Pre-Rusted Tonka Off-Roader Mad Maxian conversion Project

I've always misheard it as

"The girls, don't they warn you."

Pretty much the same theme as that Great CCR hit "Lodi."

Ah yes, .....gotta love those "mondegreens"!

You mean like "There's a bathroom on the right?" (There's a bad moon on the rise.)

That's them!

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

An M60 is only 6 inches shorter than a full stock MAG or M240, and a very second-rate weapon when compared to it.  Given the collapsible butts on this M240, they are about the same length. Moreover, I would have the problem of having the ammo to the left of the weapon interfering with the driver's view. A Minimi or M249 however, slings its ammo underneath the weapon and there are models available with collapsible buts and shortened barrels, so it's probably the best choice for a passenger side weapon.  

As I recall, I mentioned the Minimi in my remark.

In Vietnam, they went after the M60 gunner first, because of its firepower.
It's my understanding the average life span of a M60 gunner, once a firefight started,
was sixty seconds.

Of course something newer would be a better weapon, as improvements are made
with each new model. But I thought your world was post-apocalyptic. Nothing new
being made, so you use what you can find and cobble it together.

One of the guys I used to work with used to hear

"Last night I dreamed of San Pedro," as "last night I dreamed of some bagels." I used to joke about some other variant, but I can't say it here....

Every time I hear the phrase "post apocalyptic world" I can't help but think the survivors must have all read this actual manual.
Anyone seen those documentaries extolling the efficacy of an action known as "duck and cover"?
So effective against nuclear attack.....

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

One of the guys I used to work with used to hear
"Last night I dreamed of San Pedro," as "last night I dreamed of some bagels."  I used to joke about some other variant, but I can't say it here....

My very favourite is the popular church hymn where you hear, and actually sing "Gladly the cross-eyed bear". There is just no way to enunciate that line and avoid singing about a poorly assembled teddy bear

TNshooter wrote:

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

An M60 is only 6 inches shorter than a full stock MAG or M240, and a very second-rate weapon when compared to it.  Given the collapsible butts on this M240, they are about the same length. Moreover, I would have the problem of having the ammo to the left of the weapon interfering with the driver's view. A Minimi or M249 however, slings its ammo underneath the weapon and there are models available with collapsible buts and shortened barrels, so it's probably the best choice for a passenger side weapon.  

As I recall, I mentioned the Minimi in my remark.

In Vietnam, they went after the M60 gunner first, because of its firepower.
It's my understanding the average life span of a M60 gunner, once a firefight started,
was sixty seconds.

Of course something newer would be a better weapon, as improvements are made
with each new model. But I thought your world was post-apocalyptic. Nothing new
being made, so you use what you can find and cobble it together.

It's normal in battle to go after the machine-gunner first. Infantry tactics 101....spot the machine gunner! (Okay...I was in the Field Artillery, but I knew a lot of infantry guys!)   Since WWII, the 1930's the infantry tactics manuals of the German Army and the British Army stressed that the main weapon of the infantry platoon was the Light Machine Gun. On British officer who served in WWII even claimed he never  a German infantryman use his rifle; they let the machine guns do all the work.  The Americans were slow to catch on to this idea, still regarding the rifle as the main weapon of the infantry with weapons like the BAR being support weapons,  which is why they were slow to develop one and when they did, it was the M60 most American officers regarded as an inferior version of the German MG 42.  It in fact had several features of both the MG 42 and FG 42, but as I understand it, and I say this with the full admission that I have never fired one, let alone carried one in combat, a lot of American troops thought it was a mediocre weapon.  The FN MAG which came out around the same time is generally considered a much superior weapon, and that one I have trained on and can attest to it's simplicity, ruggedness and reliability.

However, your point about the sort of Mad-Maxian world that K-Troop operates in is also well-taken. K-troop is rarely issued the best or most modern of weapons, reling on hand-me downs, captures and five-finger specials, so if an M60 were to fall into their hands, they would surely put it to use somewhere.

LeStryge wrote:

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

One of the guys I used to work with used to hear
"Last night I dreamed of San Pedro," as "last night I dreamed of some bagels."  I used to joke about some other variant, but I can't say it here....

My very favourite is the popular church hymn where you hear, and actually sing "Gladly the cross-eyed bear". There is just no way to enunciate that line and avoid singing about a poorly assembled teddy bear

I grew up in a non-religious family and never set foot inside a church in my youth except for two weddings and one funeral, so I'd never heard that one.

Like yourself I am MOST certainly NOT "of-the-faith" ....(in fact they're probably putting salt across the door to try to ward me off), but unlike many claimed adherents, I do know something of all the various religions.

One of the few things my parents did right as far as I'm concerned was to not try to tell me or my sister what we were supposed to believe. They told us that was up to us and that they would respect whatever choices we made. I think that was enlightened on their part. But they both grew up in a country that was at the time almost 100% the same religion, but where many people only went through the motions of religious faith because if they didn't, others would talk about them. Coming to Canada, where there were a lot of European expats, but nothing like a Belgian ghetto where everybody knew each other liberated them from having to pretend to believe in what they did not.

I'm not knocking any people of faith here or any religion; I take the same attitude as my parents and respect the right of all to choose their beliefs as long as they don't try to foist them on me.

How is the Tonka conversion coming along? Any updates?

The only thing I've done lately is assemble an ammo belt for the GPMG with little brass bullets and little steel links and install it. It is really quite nice. I have to go out to the Hobby Stores in the West Island again (the only ones left) to get some materials...sheet plastic etc to do more upgrades. Again...the Covid situation and the distance I have to travel makes this impractical on weekends and impossible on weekdays.

How is the Bronco project going?

Daryl

Unfortunately, I've been too busy with other projects to do anything more with it beyond adding the machine gun but that's about to change as I've been planning the next mods.

I understand, was just curious.

Too many projects and too little time. That's my problem anyway.

Page_1 by Gary Menten, on Flickr

Though I had not originally intended to repaint the vehicle, changing circumstances prompted me to rethink this. I have recently gotten a brand new dual action airbrush and plan to use it to paint my Dragon Jeep, hopefully when I am on holiday in the last two weeks of August. My previous airbrushing experience has always been with single action brushes and dual action brushes take some getting used to and a fair amount of practice, so I decided to test it out on my Tonka and give it an olive green and dark yellow camo paint job that pretty much matches the colours found in my version of Dinosaur Valley.  I began by removing as much of the rust as I could with a wire brush, and cleaning the surface.  If I had wanted to make this vehicle look like new, I should have also stripped off the old paint, but did not want to take that much time, or spend more money than I had to, so I just painted over the old paint including the spots where the paint ha bubbled up a bit. Still, it came out quite satisfactorily and there's more work to be done on this vehicle, which I hope to get done before late August when I want to be assembling and painting my Dragon jeep.

The jeep looks really great!
In fact I like the "weathering" bits. They add a certain authenticity very much in keeping with your world..

I would have done more but I ran out of propellant, olive green and dulling spray. More to follow.

The paintwork looks fantastic! Smooth graduated transitions between the colours. Looks quite plausible and practical.

As does Laura's flight helmet; after all, this is a post-apocalyptic setting, and she looks very Mad Maxxian with her fighter pilot helmet and goggles.

The colour scheme of the recon vehicle matches the colour scheme of the team - gotta love that attention to fashion detail!

"Canned air" propellant? Or something more volatile? Is it time to invest in a compressor? (Answer: yes, yes it is!)

Yep....time to invest in a compressor.

I had originally intended for the flight helmet to be used for either a post apocalyptic wasteland figure or for Donald Sutherland / Sgt Oddball from "Kelly's Heroes," type figure.

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

I had originally intended for the flight helmet to be used for either a post apocalyptic wasteland figure or for Donald Sutherland / Sgt Oddball from "Kelly's Heroes," type figure.  

But then you decided to build an air force! Funny how these ideas evolve, isn't it?

"Funny" being defined as "expensive," you understand.

It looks great KTC. I really like the camo paint!

A great addition to the team.