Had a friend in the field artillery during WWII who used to manufacture miniature replicas of ... well, field artillery. It was quite a production when he got things going in the back yard.
Also have a friend with a Sherman Tank... you on here? Used to run it down to the CNE in years gone by and run over little VW bugs until they forgot to take the motor out one time and he drove it into the water main running it over. We had it for a couple of weeks in our parking lot when we opened our store in Richmond Hill. But, I digress, we are going the other way. But since I am digressing anyway... he also used to fire the cannon during the 1812 overture on the waterfront. The most fun I've had in a long time was getting the thing started up and loaded onto the flatbed tank carrier when it was time to depart it. We called the CAA on our cellphone for a boost. It made the 11 o'clock news.