R & R Malaysian Scene 1975(WIP)

Modeling Subjects Dioramas
1

Hi Fellas,

It’s been years since I’ve been working on this WIP of a Malaysian scene in 1975. This scene depicts a recce group stopping by a road side fruit stall tha dot along the main trunk roads between Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur. This recce team were probably on their way back from operations up North at the Thai border where communists terrorists were still operating.

This build has 5 major sub-assembly builds- House(scratch), Land Rover(modified), Honda Cub bike(scratch), Figures(modified) and base. I’ll try to feature them in stages of progress.

So far the picture below is the stage that it’s at with figures without heads. The base is about done, only some terrain detailing and getting the grass colors corrected.

Base

Some of the major components were in the process of scratch building but I’ll start with the basic plan first.

Plywood base with plan composition drawn with markers. I positioned some of the items for scale effect.

More items for scale effect was added until I was satisfied with the composition. I had at this stage made the house and billboard out of card.

I built up the back of the base with styrofoam to simulate a slope for the billboard and added spackle to the ground.

To create the drain I had to elivate the base with styrofoam. The house was already completed at this stage. Will show you close-ups of it later.

IMG]http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g316/rtfoe/rtfoe%20R%20and%20R/PICT0019-5.jpg[/IMG]

I created a manhole and culvert with card and balsa wood. The drain was fashioned out of card as well.

That’s for now until the next post.

Cheers,

Richard

2

~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?

3

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

4

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

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g316/rtfoe/rtfoe%203/PICT0009-27.jpg

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. [:D]

5

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

Andrew

6

There is nothing??? Where is the pictures?

7

Sorry Harshman,

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

Cheers,

Richard

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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

9

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.[:P] 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

10

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.

11

Outstanding work Richard…the produce is incredible[:D[…GREAT work…looking forward to more!

12

Fantastic work! Can’t wait to see more. [:D]

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…

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**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!! [Y][H]

===always ready to see more===

14

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. :smiley:

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

15

Wow, great job. I am loving this dio.

16

That scooter is just simply incredible! Fantastic work here.

Steve

17

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.

18

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.

19

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

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Thanks Smeagol and Steve. Glad you like it.