However, if other bus stop signs are any indication, they would be similar in scale height to the sign in the picture above. This would mean then that this particular O Totoro is probably 1/76 or smaller.

Army of Darkness

Here is a selection of 1/72 undead from Caesar and Odemars. The first set is Odemars PF12 Legion of Nightmare set, and consists of zombies from different time periods in different states of decomposition. More information on this set can be found at Plastic Soldier Review.


The next bunch of figures are Caesar Fantasy Undead (103). Some of the figures in the set were bent and tipping over on their bases. I fixed them up by dipping them in boiling water for about 2-3 seconds until they regained their original position, and then dipping them in cold water.


I'll probably get another couple of boxes of these undead to build up an army of skeleton warriors. More on this set can be found at Plastic Soldier Review.

Some figures from diecast car sets

Another aspect of my hobby is collecting 1/72 figures. Here are some figures that were in the Mearle's Drive-In set from the Johnny Lightning American Flashbacks in Time series. In the center is George, an IMEX redcoat in 1/72 scale. I will be using George as the reference for all figure comparisons. Flanking him are a girl in a pink skirt, and a carhop.


The Drive-In set is 1/64, but the two female figures are definitely compatible with 1/72 figures.

The next bunch of figures come from the current Matchbox Battle Kings diecast military vehicle sets. Starting from the left, the three figures after George are from the Sahara Strike set; the following three are from the Polar Rescue set, and the final three from the Night Landing Set.


These figures are also available in different colors in a number of other Battle Kings sets, including Mountain Mission (olive), Front Liners (tan), Swift Strike (olive), and Rescue Rangers (black/orange). There are other sets in the line, but the figures included in them are closer to in appearance to chunky 28mm type figures, which I do not care for.

First completed models of the year

My building progress has been abysmal the last few years, and I've finally been able to finish assembly of some kits that have more than a dozen pieces.

The Jagdpanzer 38(t) is the 1/76 Fujimi kit, while the LT38 is the 1/72 Attack kit.

The Fujimi kit was a breeze to put together, though I had some problems with the tracks causing the rear return rollers to bend outward. I somehow lost the MG34 for the kit, so used one from a Kubelwagen in its place. The only scratchbuilding I did was to add a saddle drum to the MG34, and a periscope. I tend to build kits mostly OOB since I'd like to finish all of my kits sometime during my lifetime. Unfortunately my rate of accumulation is faster than my rate of completion.

The Attack kit was something I started several years ago, but never got around to finishing because I wanted to give it Slovak markings. I finally found some decals from Aleran for vehicles of Axis Minors, which included the Slovakian cross, and got motivated enough to finish the kit. The turret numbers are Archer Fine Transfers. I did add a few details to this particular kit, since it seemed to be missing a few pieces that appear on the real tank.

While the two kits are supposed to be in different scales, they are actually pretty much the same size when built up. The Jagdpanzer 38(t) is somewhat wider than the LT38, which is how it is in reality. I recently purchased a UM Flammpanzer 38(t) kit, and will have to do a comparison to see how it matches up with the Fujimi kit.

The UM kit is supposed to be the most accurate in terms of dimensions (see Missing Lynx discussion on UM v. ESCI), but I have often heard that the Fujimi kit is very close to 1/72. I'm not a terrible stickler when it comes to scale, but I prefer to keep my models as close to 1/72 as possible for consistency.