You can build military replicas by buying a plastic kit and that is great. I do that. Or you can go the extra mile and build them from scratch, and in a larger scale! Now that is spectacular.

And this is what Paul does. And he has given us pictures and information about how he does this.

It is quite an amazing hobby and my thanks go to Paul for sharing all this with us!!

Here is what Paul says about how he makes these replicas:

"It is all plywood except for the guns and the bar armor is dowel rods. Yep its all hand done. I have only a jig saw and a drill. I do a lot of items for local re-enactors like full scale 1-1 size of weapons, ammo boxes and (wood)ration boxes for civil war,wwI and WWII, Korea and Vietnam items. 30 cal m1919 machine guns, bazookas, rifles etc. They use them as background props or even displays. Many times they are mistaken for the real thing (I like it when they do that) I even carve the nuts and bolts.

Anyway concerning the boat and APCif it opened on the real thing it does so, if possible, on my projects! The ramp for the boat can be lowered or raised. The Gun turrets swivel the bunks can be raised or lowered into position. The Machine guns are hand carved with a Swiss army knife. The APC flame cupola rotates, the one regret on that is I did not carve the opening to hinge for the gunner to enter or leave. My health is not doing so well and I decided to not bother on it. I even carved the shovel and axe out of wood. The soldiers are 1/6 scale (12 inches) so they helped decide what scale to do.

What would you call this hobby? Military replica building? "Military replicas scratch built"
not sure how many photos and of what you want for your site? give me a hint, Also I am in southeast Alabama. How far away are you?"

And here is a picture of the real boat that the model is based on. That's Paul standing up!

It is a 56' Armored Troop Carrier.

And he made the various guns by carving them out of wood. Here are a whole bunch of them including a 20mm gun and a bunch of 30 and 50cal's.

This next picture gives you a great look at the building of something like this. It takes a lot of work to get the details right.

And to do something like this you really need to work from plans. Here is a look at one of the plans Paul used to make his model.

I have more pictures of this ATC project right here

Paul has also made an M132 Flame Thrower. This was a modified M113 APC that shot flames!

The figures are 12" GI Joes. You can see more pics of this terrific project here.

He also made a miniature M3 Scout. This has a machine gun and sirens. And it is built on a lawnmower so it really rolls! The Miniature M3 Scout

M-113A3 Armored Personnel Carrier 1/72 Trumpeter

Modeling Tanks and Military Vehicles

Basic techniques of assembly, painting, scratchbuilding, weathering, and detailing for building realistic armor models. Includes hundreds of photos and drawings with tips for realistic modeling and creating battle damage.

Note from Will: This book is about plastic models not the plywood models that we have here! Just so you know!

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