BMW R 75

The brass party

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Since the last post I finished the figures and continued to build the bike. Below are some pictures of the two soldiers:

And now the news from the BMW bike:

After the failed builds of the Masterbox kits, I decided to build the frame of the bike from brass tubes and rods. This turned out to be a nice idea, as metal is much more stable than plastic (and also looks much better). I then also built the fork for the front wheel from brass parts.

I also bought the BMW R75 kit from Italeri. All in all this kit is not very good, but the engine is very nicely detailed, especially the cooling fins on the cylinders are much better detailed than the ones from the Masterbox kit.

The bike itself is now almost finished, apart from some details. The side car is still waiting to be build…

And this is how the bike looks now:

The bike is a mixed build from two different Masterbox kits, some Italeri parts, the PE parts from Masterbox and a lot of scratch built parts made from brass and copper.

One comment on the PE parts from the Masterbox kit. They are made from brass, but covered with a thin coating. So it is almost impossible to glue or solder them. The solution to this problem is visible on the pictures: simply sand the PE parts cautiously, until the coating is removed (at least partly), and now both the  superglue and the solder work as expected.

So after some frustrations at the beginning, the build was fun until now, and I am looking forward to continue with the side car and of course to paint the model. And one more comment: the reference material available on the web from BMW proved to be really, really helpful.

Continued to work on the soldiers

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In the meantime I continued to paint the two soldiers. The first figure is finished (apart from the head) and already fixed to the base:

I used predominantly acrylics, with some oil washes added to a few spots (e.g. on the MP 40 sub machinegun). The dirt speckles on the coat are enamels, applied with a brush that was flickered against some solid stick, like another brush or tweezers. I find this method of application much more controllable than blowing air from the airbrush against the brush filled with color.

The second figure is also in the course of being painted, I am busy with the gloves right now:

The first pictures show the highlighted and shaded coat, the last pictures the current state with further details added.

Now the head is finished

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Although I watched many fascinating soccer games this week, I managed to finish the head of the peasant figure. Below are some pictures, the first three taken after the base color and the highlights of the face were applied, the last three show the finished head featuring the Milliput beard:

I also continued to work on the bike. As the frame coming with the Masterbox kit is not very stable, I am currently testing a scratch build frame from brass parts. I also found that BMW features an web archive with a lot of material. I am very excited how this works out in the end…

The headless peasant

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After returning from my holiday, I finished the peasant figure (apart from the head). The figure is painted with acrylics, earth stains and dirt were added using enamels and pigments. Then I glued everything together and fixed the wheel barrow and the figure to the base. Finally the potatoe sack was glued to the wheel barrow, after earth stains were also added using pigments again. The wooden bucket containing potatoes was positioned in front of the figure.

After some final touch ups I am quite happy with the result. Now the soldiers have to be finished and the motorcycle has finally to be assembled and painted.

Below you will find some pictures:

Further little details

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Somehow the work on the bike does not proceed that well, I also spent most of my modelling time on other details for this project.

So now the sign post is fixed to the base:

Signpost 04

The bucket is also finished. I added some earth – colored pigments:

without pigments
finished – with pigments

I also finished the wheelbarrow. It is painted using acrylics and oil washes, and I also added earth – colored pigments:

The hands of the peasant figure (already glued to the wheelbarrow) are still left to be painted.

I also started to paint the peasant figure using Vallejo acrylics, as usual:

The final highlight is a potatoe sack that will be placed on the wheelbarrow. It is made from Milliput, and also painted using acrylics:

That is the present state of the project. I think I will continue to paint the peasant figure, and then glue it together with the wheelbarrow to the base. Then I will continue with both building the bike and painting the two soldiers.

But for now I am off for two weeks, going on holiday…

 

The signpost

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Meanwhile I airbrushed the grass using different shades of green, followed by a drybrushing of the tips with brighter colors. I also applied pigment and further oil washes to the earth areas around the grass. This is how the base looks like now:

I also finished the signpost. The sign were painted white, the decals applied, and finally the borders of the signs painted by hand using a dark grey acrylic. On the post itself I used the hairspray method to give it a weathered appearance. I applied two layers of hairspray, and then some Tamiya white. I then chipped the post until I was satisfied with the result. Then I glued the signs to the post, toned down the whole signpost with a grey brown filter, and finished the signs with some streaking effects using light grey and black oils. The green mossy areas on the bottom are also made from oils. This is the finished post, the last picture shows the original source of inspiration:

Another small detail will be a wooden bucket filled with potatoes. The bucket came with the peasant and the wheelbarrow, the potatoes are hand made from Milliput. Everything was painted using acrylics, oil washes and some pigments for the dirt on the potatoes. The handle, which is made from a pievce of rope is not yet painted, and I also wnat to apply some more oils:

Eimer

Continued to work on the base

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I added another layer of celluclay to the base where the road will be. The earth areas were then primed using Vallejo US Field Drab, and then washed and colored using different oils (light mud, dark mud, industrial earth). The small stones are painted in a light grey color, and also washed using oils. The gras was primed with the airbrush, but it has to become brighter and more colorful. This is how the base looks like now:

On the side of the road there will also be a signpost, which was inspired by an original picture from a Russian road. The post is made from a wooden stick, that I have treated with a wire brush to achieve a rough surface texture. It was then painted using different Vallejo acrylics (beige brown, German camo black brown, deck tan, medium grey), and finally washed using some oils (black, burnt umber).

The signs are made from sheet styrene, and will be labeled with self made decals (I spent quite some time looking for a nice cyrillic font…). The following pictures show the parts of the signpost:

the post
the signs
the decals for the signs

News from the diorama base

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The last weeks I spent building the bike and the base. Let’s start with the bike: the set is not of the best quality, as the plastic is very soft and the frame of the bike was already broken into pieces when I opened the box. In addition to that, my building efforts looked not good to me, so at the end I decided to buy another set and start from scratch again. And you name it, the plastic now is of another color, much harder and the individual parts have much better details… I think the first time I got a set that has been on the shelf for quite some time.

I also rediscovered another truth (I should have know better in the first place): It is much better to join PE parts by soldering than by using CA glue.

At least I made some progress with the base. I covered it with veneer, which was then stained and varnished. It looked like that then:

Sockel

Then I glued small pieces of insulation foam on the wooden parts, in order to keep the celluclay layer as thin as possible.

The celluclay was mixed using white glue, water and some earth-colored acrylic color. On the base I also applied a layer of white glue before adding the celluclay with a spatula and a brush. Then I pressed small stones and little pebbles into the still wet clay.

After all had dried, I teared a grass mat from NOCH (called nature plus, I bought it a while ago) into pieces and glued these onto the base. It looks quite nice now, but has to be painted of course:

So the coming weeks I will be busy building the bike and also making a signpost and finishing the figures.

New project – BMW R 75

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After a brief break I embarked on a new project: another small diorama featuring a BMW R 75 from Masterbox , two figures from Alpine and a civilian with a wheelbarrow.

The scene will be situated on a Russian road, together with a nice signpost. The civilian (peasant) will also get a potatoe sack on its wheelbarrow.

I have already prepared the figures for priming and painting:

Figuren Werkbank

The rifles and the gas mask containers are from Dragon.

These are the bike riders:

Kradfahrer 01  MP40

I exchanged the Karabiner of the standing figure with a MP 40 submachine gun. Therefore I removed any traces of the rifle from the back of the figure, as well as the carrying strap, and then reworked the coat with putty. I also attached a magazine pouch instead of the original one for the rifle ammo. The picture to the right shows a replacement hand with the MP 40. The carrying strap is made from paper and some brass parts.

Kopf Bauer

The peasant is now wearing a nice beard from putty.

The diorama base is also on its way, this is how it looks like at the moment:

Sockel im Rohbau