~ ! Clash in Tunisia ! ~ { Final Photos on page 37 }

"Looking good" huh? Um...er....ah.... thanks Herr Mangstchien, but ah, your looking good....nice new Avatar there  Buddy!

~As for the tip on the gloves, it is a good suggestion. Im not sure I want people to even consider if he is cold or protected his delicate skin though. The climate is quite harsh in the region in question(not unlike the weather here, an hour from L.A. , on the edge of the Mojave Desert) You could be shivering in your greatcoat all morning, and a few hours later your blood is boiling in the ceaseless HEAT. (mind you I live at the beach{and it's sweet}, but 30 miles inland  people  actually live in The Valley(the SanFernando-God-Forsaken-Valley) and there people endure triple-digit temperatures OFTEN)~                ~    Hence : I have some of my figures in shorts, some in long trousers,,,,but adding gloves and/or coats could add confusion to the scene, even if it might be accuratish, since dramatic weather shifts strike different people diffferently. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 So to get off the figures for a bit, the last few tasks we're done, namely putting the Dunklgelb on these 2  fellas, so you can see how well (or not) it's going to paint-up   Brenman looks pretty smooth
This guy not bad....
Amazingly, I never saw that mould-line on the left-center of his shorts, or the back of his neck, with the professional grey primer that was on him~~in fact I didn't see it when applying the dark yellow or photo'ing him either. It was only when I went to copy the images to post here that I saw the easy-to-sand-off-blunder, but I thought it more usefull to show the pictures as-is, and then fix it with some 600grit paper, then to just show this looking perfect,{This illustrates one of the prime advantages of doing a really thorough build blog here! } I modelled the hobnails with some tiny bits of styrene softened in xtra thin Tamiya glue, and made them a little overscale(the bits we're pretty small!) I thought I'd see what to do better with this colour on there, and did a little careful sanding since.{   These details will be slightly obscured by paint also, as I don't see any reason his bootsole would be clean!}   AND THATS IT FOR BUILDING FIGURES FOR THIS DIO ! I have ideas for 1-3 more, but I already have 7 Germans & 6 Brits (11 is the most I've modelled together before) I think these will do the job. I will see after placement of all the elements happens.   So~!~~~~~In the interests of keeping going, Paint coats are going onto things AS building continues.(hopefully this blog still appears well-built and not a jumble!)

~Indy

Primer is applied and left to cure (a long while) as building models will continue, but  I will be doing painting tasks in the background, so things don't get to backed-up, have lots of time to dry, and don't get damaged or mucked-up during placement tasks when I decide on positions when I get to the groundwork. That's the real reason I'm not doing this in a normal manner of build,paint,finish & start the next build~~~ I want all the the elements build and just primered, before I knock myself out with final paint.  The primer I used for this was  the Ultra-Fine Floquil Light Grey Figure Primer.(a 3oz spraycan similar to Tamiya & Testors)     It goes on really light & misty and hid nothing, while the many materials used were  well unified.  The basecoat for the wheels was  Tamiya TS-6 Matt Black, and for the Jerrycans TS-4 German Grey
~So this will go under glass(literaly) for the time being ~ back with some new elements! `Indy

~Ok Gentlemen ~ Here's where I really start to apply some paint layers while new builds still begin. I just don't want all the paint tasks waiting when I'm done building, in fact I'll try to do some of those requiring the wait time between, as I go.   My Kubelwagon got a chocolate brown Tamiya basecoat mixed from even parts of XF-10 Flat Brown & XF-9 Hull Red, darkened with some XF-1 flat Black(to taste)A darker shade gave a little color modulation to the lower areas & wheelwells..
  The seats got a similar treatment.     The whellhubs too, with little care as too overspray, as the primary wheel-colour seen will be that of DUST      
I also got started on the BMW     The DAK bike, no sidecar,  is what I want. Like this :  
References are alot more common to the sidecar bike. Either way, you almost never see the number plate or the rear-view mirror in place.       Of course, such pictures are also very useful.      

~  By far the best looking R75 example that I've seen, has got to be this one :    
Much later vintage, but very desirable.                            

Anyways, the Lionroar kit is a sweet little gem of a model kit, and as it's been well reviewed and blogged in the records of the MM site , I'll just hit on the particulars of my build.        ~The BMW form Lion Roar(my kit, from Luckymodels, China, had stickers saying "Great Wall Hobby" over the "Lion Roar"  Logo-anyone know the politics with that?)         ~~~~~~Building begins with the hoizontaly-opposed 2-cylinder 750cc engine.   I left off the delicate brake & starter pedals for the time being, and decided to add the sparkplug-heads & wires from 2 different gauges wire, although they are provided in photo-etch, these are really predominate features on the real cylinder heads.   
I met the small stub of .020 wire with a length of .013 wire and made the plug-cap with a drop of gel C/A and set it with accelerator. I primed with Tamiya's Fine White Primer, and airbrushed the whole block with Tamiya XF-16 Flat Aluminum, something I hadn't tried spraying before, but I thought it would  just give a nice light metal base colour.  

 
      The desert sand might wear yout paintjob ragged, but exposed aluminum like these heads would just get polished to a dull sheen. Anyway it's a rare oppertunity to model an engine that will actually be seen .   ~Back soon guys.............Thanks for following along ! ~~~~~~~~~~~Indy  

 

Looking great Adam.  I really like that Kubelwagon!

 

Looking very good Indy, nice details on the motor block of the motorcycle. Can't wait to see the painting of the Kubelwagon, it's off to a good start with that primer color.

 

Rob

~ Edmund ~ Thanks Buddy, the kubel is good solid classic, eh?

~ Rob ~ Wait 'til you see the detail that goes onto this bike's block ! Oh man! Coming up on the update after this one...

 

~ Moving right along.........   With the build of the BMW motorbike Buildng of the well-designed, highly-detailed 7 part, spoked wheels with off-road tires, requires having some sort of clamps handy, perfect preparation of all 5 styrene & 2 pre-formed photo-etched pieces, some stryene glue & a few drops of C/A, plus some very steady hands!
Once sandwiched, glued, clamped & cured, they are fantasic as the spokes actually suspend the hubs and attach to the frame very much like the 1:1 model When you have the hubs in place, you can really begin to assemble the bike.
I started here, by placing one side of the frame with a dab of C/A My "engine stand" continued to be very useful during these steps as well, as there is plenty to have to line up all at once (it's just a length of Music-wire, glued into a small wood block, like for figure use)
The other side of the frame traps in the kickstand and the engine block in several places, as well as those rear-wheel hubs. Once I had it all together I wicked-in a little Tamiya extra-thin Cement to the several joint spots, and held everything there for a while as any clamps here would likely distort some parts. ~~Next up...I can really go to town, adding a plethora of teeny-tiny, itty-bitty, detail-freak-pleasing details including all the wiring, linkages,footpedals*&rests.ect,ect.... ~~~~manyneeded !......................

Wow that tire looks awesome with the PE spokes, and in 1/35 scale thats some fragile stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the details that your putting into the bike.

Nice work Adam.

 

Rob

~Thank you Rob ~ The update has arrived !

 ~Ok, so the  Lion Roar BMW R75 is built..."POOF"....easy as that !  
.....Um, NO , not really. Actually......Any of you guys ever build an entire model with your tweezers? That's sort of what this was like. You can't fault the kit for trying to present a highly detailed miniature, but, it is in no way easy to get together. Besides the fiddle-fest of itty-bitty parts, plastic & P.E., you're best building habits must be strictly adheared to. Test fit EVERYTHING, as nearly none of the fit-pins fit into thier respective holes without mods. The styrene is very durable, which is good as there are some of the most minute attachment points ever seen on a 1:35 model, and it's easy to melt away importaint areas if one isn't careful gluing. The P.E. is nice quality stuff too, but attachment points are difficult to asertain at best from the instructions. Constant reference checks needed!   You will need references to decide how to fit the front shields for example. I fit all the largest parts 1st, including the seats and exhaust, which of course I drilled out. As I'm going to heavily weather this bike to show one that's in the field a long while, I put a drastic rough texture on the entire exhaust with some Tamiya Liquid Surface primer stippled with a wire brush. This will be sanded to something more in-scale after primer.   Around this time I started to notice I was getting a lot of vibration from my "model stand", like when you toss your knife in a plank and watch the handle wobble a while. So I made a simple brace from mitred popsicle stick and a few drops of gel C/A . Then it  was nice and solid.          I was so happy I had mounted the model like  so for the following steps, as in my hands the fiddly bits would be coming off faster than I could attach them! Next up was all the control linkages, and being of suitable scale-size, they are super small parts. One had the option of the styrene parts, but these are over-scale on the rods and lack definition on the gear handles, and shift rack. Only real  problem with the P.E. parts here is that they are flat of course, and those shifters are suposed to be ball-shaped. I made some ball-handles with drops of gel C/A like I did with the plug caps. These also need a little shaping after primer, so I can see them a little better. Here The front fork assembly is done. This is the way I chose to do it, leaving the headlight out for the time being. In fact, I didn't follow the instructed build-order very much at all after step 1, and think this kit kind of requires one to figure out how to accomplish each task, as alignment is tricky throughout, the parts are a bit too small to  easily grasp, and handling of the model will likely destroy previous steps work.   Here's everything but the headlight lens, which I want to show in place, but VERY grimy. This was one of several reference shots that was handy(even though some parts look unoriginal) You would likely need reference to build this kit entirely OOB.

 

The front fender was another challenge. This wasn't too tuff though, and actually suspends the fender over the wheel in a realistic way. What an improvement over the old Tamiya kit with the wheel & fender moulded as one without even any space between!
  The filler on the gastank was just to fix my goof ,  as an errant drop of glue gave me a soft spot I dented, and used the only putty on the bike, in that spot.

The assemetric fit of the rear fender bracket tube checks out against references. The clasps on the stowage box are shown towards the outside of the case on the instructions, but photos show them more towards the inside.   The control cables running from the handlebar are from the finest brass wire I have here, as they are not so visable in pictures, but are a needed detail. My stowage items(not glued in place here) include a helmet & gas mask canister from DML, and a nice resin MP40 from the spares box. More may be added later, not sure.
Parts from the kit left off include the rear-view mirror, which is nearly always missing in period photos, the number-plate,which was likely to be missing, and the P.E. padlocks for the storage case (good spares-box item)
  Here's the model after weathering ~OKAY, just kidding again.         
Here's the last shot of my BMW before it's off to the paint shop. Real primer applied with the airbrush for this thing, then quite alot of very fine sanding I'm sure as some xtra glue had to be used here & there to re-enforce those feeble attachment points. Nothing too fancy though, and lucky for me,  as I want to display a highly ravanged paintjob.....(not quite as bad as the example above        ~Thanks again for tuning in for another episode of ~"Clash in Tunisia"~                Indy

Looking nice, the after part lok great, I can definately tell that this will be a great dio at the end.

I should make a motorcycle for my next project, but I really busy right now.

Keep up the good work.

AMAZING WORK on the bike!   Hopefully your bike gets the approval seal from our own biker Doog.  Everything looked great... only one minor part caught my eyes is the muffler and its piping... are you planning to make it look like mud or a real BAD case of rust?  I figure the bike is in Africa where it doesn't rain alot out there in the desert so rust shouldn't be that bad down there unless I am wrong?  That's my only thought... it has been fun following your process.  Wish I can build as fast as you have been doing!

 

~ T-Rex ~ Thanx, I guess. I can't really say I understand you post though. Any other words you could choose to communicate with?

~Andy~ Thank you for the nice comments. As for your observation/question, I think you missed the related caption Buddy, it explained perfectly.

"As I'm going to heavily weather this bike to show one that's in the field a long while, I put a drastic rough texture on the entire exhaust with some Tamiya Liquid Surface primer stippled with a wire brush. This will be sanded to something more in-scale after primer."

~And ,sorry, you might think that it wouldn't hardley ever rain in Tunisia, but you'd be wrong. It did rain heavy at times, and caused a mess when it did.  Also, remember there's natural salt & mineral deposits in those hills & flats too.Imagine the harshest natural climate imaginable, thats what this bikes been soldiering on through!

Looks real nice Indy, if that pick realy was of this model after weathering, i probably would pull my hair out because she looks so good

 

Brian

AHHHH!  I missed this one... thanks for the clarification.  Can't keep up with everything going on in the forum.  Thanks!  Still looking great!

I am totally ignorant of motorcycle engines, but is that lateral seam on the cylinder heads supposed to be there? I've been waiting for you to address them but you haven't yet. You've done such a very fine job on this bike so far, that I would hate to see a flaw (if it is indeed a flaw) go untouched.

Adam the bike is gorgeous and yes I can imagine putting it together with a tweezer all too well!

This is going to be a killer Dio!

Schnobs wrote:

Adam the bike is gorgeous and yes I can imagine putting it together with a tweezer all too well! This is going to be a killer Dio!

Thanks Edmund ~we hope so !!  (it will)

~ Brian  ~  LOL ~    thanks

~Subfixer ~  Didn't know you we're waiting at all, but thanx for all the nice comments. No, not really is the answer. It is going to need a little fill on the end of the heads.

 ~BACK SOON GUYS  ~   HANG TUFF

Very nice work on the cycle and Kubel...those little cycle kits are a bit pricey but I've had my eye on one...

[quote user="Manstein's revenge"]

Very nice work on the cycle and Kubel...those little cycle kits are a bit pricey but I've had my eye on one...

~ Thanks Much Buddy, just over $20 . Of course the OLD Tamiya kit is ONLY $4 !! But add the Eduard P.E. set for $14 and then compare.           

~Well I can report that the prototype shop is keeping me steadily busy, although we are not going full gangbusters by any means.             ~ I Got home  & got the airbrush running. I hit the motorbike with a  careful coat of Floquil Grey Primer thinned a bit with white spirit (cheap effective paint thinner from Walmart) Things looked better than I'd hoped.    Still, some delicate sanding could make it better in places. Of course as fragile as the details are, that needs to be CAREFUL work! (note I added some straps to hold that gasmask case on. This was done before the primer with some paperstrips stiffened with C/A glue)
I'll improve some areas,particularly the few filled spots, tomarrow after the primer is cured .  
A few of more of my figures got the Dark Yellow treatment &  they are all prepped.   Before spraying colour, I shot Future to seal base-coats on the Pak 40
and the kubelwagon,        to keep the base-coats in place during the following steps.  
  I'll continue applying layers,and soon start on  Opel truck, the last model needed for the Diorama( besides the most major model, the base)    Please stay tuned...................  ... .....

              ~ Indy

Looking sweet!

 

The details on the bike boggle the mind!

 

 

~Thanks Mark.....boggle eh?

 

 Here's a bonus shot :  
Built and set aside for the time being, is this cool rider figure from Warriors, a Douglas Lee sculpt.      I've been wanting to see him next to the R75      (he can't have this one though) he will be in an upcoming Dio(details of which are otherwise top-secret so far)  
Of course the Lion Roar kit comes with parts for 2 bikes, But plans so far have this Gent standing near the Tamiya sidecar bike with Eduard Photo Etch set(unless I let that wither in the stash ................) ~ Cheers Mateys                               

 

 

~As much as I'd love to start on the Opel, it's going to be slightly involved,  & there's just too many paint jobs stacking up, so this weekend I brought  some progress there.....   My pictures of  the clean-up of the primer didn't look acceptable, but I did spend a few hours with a blade-tip and 600 paper to take off some rough edges, even so some fuzz remains. After a  while I decided it would have to do, and sprayed another Floquil coat, this one was Grimy Black(Floquil #110013) which I recently found out for my self is the exact same colour as  Weathered Black(Floquil #F110017) Why one colour with two names & two numbers? Well. they got me to buy it thinking I added to my range.      It is a usefull color, and has a VERY fine opaque pigment,sprayed or brushed......so, no real harm....BUT    !   This blackish-grey colour will be a base coat for a similar but slightly different process to this one I've done with the Kubel.   ~To re-cap....I primered with  Floquil Grey Primer   Then after plenty of drying time, I airbrushed a chocolate brown mixed from Tamiya Much darker toward the bottom and in wheelwells...and let cure....   Then  2 coats of Future, and lots more drying time...     Today I masked off areas of this finish I wanted to be revealed by chips & cracks in the sun-faded, badly-beaten ,chipped , and pitted dark yellow painjob.   Most of the Liquid Masking Fluid was applied with a small brush, leaving mostly a clear but glossy trace of it's presence,where I'd later get the chip.   It's tricky stuff, but once you get a feel for working it, you can even coax it into flowing into recesses,like under the door here.There will later be a wash in there, but still this works. Some of the mask can be applied with a balled-up bit of 3M sanding pad, though it's tuff to control what you get, and a bit of Scotchbright (useful  for applying chipping with paint) was even less good  for me, for this task, with the mask fluid.   Don't have to wait long at all before painting, In fact I recommend getting your paint on & off the masked areas in short order, to avoid the full-stregnth cure holding the masked portion down.   I spray three different colours, one right after the other, with a mind toward some modulation, to get the pale sun-bleached look to top surfaces. The 1st colour was a mix of Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow & XF-57 Buff, mixed to a value right between the two(which took some greater % of Buff)   The next coat was the same lightened with XF-2 Flat White & a few drops of XF-3 Flat Yellow. the 3rd coat lighter still. I took a dinner break & walked my doggie, and after about two hours or so, began to remove bits & dots & strings of mask with the sharpest , fine tweezers in my collection, managing to only puncture my finger once   This work took over two hours, here's some 'in-progress' shots

You can see why I like this method( over the hairspray method, which can look very good too) as you can see how you can actually get the paint to chip & peel off, like it tends to do when badly beaten and moisture gets under the paint.  

  I've just finished with this, and have yet to add any traces of the  bare steel, and rust  
I have scratched through to the grey primer in some places, and this adds some variation, but some more  work is needed to get this just right...   Hope that all made sense~ Questions / Comments ~Are Very welcome~~~

Really nice "show and tell" going on...great execution...the pak turned out looking really sweet---you might even say that it is the "leader of the pack"...

[quote user="Manstein's revenge"]

Really nice "show and tell" going on...great execution...the pak turned out looking really sweet---you might even say that it is the "leader of the pack"...

AHH~~thank you thank you & Ha Ha ! Always a pleasure to have you drop by Herr Fieldmarshel, beer's in the fridge...make a self @ home

Looks properly beat up, Indy.  Nice contrast between this heavily beat up look and Schnobs' light sand blasted wear and tear.

Are you trying to paint a patern with the masking fluid, or do you slop it on and make the "pattern" by careful removal?  I've never tried it, but would like to add it to my arsenal.

Are those channel lock marks on the Tamiya paint bottle?  If so, I think you got my bottle there, sorry, I couldn't get it open. 

Bill 

 

Hey Indy I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes using the liquid masking fluid. Your Kubel is looking great buddy, love that chipping. I'm looking forward to the weathering part of the painting.

 

Rob

Adam,

I read this right afte you posted and forgot to post my comments.  Very nice and different effect than the HP method.  I like the effect it looks very realistic.

You are doing a superb job on the vehicles!

Citadelgrad87 wrote:

Looks properly beat up, Indy.  Nice contrast between this heavily beat up look and Schnobs' light sand blasted wear and tear. Exactly. I don't even think it looks 'better', in fact it looks 'worse', but that's what I wanted for this car, one that was out in the harshest elements every day of it's career and about to go scrap ! Are you trying to paint a patern with the masking fluid, or do you slop it on and make the "pattern" by careful removal?  I've never tried it, but would like to add it to my arsenal.  I was actually being very careful to apply the Liquid Frisket(as the  fine-art airbrush painters call it) very specifically, in as small a dabs as possible. (You can see it as the shiny spots in the WIP photos. It's really hard to draw / paint with though. It's something you need to go get a 'feel' for.     Find something you want to normally mask with a small piece of tape, and see what it take for you to get it in place. It does'nt act like paint at all. Some artist friends I know swear it can't be brushed ! They apply the mask with a toothpick or kabob skewer.           If you use a brush, use a really small one, & you'll need some laquer thinner to get it clean. This stuff clumps & drys on the brush like nothing you've ever seen    (the Windsor&Newton brushes better than other brands)One thing you'll notice is if you put some anywhere you don't want, it rubs right off with your finger or applicator, part of the challenge is not constantly pulling off the mask thats already in the right place  (you will see)       After painting, I look very carefully in glancing light to find the slight bumps under the paint, and pick,tweeze, and rub it off,,,often remembering what spots it covers Are those channel lock marks on the Tamiya paint bottle?  If so, I think you got my bottle there, sorry, I couldn't get it open.  ~ Bill....I Almost fell out of my chair & ROFL there ! YES, channel locks are an absolute MUST HAVE in the modelers kit--NO DOUBT !