~Terrific!

I'm happy to see you get back to this build

It's really never to late......(well a least 'til your not suck'inair any more  )

I'm really interested by the produce display---that's an impressive group of fruits&veggies , whatever they are--Likey if standing at a Maylasian fruit stand most of us would have little idea what we we're looking at. What went into the products?

*INDY

~Terrific!

I'm happy to see you get back to this build

It's really never to late......(well a least 'til your not suck'inair any more  )

I'm really interested by the produce display---that's an impressive group of fruits&veggies , whatever they are--Likey if standing at a Maylasian fruit stand most of us would have little idea what we we're looking at. What went into the products?

 

Yup. Better late than never. This was for our National Day group build and everyones been asking when it's going to be completed.

Ah, the produce - that's got everyones attention here too. You'll know some of them...basically they're bananas, oranges, watermelons, plums, chinese winter pears, rock melons, mangosteens, our king of fruit the durian(it's a love or hate fruit for westeners) and chinese cucumber.

Bananas - Super glued spice(fennel seeds) to a slice of curved sprue and painted them.

The chinese cucumber are larger Fennel seeds.

Oranges - Were made from white pepper seeds. I had to find the smaller ones to keep them in scale.

Water Melons - Made with two part epoxy putty and stuck a piece of copper wire to the back for the stem. The characteristic stripes on the watermelons are not painted yet.

Plums - Mustered seeds coated with Future. This was left in it's original color.

Chinese winter pears - Large white pepper seeds.

Rock melons - Two part epoxy putty rolled into shape.

Mangosteens - Still in progress.

Durian - Made from dried papaya seeds. This was the only thing I could use to get the right scale and simulate the thorny skin of the fruit. I tried Casurina tree seeds but they were out of scale.

I built the stand from balsa to hold the durian. This is quite typical at fruit stalls when in season.

Besides the produce, scratch building the motor bike and modifying the Land Rover took the larger proportion of time. You'll see it in the coming posts.

Cheers,

Richard

Very , very good answer Richard, thank you. I had noticed the little rack.. though just a little detail...its quite good

Can't say I've ever tried a Durian, although I've seen it at some higher end markets that import from everywhere. You gave some great ideas for scratching-up some fruit in that post--awsome stuff. Now...I was going to get around to asking you about the scooter--I hadn't seen that in a kit any place---you explaned that, but if you have WIP pictures on that I'm sure it would be interesting to see.

Look forward to seeing more Mate. 

Wow, really impressed, love the Malboro Man poster :)

Andrew

There is nothing??? Where is the pictures?

Harshman II

There is nothing??? Where is the pictures?

Sorry Harshman,

Technical glitch there while tidying up my Photobucket. They're back up again. Thanks for noticing the glitch.

Cheers,

Richard

Konigwolf13

Wow, really impressed, love the Malboro Man poster :)

Andrew

Thanks Andrew,

That Marlboro man billboard was popular in the 70's. Hang around and you'll see another 70's Asian icon in the form of a popular motorbike totally scratch built.

Cheers,

Richard

*INDY

Very , very good answer Richard, thank you. I had noticed the little rack.. though just a little detail...its quite good

Can't say I've ever tried a Durian, although I've seen it at some higher end markets that import from everywhere. You gave some great ideas for scratching-up some fruit in that post--awsome stuff. Now...I was going to get around to asking you about the scooter--I hadn't seen that in a kit any place---you explaned that, but if you have WIP pictures on that I'm sure it would be interesting to see.

Look forward to seeing more Mate. 

Glad you're liking the local scene here.

If you can get past the smell of the durian and like custard then you might have the stomach for it. I hear they're pretty expensive over there and vacuum packed to seal in the "pong".

I'm happy to share ideas anytime.

Ah yes the little Honda Cub C70. There's none in 1/35 kit form so it's totally scratch built. I took a lot of shots of the existing old bikes that I spotted around the oldtowns in the country and googled a profile of it to be scaled down. This is what it looks like completed and what it started out as.

I sanded down the wheels from a discarded Italeri Harley to get it thin and tyres smaller. Everything else was carved from plastic sheets and blocks. I did them in sub-assemblies just like in kit form. 

The shock absorbers and foot rest were carved by chucking plastic rod into my motor tool and chiselled with a hobby knife as it turned. The foot rest was coated with putty.

This what it looks like next to the dry fitted assemblies.

The full progress WIP will be in the next post...got to do some work for now.

Cheers,

Richard

Okay next, I spent the night sanding the tyres. The outcome is slightly better but still thick if to scale.

In the process I had to break off the exhaust....can stick it back ...no worries.

Then I proceeded to measure the basket for the cupchai. Somebody mentioned bananas in the basket so that's what I'll try to do. Thought I'd add a Villager with sarong trying to get on the bike. Hope he doesn't expose anything :lol:  just kidding.

That's all for now, got to catch some zzz's

Richard.

Outstanding work Richard...the produce is incredible...GREAT work...looking forward to more!

Fantastic work! Can't wait to see more.

ps- lol, I'm one of those people who can't get passed the smell or look of that fruit, and I'm a chef. Yuck! lol..

Rob~You're a chef huh?   Cool--one of the best Dio guys I know is a chef in Ireland.   Some fruits smell fantasic , like the world class strawberries they grow here...maybe I'll stick to those 

Richard~ That looks like a lot of trouble to go to for such an unglamorous set of wheels--but I understand it suits the village you're modelling, no on else has one, and you can pull it off--and did!! 

===always ready to see more===

Thanks Sterno, Robb and Indy, appreciate the kind comments.

Talking about strawberries, we've got them growing in the Highlands here. Some entreprenau decided to grow them hydrophonically and market them overseas. Don't know if the quality is as good as those from your area.

Indy - The Honda C70 is basically an icon in most parts of South East Asia. It does look unglamorous but it's a good utility mode of transport. Sad there isn't a kit in this scale as it would look good in Vietnam urban scenes. I'm sure many veterans would recognise it on the streets of Saigon.

Here are more progress shots...

Apparently I got carried away with the tip of the front mudguard and made it too sharp. I was working with a scaled down image and it wasn't clear.

I managed to scratch the basket. What you see here is just the dry fitting. I attached it after final painting.

Also painted some parts silver (Tangan itchy...meaning hands itchy)

These pictures were taken just prior to painting.

Made some progress here. Put a first coat of paint. To do this , I took off the basket so as not to damage it ...fragile as hell man.

The next progress is the second coat of paint and coloring the indicator lights with chrome frame piping. After this I coated the gloss areas with future and added number plates.

On close up you can see how rough the detailing is. Best I can do so far for an item that's gonna fit in a dio. Hope the short comings won't be seen that clearly from a respectable distance. :D

Thanks for viewing. Now I can concentrate with the other parts of the Dio. I'm taking a friends advise and approach each item one at a time so as not to burn out thinking of all the other projects and half built kits. :rolleyes:

As always comments are welcome.

Cheers,

Richard

Wow, great job.  I am loving this dio.

That scooter is just simply incredible! Fantastic work here.

Steve

Great looking dio so far.  LIke everyone says, those fruits are fantastic, now I know how to make miniature Durians if I ever need them in the future.  Funny thing, I like the smell, dont like the taste.

The fruit sign stands looks great also - has that classic SE Asian feeling to it - the faded coca sign, the generic 'produce stand' name, excellent.

Wow, the infamous durian! On the American travel show 'Bizzare Foods' it's one of the few foods host Andrew Zimmern doesn't like!

Great work on the bike!

Thanks for posting your WIP, I'll be following this one for certain. I'm assuming you're going to have some civilion figures in it? I've kicked around the idea of a Korean War diorama for some time but there's almost nothing available in the way of any SE Asian civvie figures in general much less anything specific Korean in character.

All the fruit and the Honda are superb. Keep up the good work. All the little details add up.

Thanks Smeagol and Steve. Glad you like it.

waikong

Great looking dio so far.  LIke everyone says, those fruits are fantastic, now I know how to make miniature Durians if I ever need them in the future.  Funny thing, I like the smell, dont like the taste.

The fruit sign stands looks great also - has that classic SE Asian feeling to it - the faded coca sign, the generic 'produce stand' name, excellent.

Thanks Waikong, glad to share the reference for durian...so you have experienced it.

P.S. are you local?

Cheers,

Richard

Gamera

Wow, the infamous durian! On the American travel show 'Bizzare Foods' it's one of the few foods host Andrew Zimmern doesn't like!

Great work on the bike!

Thanks for posting your WIP, I'll be following this one for certain. I'm assuming you're going to have some civilion figures in it? I've kicked around the idea of a Korean War diorama for some time but there's almost nothing available in the way of any SE Asian civvie figures in general much less anything specific Korean in character.

Gamera, glad you liked the bike WIP.

I saw that particular episode on Bizzare Foods and was disappointed that Andrew Zimmerns couldn't stomach Durian...well he hates durian as much as I hate liver. lol.

Try Dragons Vietcong VC. With a little shaving off of the webbing and addition of putty, they'll pass of as asian civvies. I'm using them for the fruit stall. You'll see as the progress comes along later after I've posted the Land Rover conversion.

Cheers,

Richard.

vespa boy

All the fruit and the Honda are superb. Keep up the good work. All the little details add up.

Thanks Narayan, you know as well as I do all these details are like a jigsaw puzzle.

Well here's another part of the puzzle...Hot from the press,

Here is the landrover interior. Basically I roumaged around my spare parts box for radios and such. The frame was from the Italeri jerry can set with lengths of plastic strip joined together with card for the table top.

The kit didn't come with rear seats so they had to be fabricated. The real seats were just metal frames with cusions wrapped in black vinyl. I remember the seats being loose and would shift around in the frame. :lol:

This is the best part of the headache I had to go through. The kit was left hand drive (for the Italian market) and so to make it into a Malaysian or at least Commonwealth version I had to shift the whole driving column to the right including the dash board and pedals (major surgery) :P

I also scratch built the rear portion of the cab with the curved windows and rear glass panel. The curved windows were made from acrylic clear tubes from Tamiya cut in half.

I'm covering this up with the roof after this which also is pre-fabricated to a bubble top roof as the kit came with a canvas roof. These pictures show the work before paint was added.

These close ups show the headlamp installed and painting of the signal lights. At this point I hadn't moved the rear view mirror stand yet.

The grill got a bit of attention with Gunze silver and Buncho water colour wash.

The rear lights also got treated. At this stage the Landrover ID plate hadn't been detailed yet. The rover is painted with pre-shades.

I always add this to all my vehicles. The windscreens on all vehicles on a long journey will always have dirt and the tell-tale wiper marks. Just make sure which direction the wiper wipes when applying this. A simple mask with masking tape cut to shape was used.

Here's where I went nutty and attempted something that turned out pretty ok lah.
It started out with something the manufacturer had provided but I wasn't satisfied with... <_<

The transparencies looked ok but I thought wire mesh like the real thing would be better so I started with this...

...bent it and locked it with some future and sprayed it...

...another angle to the sprayed mesh...

...then I applied it to the rover...

...close up shows it's kind of thick but from a respectable distance "boleh tahan lah"(means...can do).
Notice that I had already painted the number plate lights. Will have to remove one as of latest info compliments of a freinds input. :D

The bumper needs modifying to the single one...hope the unit ID plates on either side will hide the cuts.

Enjoy :P ...Next will be the rear view mirror mod.

Cheers,

Richard

No, not from that area, but married a girl from singapore so I've been there and Malaysia a few times. Showed the pics to my wife and she lived them too, funny, she picked out the bananas were made from fennel seed.

Richard,

Great work on the Land Rover too, the light guards look great and and are worth the extra work.

Thanks for the advice on the Viet Cong set. I'll check it out!

~Richard~

~Another brilliant bunch of model building there! I really did enjoy the Rover post--again, I hope I never miss a beat with your posts. It seems when you sit down to work --some good things get done. -I particularly like the radio table and bench seats you crafted. The mesh lamp protectors look fine--actually they resemble closely some I fitted to my 1:1 scale Triumph TR6 back in the day--I was having trouble with trucks kicking up gravel and cracking my lights on that low car.til I fit those.

This vehicle will really look the part weathered and placed in the scene--I look forward to the rest Mate.

WaiKong - Thanks, your wife must be a good cook to recognise fennel seeds.

Gamera - Glad you liked the Rover WIP.

*INDY

~Richard~

~Another brilliant bunch of model building there! I really did enjoy the Rover post--again, I hope I never miss a beat with your posts. It seems when you sit down to work --some good things get done. -I particularly like the radio table and bench seats you crafted. The mesh lamp protectors look fine--actually they resemble closely some I fitted to my 1:1 scale Triumph TR6 back in the day--I was having trouble with trucks kicking up gravel and cracking my lights on that low car.til I fit those.

This vehicle will really look the part weathered and placed in the scene--I look forward to the rest Mate.

 

Adam - Nice of you to say that. I get inspiration from guys like you who also come up with some brilliant ideas on building techniques. Seriously this dio has only been completed up to the figures stage. So the pictures will be coming at a slower rate. I'm as anxious as you to complete it.

Here are more updates on the Rover...

Moving the rear view mirrors was quite easy. The following is what I did.

The doors were first modified by back dating the windows to the sliding type.

I used brass wire and bent it to shape with a flat edge plier.

Got some scrap 1mm plastic card and cut it to shape...then sanded the edges.

I attached all the components with superglue.

Close ups will show the globs of superglue build up. This will double up as welding once painted over.

Comments welcomed.

Cheers,

Richard

Never thought I'd be this lucky...I had just vacationed at one of our highlands where farming is everywhere...did you know that Cameron Highlands has the most saturated amount of Landrovers in the world in such a small area outside of a British military camp.

Boy!!...when I got to Ringlet town, the whole place was peppered with these vehicles in all sorts of degree of appearance. Most are the Series III...the one that I'm building

All of them are beat up and the level of weathering...phew!!.

Here are some Landrovers I took pictures off. Hope someone will build a civilian version as bashed up as these. Surprisingly they all work and were trudging around merrily.

Cheers,

Richard.

awesome work so far! good blend of buildings, vehicles, figures and fruit! Love the landrover, is this the old Revell kit?

Can't wait to see this finished!

rtfoe,

Excellent techniques, scratch building and execution of your diorama! Looking forward to more and the completion of your work. I take you build different themes and pieces of history? The Panzer commander was a hint.