After a long period of endless event after event, I finally found some spare time to continue where I left off from my earlier review of the German on bicycle set to be converted into Japanese soldiers. See the review here.

A quick look into the Japanese Army Handbook and a peek at the Tamiya kit

here, revealed that it may not be so daunting after all.
The German blouse is quite identical to the Japanese tropical uniform down to the collar, top breast pocket and lower pockets with exception of not having shoulder straps and of course to get rid of the collar markings in the Tamiya kit. The head and lower body needs more work. New leggings need to be made by stripping down the mass of the existing kit and replicating the unique Japanese leggings with either masking tape or thin A+B. Not decided yet on this. The ammo belt will need to be shaved off and replace.


this is the content of the earlier box

the accessories.
As this kit was quite old, the quality is not up to the current Dragon gen 2 or premuim quality but it will suffice for now.


the Lion Roar PE set has a lot of parts to upgrade the bicycle and figures. Only the parts for the bicycle will be used.


note the fine spokes


the entire content


original bicycle


the upgrading is on the way


a close up.

For tomorrow, the target is to complete as much as the bicycle as possible.

Thanks for viewing..

Loo

This will be a very interesting thread to follow Gentlemen. Not only will Loo be doing some serious conversion on the figs but the bicycle PE appear to be quite a challenge in itself. I'd recommend anyone out there interested in figure conversions to follow this thread.

Loo the PE especially the spokes look like quite a lot of work not to mention delicate work at that. Must have took a while to carefully remove the old spokes too. I think your idea of using tape will be better than epoxy for the leggings.

Switching the upper torso or the lower torso of the German riders with the Japanese ones is another option and patching the gaps with epoxy might save you filing down the German ones. Likewise cutting off the lower legs with leggings of the Japs and attaching them to the German thighs might be another. You will of course have to sand down the bulkier German thighs but it may be easier. Just some thoughts.

CK
I had contemplated cutting up the legs for a mix and match but was not too happy with the quality of the old Tamiya mold. Seems to different from the current standards so I may just go for the tape option.

As for the bicycle spoke, the cleanup was tedious and also sanding down the inner diameter as the PE like the BMW ones are slightly bigger so I had to sand down most of the rims. Will have to paint this on instead as the molded seam line is gone.

As for the dio, it will be probably, 4 Japanese soldiers on bicycle on a trunk road, with a milestone marker visible pointing 60 miles to KL. On a higher ground amongst the rubber trees, one little boy will be peering through the bushes. Lets cal this " The silent wave". Any ideas to make this more dramatic?

Hope to get more done tonight.


Loo

This log is continuing with a quick desription of the tools which I used. Its basically 2 different pliers, a scissors and a set of cutting blades, one to cut the PE of the main sheet ( this is an NT cutter which is more robust as you need to exert some strength while the main plate is on a cutting mat.) and the other for trimming. ( sharper blade)
The parts are detached as far as possible from the edge of the parts to avoid bending due to the cutting. The trimming is initially done by shearing with scissors and later trimmed with the sharp knife. As the size of the PEs are small, 2 twezzers are essential. A big needle is used to apply the superglue.


this the progress tonight.


the front wheels fork are formed with the dynamo in place made of plastic rods. Wires are missing at the moment for the electrical lines and brake lines.


the seat has no less than 7 pieces of PE, the smallest being the bolt heads. The springs are coiled 0.18mm wires.


tomorrows session should concentrate on the back fork and chain section,


the pedals will be left for later after the figure conversion to make sure the angles fit.

to those who might be more familiar, anyone knows whether the bicycles are in black like how I remember my grandparent's bicycle were with a white strip at the mudguard area?

thanks for viewing.

That's a very good progress there Loo CK. The PE parts enhanced the bicycle a lot. The details added like the dynamo is excellent. I would suggest you to use a very thin wire (like wire strands from earphone) for the dynamo. By the way, before I forgot, do the PE set includes the brake as well?

Can't wait to see more progress. Keep it up. :D

Can I suggest adding another boy running away (slightly crouching to avoid detection by the Japs) from his friend (the boy peering through the bushes) to tell the penghulu or whoever about the Japanese soldiers?

Just a suggestion though. :D

druid99, that is a good suggestion on the running kid. More work for me then.... B)
The PE has the brakes but need to beef up the rubber pads with styrene.

I was going through my dragon figure sets and will now probably opt to do a woman rubber tapper behind the trees and a kid running off. Less work this way as the diorama with 4 bicycles will take up at least 4 weeks to just get the bicycles done at this rate!

The progress today...


the major assembly is done. Note the back brake mecanism just between the chains.


better shot here without the chain guard


this shot to show you the relative size.


last shot. To those who want to do this conversion., you need a steady hand and a lot of patience as the parts are really small...



until tomorrow night,......

COOL :blink: Keep it up man.

Hi Becky,
hope your new job is working out.
Meanwhile, I completed 1 bicycle tonight and the following shots gives a comparative visual of the kit with and without PE. Enjoy....


without


with


last shot.

Some tips to those wanting to do this conversion.
1) be careful of the dimensions for some of the 0.8mm rods to replace the plastics as there are no length dimensions given.
2) Due to the breakdown of the major parts, be careful with the alignment of the back and front wheel, fork and chassis.
3) If the dimensions of the replacement parts are not correct, the figure will not fit well. I have yet to test fit this yet but since I am cutting the figure up, some adjustments will be OK.

Thanks for watching.

Makes a world of difference. Nice one Loo. Does anyone happen to know where to get photo etching chemicals in Malaysia? It'll be fun if we are able to make our own PE parts cheaply.

The bicycle is looking good there Loo. The added PE really give "life" to the bicycle.

As for making PE sets, I'm not sure about the manufacturer but I doubt that making your own PE sets is cheap, furhtermore the chemical used in the process is hazardous as well.

Druid,
I still remember using concentrated HCL in our Seni Perusahaan days. Don't know whether that can still apply. Perhaps Argrillion can shed some light into this?

The figure conversion started tonight.


the original became...


this with the help of an xacto knife, jewellery file and a dremel tool kit. Tamiya thin cement is then applied to soften the cutting edge. The shoulder straps, collar markings, ammo belt and buckle were stripped.


original boots and bottom pockets are further modified


to an outline to wrap some masking tape around to model the strappings. The bottom tropical Japanese blouse pockets have rounded edge instead of sharp edge, so a little knife work was required. The overall heaviness of the original was then toned down by scrapping away some of the body to reduce the mass. Hopefully this will potray a more forgiving asian build which is smaller. The shoe laces will need to be added later.


the head and headgear came from the Tamiya Jap soldier set with a neck extension.
Most of the main conversion is now complete exept for clean up and some putty here and there. The belt buckle will be built with stretched sprue' flatten with a vise and the ammo belt will be from the Tamiya jap set as well.


The references I manage to read to date indicated that the Japanese tend to tie all their gear to the bicycle including the rifles so there was no neccesity to strap them around the figure.


some minor adjustment will be neccessary when the pedals are fitted as the figure is slightly leaning to the right right now. The neck is piece of sprue cut to lenght. No modification is done to it yet and I will need to scuplt some of the neck contours later.
To add drama, the head is intentionally turned 10 degrees right and up. This helps to direct a more informal appreciation of the figure. Nothing kills a figure more than a pose where the head is square to the body.


Thanks for viewing, and comments welcomed.....

Very good progress thus far Loo. Looks like the PE requires a lot of work to be done on the original although the end result is impressive.

Loo I'm not familiar with Jap uniforms but did they have them sticking out below the belt?

As for the dio, having the cyclist with the milestone is good. My 2 cts on it is rather than having the tapper or kid, perhaps a burnt out vehicle or and abandoned AT gun by the roadside with abandoned equipment (i.e. helmets, canteens, rifles) scattered around would be more complementary.

For one it would show the hasty retreat of the British in the wake of the Jap advance (the cyclist). Secondly it would be more dramatic and contrast well with the bicycles. Sought of saying despite all the British superiority in equipment the simple but effective Jap forces utilizing low tech (bicycles) are much more successful. Some titles come to mind:

1. The Road to Victory
2. Advance & Retreat, Malaya 1941.
3. Kuala Lumpur or Bust
4. Bicycle power vs. the Empire

CK,
the tropical unforms come in various different designs. Most are as you mentioned double breasted pocket top only tucked inside the pants. Some are like what I depicted here. I will do the other figures in different uniforms because apparently thats how indiscipline the fatigue was. Some were only wearing white underwear shirts with pants.

I am at the moment going throught the research on the vehicles to abandon but the AT gun is going to be difficult except for the 25 pounder from Tamiya. The 2 pounder from Sovereign 2000 is not in stock anywhere since released in 2003 and it cost 27pounds!
There is some literature on the trucks and other wheeled transport but not many with kits in production. I would have to fudge some of it for effect.

Currently in my stockpile of stuff, (ordered or in place ) relevant to the Malaya campaign:
Prince of Wales (1:350) assembled but not painted and I just got the PE to upgrade this
Brewster Buffalo
Blenheim
Hudson
Catalina ( need some conversion to the PBY5A series, MK1 british eq )
(Looking for Tiger Moth, Vilderbeest, appropriate Hurricane (tropical version))
Jap Betty
(looking for the other Jap planes in the campaign)
Bren carrier
Quad and 25 pdr gun
6 pounder gun ( thanks to Masterqq)
Ha-gos
Chi Ha
Triumph bike
loads of Britsh 8th army and Jap multipose kits (airfix)

Having received the comments from my Sifu the bum, I reworked the figure to a less controversial version of clothing.


it does make the figure less bulky. From this shot I guess the hand needs alittle more sanding down as it appears like a bee stung swollen hand there. I actually shaved off the long sleeves to make it look folded.

Loo,

Great build on the "Charge of the Iron Horse Brigade" (this is my version for Ur dio title)...

Looks like U've cover alot on WW2 Malaya theater... getting ready for next year BIG event (Malaysia independant 50th aniversary) uh?

Well, I've something else floating in my mind for quit sometime for the next year event... not able to settle any solid conclusion yet. If I have time, I wish to do something of a vignette or maybe my first dio on "BUKIT KEPONG"....

Maybe will make it a member group build project heheh...

By the way Loo, notice that U're looking for a Tiger Moth? Is it the British bioplane? I think I've the Matchbox 1/32 scale somewhere in my stash....


CPTan

CP, that is a yes. The tiger moth is a biplane and was used in the defence of Singapore, much to the amusement of the Japs who were rather amused....

PS: do you want to let go your kit?

As for next year, time permitting, I want to complete at least 3 new dios and a couple of figures which I have yet to purchase from Miniature Alliance in Singapore. That is their Jap NCO and Commonwealth soldier. Anyone heading there this long weekend who I can 'tumpang'?

Coming along well Loo. Don't get me wrong Loo I'm sure there were Japs with a wide variety of uniforms and definitely from the Tamiya boxart one of them had it not tucked in as per your first conversion.

Anyway I'm not sure if you've seen this pic in some of your numerous references. It comes of John Davison's book, "The Pacific War. Day by Day". It shows Japs riding in the Malayan countryside. Too bad no closeups.

Thanks for the pic, CK. That's the clearest picture yet to date. I did not get this book as while browsing through it earlier in the bookshop, the was hardly any references. Guess I was wrong. Hope its still available out there.
I did notice some very serious difference starting with the bicycles. All the photos point to a straight handle bicycle rather than a curved one and the stand is the lift up, tuck under type. I may have to scratch built this.

I have just completed the 2nd bicycle and did not want to bore eveyone with the same pics. Just to add a little bit of variance so that it does not look too similar with the first.

Do you happen to have any references on the hevea tree that I may borrow to start my research?

Thanks for the comments.

For the stand, I think you can use the excess PE frets and scratchbuild it.

As far as handlebars is concerned, I think there are many variations of bicycles during that time. I think there should not be any problems with the curved handlebars, but I might be wrong though.

Woow!! very impressive.. :o for my curiosity, did the figure butt hide a lot of the seat detail?? Or you want to do a second one pushing the “Gereq Tua” and showing off the full detail of the bike...

Masterqq, that is the pose of the 2nd soldier based on the conversion of the Tamiya kit.
I am also using the lady in the Dragon Vietcong set and will have to salvage a little boy from an Academy kit.

At the moment, the idea for the diorama is still growing into a possibility of a little bridge crossing.

how about the KL railway station scene....? There are photos of that.

I'm with Druid on the bike handles in that I'd probably leave it as it is. Its not so critical and remodeling a handle may take up too much time. As for the stand I believe it has to do with the load the bikes had to deal with at the back so having a wider stand was more stable. Not so critical but then again not too difficult to do.

As for Hevea brasiliensis, here are some links. Basically straight trunks and sparse foliage (small green leaves). Best I can remember from my old estate days:
1. The spacing between trees on the same row was around 3.5 m. and about 7 m. or so between rows.
2. Branching usually occurs approximately after 3-4 m. as this is artificially maintained to prevent too low branching which would interfere with tapping.
3. The tapping panel transverses from a high left sloping down to a low right where a cup will be placed. The tapping panel takes up half the trees circumference.

Some General photos
Young trees
Mature trees
Mature trees and tapping panels

Thanks CK, have a great holiday

WoW this is good work man.I like the way the figure's cap flaps ,flaps in the wind.Too cool!

I am having lunch in the hospital awaiting my newest addition into the family. guess this progress will be held back for a few days. happy holidays one and all.

Best of luck to you and the Mrs. on the impending latest addition to the clan. We will await your future updates once the future Junior is out. :)

Hah... another 1:1 scale ki"d". Update us with photo pls :D

CPTan
PS. Loo, I'll "search" out the Tiger Moth from the stash in this week-end.

Loo, didn't know that you added another one to your 'stash'

Like what CPTan said, do send us photos of your 'completed' kid. (Err... you can keep the WIP photos to yourself :lol:)

Congrats!

Alpha,
LIMIT UP! The factory will cease production after this. There will be no closing down sales... B)

The build log will commence shortly after the hustle and bustle dies down with the well wishers and visitors, things to buy, daily marketing, chinese herbs, ......and so forth.

Some new pics on the current progress.


these 3 are the first set of figures which are posed but not worked on yet. They are a combination of the bicycle and Japanese infantry set.


the lower body has not been altered yet but the hands were mixed, matched and retrofitted at the moment. Some filing, cutting and filling will be required.


The 'second musketeer' here is a modified pose with the help of some limb cutting and extensions with paper clips. Filling and filing not done yet.


this was the earlier figure but the leggings need to be redone. I will probably put in a strap or two, to drape the water bottle or duffle bag.

At the moment, the diorama idea is quickly developing into a creek crossing scene through a rubber estate rather than a main trunk road. Its that or an actual scene of my old kampung house which by my father's account, the Japanese soldiers march right pass our backyard at 4am. My grandmother thought the sound of the marching was cows but my grandfather was quick to hush her. The soldiers were actually marching enroute to the nearest mining dredge.

Hi Loo,

Very original. Nice work. Looking forward for the completed piece.

Allan

Wow, this is very nicely detailed, keep it up!

Nice japs and bile u have there loo..

I will be continuing this work tonight but the idea for the diorama will end up as a serene ride in a trunk road due to the potential emptiness of the set.
In order to model at least 3 rubber trees, alot of blank spaces will be present. To top it off, the trunk road width will not help either.
So it will be end up as a side of a road next to an estate with a row of Hevea at a higher elevation.

Work will start to finish off the reposing of the figures and to correct the legging of one of the figures which is too thick.


Thanks to all who posted comments and encouragement.

As an aside, thanks to CP Tan for the Tiger moth which will be my next project. Treetop flying plane while some Japanese watch in amusement on the ground. All in 1:32.

The painting of the bicycles have progressed.

some priming with Gunze 1500


Tamiya black with Gunze super silver and Vallejo natural metal for touch up


first round of 'rusting' in progress. Note the electrical line and brake line if you have eagle eyes (made from stretched sprue) At this juncture, the bicycle fork may look better in natural steel and I will probably retouch those. After that some touch up on the rusting, a wash and some pigment will complete the painting.


the rider had his leggings redone and the figure is now primed for painting and attaching the various duffel bags, water bottle, ammo pouches, gun, etc..,.

Comments are welcomed

nice painting skill.
looks so real! ;)

Things are not moving as fast as I would like but I did manage to get most of the painting done on the bicycles.


in a nutshell, a layer of silver was sprayed rather lightly over the spokes and later a layer of semi gloss black was done to cover all the black areas.


as the PE was delicate, no masking was done. ( Putting it another way, I was too lazy)
Some minor overspray on the black was touched up with natural steel (Vallejo).


a light layer of Vallejo neutral grey and some Hasegawa tire black was handpainted to pick up the grey of the tires.


here you see the weathering without pigments yet on the chain guard,


a close up of the front fork with the dynamo and the electrical line


the seat and spring


the lights and handle. The headlights are still missing their clear cover which I will do with clear perspecs and some scouring.


a closer shot of the other 2 bicycles.

I will not proceed further with the pastel weathering yet and the next update will be the soldiers.

Comments are welcomed as usual.