Nice work on the scale. Looks exactly like the ones I have seen at markets in Melbourne. The foil tray is just right. Your scale shows just how important it is to examine the protoype as closely as possible for reference. The only detail I could suggest is a rivet in the crossed brackets that hold the tray...only if its visible.

vespa boy

Lots of great stuff going on nhere with the Land Rover and the dogs (is one of them called Rover?). You are jamming this dio full of nicely observed everyday detail, which to me is possibly the most interesting. Keep it coming.

Here's another goody for you Narayan,

I scratch built a scale that a friend suggested.

Quite fast though with some plastc strip and metal foil put together. I was at the market in the morning and scouted for old scales. Even went into Corbis and Image bank for reference. The market was better. :D 

Couldn't resist having the metal plate seperated so I made it by burnishing metal foil in a circular template to get the shape.

Challenging but fun.

Cheers,

Richard

waikong

We carry on that custom here in the US with no shoes in the house. Many Asian families do, just have to ask our non-Asian guests to the same and no one has issues with it.

That's nice.

Cheers,

Richard

Lots of great stuff going on nhere with the Land Rover and the dogs (is one of them called Rover?). You are jamming this dio full of nicely observed everyday detail, which to me is possibly the most interesting. Keep it coming.

We carry on that custom here in the US with no shoes in the house. Many Asian families do, just have to ask our non-Asian guests to the same and no one has issues with it.

Adam, glad you got a tickle from that reply.

Appreciate your kind word on the canines. I got the idea from the numerous slippers that got chewd on. As I mentioned to WaiKongs reply, it's customery here to leave your footwear at the door when you enter the house unless the owner says otherwise. It's kind of funny when you have to look for them when you leave if the house pet has taken it to it's hideout for some jaw excersise.

There'll be more interesting stuff ahead as this build is close to my heart being local and all.

Cheers,

Richard 

Manstein's revenge

Looking good---what are you using for groundwork?

Thanks Manny, the ground work is basically colored plyfilla, static grass, hemp, dried moss, dried fern leaves, a few after market palms and banana trees.

The base is not yet complete and I'm not happy with the groundwork. The static grass hasn't been painted yet. I have still to add the lalang (Saw grass) around the drain pool. The side path after the steps where this dude is squating still needs some attention. Perhaps I'll add a rusted beat up bicycle there.

I need to add concrete and a tap on the right side of the shop.

I'm changing all the figures as I've gotten some ARVN figs from Dragon. They're more smaller build in size.

Cheers,

Richard

WaiKong, thanks.

You know in these parts here, we leave our slippers and shoes at the door before entering(local custom) and the dogs have a field day with them.

Cheers,

Richard 

rtfoe

Hey Adam, thanks.

 

The funny thing about the picture you picked out...I thought it was a derilect left by the roadside until a farmer got in and drove it off.

~I got a huge laugh reading that Richard! (The wife was yelling "What?What? From the other room)

This place is peppered with farms and Tea plantations famous for Boh, Cameronian and Lipton brands if you know your tea.

~Like 'Ole Muddy Waters said: "I like my coffee in the morning.....but I sure do love my tea at night "

~~Smash-up work on the canines my friend---I really like what you've done with those, quite brilliant---I know I've seen that Tamiya German Shepard before--but you'd never know him in the final product--clever stuff. The flip flop is a hoot too

looking forward to more of this one!

 

Looking good---what are you using for groundwork?

Love how the dogs are turning out and chewing on the slipper is a great touch.

Hi Guys,

After a long break and some added inspiration I decided to start on R & R again starting with the modification of the two dogs.

The dogs were from Tamiya and Dragon and were basically Mat Salleh dogs(western looking dogs). I had to trim them down to local mongrels and repose them. I'll call them Fifi and Jojo...how local can you get with these names. :lol:

Jojo here had the neck cut and repositioned. The ears were also flopped down. I used a motor tool to slim down Jojo to mongrel proportions.

The same was done to Fifi, ears and all but twisted her head to accept the slippers that she's chewing on.

The rest are more angles of the modification.

Both the dogs tails were repositioned. Fifi's was made from copperwire and coated with Tamiya putty.

Might have to take some more fat of Jojo, just look at the folds on her shoulder. Kampung dogs normally not fed well.

Finally, posed with the mini durians.

I really had fun sculpting the doggies and making the durians.

Next will be to paint the dogs and slipper.

I did some base painting of the mutts fooling around with slippers.

Up close the painting seems rough. This will give the dogs a scruffy look which is intentional.

The dog on the left hasn't got the matt buffing yet so it's a little shiny now.

I'll detail the eyes other parts later. C & C welcomed.

Cheers,

Richard

Hey Adam, thanks.

Hadn't been there for donkey years and totally forgot about the landrovers till I got there...man it was reference heaven. I checked out a pamphlet at the hotel and found out there were around 600 of these buggers within a 10 mile radius. Huh! what luck.

The funny thing about the picture you picked out...I thought it was a derilect left by the roadside until a farmer got in and drove it off. This place is peppered with farms and Tea plantations famous for Boh, Cameronian and Lipton brands if you know your tea.

I've also got an old Chinese shop picture reference some where that I'll post.

Cheers,

Richard

~So Richard~

You're little Holiday turned into a lucky-dread-reference spree!?You had just innocently chosen the place Ijust when you happened to on the LandRover build?? WoW...I guess stranger things happen every day, but pretty smashing luck, aint it?              Amazing study in beat-up paint there

Thanks for the post, it's just the kind of man-on-the-street investigation that does a blog proud---I really like this kind of blogging--finest kind

Klik

Yeah, Landrovers never die.

Saw a bunch of Nat Geo specials on Paleotolongists searching for fossils in the desert of Mongolia-they drove a bunch of 30+ year old Landrovers, and only lost one to sand clogging the engine completely.

Great build so far, look foreward to seeing more. One question, will you make that Landrover really beaten up? (Not many militarys keep vehicles in great condition for long.) Maybe bullet holes in the Landrover might make your dio feel more like a "rest stop"...lol

Thanks Klik,

Landrovers don't rust...the body is aluminium and as long as you keep the engine in tip top, it'll last.

So far we civvies haven't seen a bullet riddled army landrover. If there was one, the army has kept it away from us very well. The British have left a legacy of spick and span in our army and I guess the contracted maintenance is doing their job.

Ambushes on convoys were few or not at all in the late '70s. Most operations against CT's were deep in the jungles.

Cheers,

Richard

SuppressionFire

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.

Nice of you to say that SuppressionFire,

I try to keep the theme in all my Dios in tune with pieces of history but they're not as accurate as should be.

The Panzer commander hasn't quite found a place in a dio yet though he has been painted but is missing an index finger. I use him for the time being as scale calibration for my scratch builds.

Cheers,

Richard

Grimmo

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!

Thanks Grimmo,

No, this is the Italeri kit that has the connected front and rear cab. Didn't know there was a Revell one.

Cheers,

Richard

Yeah, Landrovers never die.

Saw a bunch of Nat Geo specials on Paleotolongists searching for fossils in the desert of Mongolia-they drove a bunch of 30+ year old Landrovers, and only lost one to sand clogging the engine completely.

Great build so far, look foreward to seeing more. One question, will you make that Landrover really beaten up? (Not many militarys keep vehicles in great condition for long.) Maybe bullet holes in the Landrover might make your dio feel more like a "rest stop"...lol

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.

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!

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.

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

~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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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

Thanks Smeagol and Steve. Glad you like it.

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