Ola Guys

Yeah you see it right... I'm doing an attempt on finishing something again.
"And he even started painting???" Yep I even started painting.
Two weeks ago I started on building the Eastern Express BA1. Very nice early russian vehicle. Here and there I spotted some things in the pictures that could improve but nothing that can't be solved without doing much damage to the paintjob.
Eastern Express does have an infamous name but this kit really went together well with only two minor things that needed to be filled and sanded. Easy peasy. The tires however were really bad. There is a Set of resin Gaz AA wheels on the way as I believe to replace them. (BA was built on GAZ AA chassis.)

Ok here are the pictures:







Still a lot needs to be done. These are only the first paint layers. All the weathering still needs to be done. Just as adding some extra's to the model itself to make it a little more interesting.

As usual I'm looking forward to any feedback

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Hi Robert

Now the fun begins!! Down to the weathering and detail painting...that's the part I like the best. Getting the base colours on is good, but the project can really get going now and start to look like something.

Great looking model, you're doing really well with it. The little bit of chipping you've done with the white looks really good and I especially like it because it's not overdone...just right, I think.

Please post some more as you go along, I'm very interested in your progress.

Thanks for sharing...



Bob

Ola Bob

Yes indeed the fun starts here. It is also the part of modelling which I enjoy the most. Bringing the model to live.
I'm afraid I can't give you guys a regular update of this piece for the coming weeks although I will be working on it for the next three weeks but the cam with which I shoot my macroimages is currently at the sunny Island of Curacao in the carribean... And I'm not there to accompany it

Thanks for the compliments

Ok I said probably no updates in the coming three weeks but I decided to see if this time my Nikon D70S with standard lens would do the trick and it did. So I made pictures of my latest progress.

What happened so far. Well I have every detail like bots and such pinwashed... need to get some excess wash away but that is easily solved. Some global washes... one in a lighter green with some sandcolor added to the mix and a sandy/khaki color. I sprayed the stars on the turret and I named the vehicle "Mockba" which means "Moskou" There is absolutely no reason for naming it Mockba then that I thought it would look cool... it is one of those thoughts you get when you are outside smoking... For the non smokers... when you are having tea or coffe... when you talk to your pets or when sitting on the loo

Ok next are the pics. Still enough to do. More filtering, some chips here and there but not too much. Pigments (everything you see now in the pics is still paint) and I have to start to think what I'm going to do with it... make it a standalone vehicle or placing it in a dio







As usual I'm curious to your opinions.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Looks very nice up to this point. Can't wait to see when you add the tires.

Thanks for sharing!

Robert -

Looking very nice so far, like the weathering! Thanks for sharing the pics!

Cheers!
Tim

Ola Jim And Tim

Sorry for my late reply... business here in the office made that I could not reply more often. Thanks for your replies.
Well Jim to serve your demand. I got my tires from Ruslan... Great guy. And I have cleaned them and filled them where neccesary. I only need to add some disks on the center of the wheel but that is for another day. Today I show off the new shoes for my BA I. In the last 6 pics of the earlier post the colors are a bit too yellow actually. In the following set the colors are quite on the spot.






Not much about the weathering as I did not go further with it. But that will continue very soon

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Robert, that is about as wicked as it can get..
Fantstic job so far. Just outstanding! Cheers Kevin

Those tires really add that final touch. THanks for the update.

Ola Guys

Thanks for the replies

@ Kevin
That is a long time ago my friend. Thanks or the compliments I really appreciate them.

@ Jim
Thanks for the compliment... Indeed this looks way better. I was so happy when I got these wheels. It starts to look like a vehicle now.

Hi Robert, just beautifully done so far, I really like this model and it's colors ! Keep on going friend ! Guy

Merci Guy mon ami

For the compliments that is.. Does me good.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Ola Guys

Well it were some lame weeks for modelling... At least for me. Slowly start to find the way back to the workbench and even start to do some small things. Picked up the work on this vehicle again. Painted the wheels, Made a tarp for it, tucked between the Sparewheel and the Enginecompartiment. Had to scratchbuilt me 2 machineguns because I broke the originals from the kit. They are not 100% perfect but they'll do. Did some scratches here and there and gave some filters. Still a lot to do. Both the wheels and the turret need to be weathered. The hull itself needs some more and diverse filtering and washing. Still have to add pigments everywhere. Not very satisfied with the chips areound the doors so I will go back on that too. Also the excess black wash needs to be filtered away. But slowly it starts to look like a vehicle.

Here are the pics. Looking forward to your opinions












With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Really nice work

Very impressive Robert...and an interesting subject too.

Charlie

Ola Andras and Charlie

Thanks a lot for your comments. Still a lot of work to do... and I have not even started working with pigments onthis kit.

More to come

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

Thread ressurection time!!!! Man I had to dig through my posts to find this one.

Some weeks ago I was talking to a friend who was going through my Gallery here and pointed out he liked the paint on my BA1. And it also reminded me I never actually finished it. So I went to my parents house where it was standing since I stopped working on it. Quite stupid really as it only needed weathering to be finished.

The Eastern Express Kit lacks a lot of details that I did not know when I started it. And I did some things I would have done totally different had I built the kit now. And Even with this kit I made some adjustments. The chassis was too far forward and that annoyed me since I built it. So I took the body off the chassis and after some cutting and reglueing I had something I was satisfied with. Made new tarps to hide ugly stuff that occurred during the built and the original (not so good) headlight lenses at some point have dissapeared. But I replaced the with two german Helmets the crew modified to act as headlight covers. Weathering done since I took it home: Oilwashes, the oil dot thingy, several runs of pigments in several colors. Chipping, Some work with a pencil etc. There are still a thing or two that needs to be done but after nearly five years it seems I will finally finish this kit.



Enough talk here are the pics. I took them with my Cell phone which has a pretty amazing camera function in it.













As usual I'm very curious to your feedback.

With friendly greetz

Robert Blokker

all I can say is "WOW" Robert. I like the looks of this vehicle and sooner or later I will get one and I hope it comes out as good. As I prefer building can I send mine to you for painting and detailing please

Wow! Even I have finished models faster than this Robert though none of them have been Eastern Express

It looks good and the tarps actually add to it. Definitely worth ressurrecting. I like the dust and pigmentweathering the way it fades up on the hull.

@ Cliff
Thanks for the compliments. Much appreciated. They are nice vehicles but they do require work and at least a set of AM wheels as the kitwheels are pretty horrible. And sire send over your built. I hope you have patience. It took me nearly 5 years to get the kit as far as this.

@ Pat
LOL yeah it is a ridiculously long time. But I have several more that are even older. In various stages of built/paint/weathering. Most of them got started at some point and then I became bored. Or something wasn't right and i did not want to fix it. Or I didn't have time. And eventually when I had time I started something new. So it's not completely the fault of Eastern Express. I just start quicker then I finish. And I have quite an impressive row of Shelfqueens.
The additions were fun to do and I already built a tarp as you can see in the earlier pics from 2008 But I lost it. Which meant I had to make new. But I think they turned out great. And to be honest It actually turned out better so far then what I imagined 4 years ago

Looks great Bob.

Robert you have a little lovely model there. You did a grade A finish on a kit giving that it's not the best on the market. I have the very same kit sitting here that I plan to replace the wheels with Gaz from miniart and scrtach build an interior. I'm hoping to start very soon on it, I'll be using your finish model as references.

Chris

@Dave
Thanks for the compliments.really appreciated.

@ Chris
Thanks to you as well for the compliments. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Looking forward to your efforts with this kit and you are indeed wise to replace the wheels. The kit needs that. Where did you get the information for the interior?
looking back at my first sentence of this topic back in 2007 I posted that the kit was not bad. Well looking at what I changed so far and looking at how stuff fits I have to say that it IS bad. But it didn't deter me from buying a Ba10 from EE. Only because it came with hussar wheels

Hey ... I always wondered what happened to this build!

But it was worth the wait. Hope no sleep was lost over it!

I like it but is this type of kit that should be avoided?








~ Jeff

Ola Jeff.
No sleep was lost at all. It was simply forgotten for a very long time
I wouldn't steer away from the eastern express kits as they do some fun vehicles. However they are not always dimensionally accurate and often angles are a bit off. The tires that come with the kit are downright horrible and need replacement the body is molded in one piece which is pretty good until you realize they omitted a ton of rivets. which you need to add. It is typically stereotypical to eastern block kits and I realize the above story I'd hardly an advertisement for the brand and this kit in particular but with a bit of extra work you can definitely make it worthwhile.
I plan on doing this to the Ba10 from EE I bought. It comes with hussar wheels. And I'm going to buy either Eduard or Part PE for it. The whole grandtline rivet assortment and a barrel from rbmodel