The PKZ-2 tender vehicle in the previous post is one of the Matchbox Models of Yesteryear series.  These can be purchased cheaply (if you’re patient) on E-Bay.  Bought several for the Back of Beyond Campaign, one of which is shown below.

The problem is that the series is not in a consistent scale.  There are a wide variety of vehicles, in a wide variety of scales.  This page summarizes them by model number, name and scale.  So what scale matches up best with 25/28mm figures?  This page from The Miniatures Page really helped.

Once purchased and primed, I sprayed the vehicles a military green, and then just went crazy with brown and green dry brushing.  Wood blocks and barrels purchased at Hobby Lobby and mounted on bases – pallets –  are cargo used either in vehicles, or on the ground as part of a supply dump.  Machine gun and cannons purchased from Pulp Figures (Bob Murch) mounted as required.

I plan to interject an element of Pulp into my upcoming Back of Beyond campaign. This will include not only Bob Murch’s Zeppelin Troops and Soliders of Fortune/Adventurers, but also special equipment.

My first infernal machine is a PKZ-2 helicopter tethered to a Matchbox truck. Built in late World War One and developed in Austria-Hungary, the PKZ-2 is considered the first helicopter. It reportedly flew 36 times, always tethered, but suffered from serious technical problems that precluded operational use.  The observer stood in the cupola above the rotary blades.

What if some semi-crazed revanchist brought the prototype to Central Asia?  If nothing more than PUB, it might also provide special observation capabilities to the owning unit(s).

Building this Roden kit was not fun. Lots of small bits. I always fool myself that this  will be a smooth process with impressive results. More likely this  is glue smeared fingers, increasingly vulgar language and a product  requiring way too much time and effort to look passable.  Here’s a review and photos of a PKZ-2 by someone who really knows what he’s doing.