Empress BMD-01 progress

 As mentioned back in February, I received a BMD-1 from Empress.

It is now assembled and base painted.

So the detailing included an aerial on the left rear deck, cables attached to fittings on the hull nose and stretching back to the rear of the hull. Rubicon cable ends were used, the cable is brass wire. Holes are drilled into the hull a distance from end point (the distance being such that the cable ends will hook over the bracket and the ends of the wire). This secures the wire (the hole at one end is made very deep so that the wire can be tensioned by pushing the wire into the hole) and gives the impression the cable end is attached to the cable.

Notches were filed into the nose for the two bow mounted machine guns.

A rotating periscope on the rear hatch. A piece of thin plastic card is placed into a paper punch and a circular piece cut from the plastic. A piece of Slater's 0.06" microstrip makes the periscope.

The aerial is a piece of 1mm brass rod. The base is made from a piece of Plastruct rod.

It was at this point I noticed that the model was missing the periscopes just behind of the turrets. Again strips of Mircostrip provided the periscope heads.

The periscopes were painted with Humbrol 34 White acrylic (shown in the above photographs). They were then painted with Army Painter Deep Blue. The headlights are also Humbrol White.

This is the base painted model with Rubicon Soviet Tank and T26 decals. The numbers are from the Soviet Tank set (DCSV01) and the number in a triangle from the T26 set (DCSV05).

The grills have been shaded with Citadel Camoshade, as has the periscopes and hatches.

It now awaits final weathering and shading.

Empress BMD-1 IFV

 After "One Thing and Another", and before the current unpleasantness, Empress released a range of Cold War Soviet Paratroopers as opposition to their BAOR British infantry. I have just got round to ordering them. So they do not have to walk very far, and to give them some punch, here is the Empress BMD-1.

This has been re-worked from the HLBSCo version, an example of the original HLBSCo BMD-2 has been featured here, and is still awaiting finishing.

The first thing you will note is that the track guards are now metal, a major improvement as at some point before assembly I managed to break the resin ones on the BMD-2.

This will not have as much stowage as the BMD-2 as it will be representing a vehicle early in the conflict and so will be regulation rather than many years in the field (and having been air-dropped).

It will need the periscope fitted to the rear hatch, some aerials and probably the bow mounted machine guns.

Some research is required on the equipment placing.

HLBSCo Spartan APC Work In progress

So after a long wait, and prompted by Empress releasing a re-worked  version of the HLBSCo model (replacing a lot of the resin detail parts - hatches, tools, extinguishers - with white metal ones) I set about assembling the original HLBSCo one.

I started out by drilling 3mm diameter holes in the centre of the locations moulded on the hull side.

The problem is that the raised structures are not in the same location on each side

Note the distance from the hull front.

I ended up having to hand "mill" the hole to get the locating holes to line up with the prongs on the tracheostomy's unit. 

The second and fourth road wheels then needed to be glued in place - and the metal and resin decided that they did not like each other and no amount of superglue would bring them together. One of the road wheels fooled me into thinking it was secured - then fell off and glued itself to the floor.

Eventually I got them all secured (for now), though I am not convinced by the spacing.

I ended up having to sand the hatches flatter (wet and dry on my glass plate came in handy).

The splash plate on the front of the hull is currently only secured at the front, I need to straighten the end above the first road wheel.

Not sure what I am going to do about the lights on the front. originally they were under the splash plate (the swimming skirt ran across the top of it - below is an FV102 Striker ATGW showing the skirt and the original low mount lights). 

When the Spartans no longer were fitted with the skirt the lights (upgraded) were fitted on top - three bins were additionally fitted, one between them and one each out side them. Later one big bin was fitted across the whole width and the lights again mounted underneath.

I drilled the location for the smoke dischargers and bent the pin so they were at what I thought was the correct angle.

I drilled through the centre of the aerial mounting points and used 1mm brass rod for the lower part of the aerial. A piece of plastic tube was used to raise the base a bit.

Rear view showing the stub aerials. The gear basket on the door is still to be added.

I have to add the mud flaps on the front and decide what format lights I am going to use.

And then I will add some gear and possibly camouflage nets.

HLBSCo Spartan APC

Back in 2017 at Salute I bought the HLBSCo 1/48 scale CVR(T) Spartan from Empress.

I had been nagging Empress about producing one to go with their Scimitar since at least 2013.

This was the first HLBSCo vehicle I had bought, and I was disappointed by the model.

The kit is similar in form to some of the Warlord resin vehicles, with white metal running gear.
There appears to have been a change in the supplied components compared to the instructions (the instructions show stub axles on the lower hull to take the separate wheels).

 You can also see the stub axles protruding from the sprocket and idler wheels, with no matching sockets in the one piece hull moulding.

There are large resin blocks with the tools, lights and fire extinguishers on, that will be a pain to separate.

The separate wheels will need to be aligned carefully (there is no indication on the hull where the wheels should go.

I do have a second Empress Scimitar kit, I am wondering if the running gear from that would fit (and if I could buy a second set from Empress).

Empress 28mm BMD-2 IFV - part 4

So, further progress on the BMD-2.

The camouflage-net over the nose has had some additional bits added.

I was staring at the front of the BMD, and thought, maybe some additional armour would be nice.

I was looking through my bits and pieces and found the Crooked Dice Mattress set. The lower front of the hull is angled, so I used my trusty razor saw to first cut one in half but with an angled cut. I then made a similar angled cut so the two halves came together at a shallow angle. The two parts were then superglued to the hull front. The gaps were then filled with Greenstuff.

If I had thought about it earlier, I would have added some on the side.

Straps and a sling were added to the ammo box on the port side.

A similar sling was added to hold the Rubicon crate. A rolled tarpaulin was added to the two pegs, again out of Greenstuff.

Starboard side.

Port side.

View from above.

Empress 28mm BMD-2 IFV - part 3

This has been sitting on the side since January 2018.

I added a Rubicon wooden crate from one of their stowage sets and a rucksack from the Crooked Dice small stowage set. The white posts are 0.7mm plastic rod and will be the fixing points for additional soft stowage.

I cut off part of the nose to add the bow mounted machine gun. The barrel is 0.7mm brass rod.

The ATGM attachment point on the turret top is made of a piece of 0.7mm rode passed through a piece of 3mm Evergreen tube.

The white posts on the bow will be the fixing points for camouflage netting.

The two large pieces of stowage are again from the Crooked Dice small stowage set. The aerial is 0.7mm brass rod with a piece of 3mm Evergreen tube for the base.

 The jerry can is from the Empress 28mm scale WW2 Jeep. The backpack on the right is from the Under Fire Miniatures Rhodesian SAS.

The two tanks are made from 4mm square section Evergreen tube with Evergreen 4mm strip end caps and details. Two pieces of 0.7mm Evergreen rod make the two handles. The box is from the TTCombat Back Alley Accessories 2.

The periscope on the rear hatch is made from a disc of thin plasticard cut with a hole punch and a length of Slaters plastic strip.

Now for the Greenstuff.