Following my recent modern Russian projects I decided to look at an IFV, and being inspired by Olivier's excellent BMP-2-D with interior I decided to give the BMP-2 a try myself. It's a vehicle I've often liked to try but never got round to, also the release of Battalions BMP crew escaping from a wrecked tank just fired me up even more. I was determined to build a vehicle to showcase these wonderful figures in a dynamic and exciting action scene that would do the sculpts justice.

As a result I figured that the diorama should be small and compact with the main focus on the wrecked BMP and the crew themselves. I also decided to se the project as a spring board to try some new techniques and try to push myself with regard to scratch building, I also want to try heavy weathering using the hair spray and salt techniques to show the burnt and rusted areas. I wanted to correct the Zvezda kit errors as much as possible using aftermarket parts and styrene, and also fashion an interior from scratch.

Thanks go to everyone who has helped with the project and the great support I have received from numerous people here at armorama: Frenchy, Olivier, Jacques, Jose, and Juhasz to name a few.

Here are some reference pics that I've been working from showing various examples of knocked out BMP-2's, as well as technical diagrams and internal drawings that have really helped with regard to the kit corrections and scratch building:

Heres my box of goodies that includes the base Zvezda kit, numerous Model point parts, Masterclub wheels and tracks, SP Designs fenders, JB Model metal barrel, Eduard PE, Bison Decals and the Battalion figures:





And my early work and start on the scratch building:

Will follow with interest Jon! As you know ive got just about everything I need as well now to attempt a decent BMP-2, although I think it will be some time before I attempt mine (looks like too much hard work at the moment!)

Whats happened with the T-90 dio and that T-55 one, did they ever get finished?

Hi Jon,
really nice job on the rear hatches ! Still a long way to go and I'll look at this one as soon as I can.

Olivier

Thanks Rob, the T-90 Dio is still very much alive and going. I just undercoated and primed all the scenery and next week I will start painting this and finishing things off. The T-55 dio is actually finished now but I haven't been able to take any decent pictures yet of the finished thing. Im off to Sweden tomorrow for the weekend but will carry on with the T-90 project on Monday.

Olivier, thanks. Those hatches took a bit of work and lots of trial and error with card templates but I'm happy with the over all result. I've detailed it up more since these pics, including some extra detail with brass wire. I'm also adding some stowage to the back of the BMP so have been modelling that in also. As to the interior its been a real trial and error, dry fit, dry fit, change, and dry fit again process. I've found a lot of bits along the way that i've needed to include or address.

Heres some shots of the main gun. I found the JB model barrel to be fantastic, it was very detailed and made very nicely. I also added the model point PKT co-axial machine bun barrel and the Eduard PE detail parts.







The interior I found had lots of little gaps that needed to be filled or covered with plasticard as the side of the hull has large gaps that go empty right through the fenders. After some dry fits I worked out the area that I needed to seal off.



I also rescribed the front hatch that is in the wrong position on the Zvezda kit:

Great progress so far Jon! Your work on the rear hatches is beginning to actually look a lot easier than cleaning up this resin AEF hull I have, although not as bad as some AEF stuff, its still dodgy.

Can I ask where you obtained the model point stuff from?

Hi Rob, the model point parts I ordered from Russia via Armor35.ru.
I have various parts, the co axial PKT's, an antenna pod, and a replacement ATGM 9M113 Konkurs launcher.

Great parts and quite cheap actually.

I have a question maybe you guys can help with. Olivier maybe? The Zvezda turret shows a layout of three vision blocks (periscopes) on the turret by the left hand hatch (Commanders hatch?), but the technical drawings only seem to show two? See below marked in red. I assume this is an error on Zvezda's / DML part?

I just checked my DML kit, which I assume is exactly the same as the Zvezda kit, and im confused by where you think the error is. There are indeed three periscopes on the turret, two in front of the hatch and one to the left just above the smoke dishargers.

Jon

Youre turning into me with all these simultaneous projects

Did you finish your T-90 Dio? I took cues from you and got a T-62 for $10 so thats somewhere on the list

Sweden! Where to?

If you're going to Stockholm you should have waited one week ! The IPMS Open (IPMS Sweden's nationals) are held 13-14.

If you're going to Malmo I can offer you a cup of coffe and to check out my WIP Esci BMP-2 .


Anyway: enjoy your stay!

Cheers,
/E

Hi Rob, sorry I should have made it clearer. The Zvezda turret shows spaces on the front for three periscopes, plus, the one to the side. Four in total.

On the diagrams though only two periscopes are shown on the front by the hatch, with one to the side, three in total.

Thats what I'm not sure about.

Erik, Hi I will be in Stockholm for a sporting event.

I was actually in Malmo at the beginning of Feb!

I can't see your picture (govt computer !) but the number of vision blocks is correct unlike their location that all must be moved to the front of the turret roof. Be aware that the gunner's hatch (squarish one) is too aft and must be moved forward too.

Olivier

Hi there Jon, greetings from Trinidad and Tobago. I have about four or five BMPs to build, where did you get your gun barrel from. I need about three. Thanks in advance.

Jon,
when looking again at your access hatch scribing and how you dealt with the roof hatches I wondered why you did not do the same, that is removing the entire panel and scribing the correct access hatch and correct sized round hatches (covers).

This was the interest of AEF resin upper hull, the resin is easier to work with than the plastic.

I wish some manufacturer will release a correct (accurate) plastic BMP-2 in the future. GAOYUE are you reading this

Hey Jon

I want to wish you the best of luck with correcting that hull. Are you going to scratch the interior or do have some AM stuff?
I'm going to follow this build upclose seems like a great project!

Keep it up

Roel

Olivier - I was considering that actually but I figured given all the detail already o that part of the upper hull it would be a safer bet just to scribe the hatch. The last photo is still very much an in progress pic. Once I've finished smoothing out the old panel lines with putty it should be crisp enough and tidy. I think though that you have a good point also, as for a correct plastic upper hull, heres hoping! I'm still looking forward to seeing Miniarms full resin version...

Roel - thanks! I hope you enjoy the blog. I'll be scratch building the interior myself. There is only one AM set the AEF one and thats not really ideal (see oliviers review) its also quite expensive. I'm really excited to see Miniarms interior though when ever they get around to releasing that kit.

Hi All, finally back from my recent traveling and I've had time to do some work on my various pending projects.

Progress on the BMP is coming along nicely and I've really enjoyed detailing the exterior and Turret, although its been very time consuming. Replacing all the periscopes with the Eduard PE parts was a bit tedious, but gives a much better look than the crude and undetailed kit plastic parts.

The turret exterior took a lot of work but I think its well worth it in the end. Following Oliviers advice I repositioned the hatch on the left hand side also. The modelpoint and Lion roar parts also really add to the end result. I also removed the moulded on stowage straps on the rear of the turret and replaced them with the Eduard PE parts.







Work on the upper Hull has also been quite extensive, mostly correction of the main errors and plenty of PE. I added some more putty to fill out the lines of the old front square hatch by the engine and added the Eduard PE parts as well as some Legend Resin rivets, although I found that once I positioned the open drivers hatch that a lot of this was covered anyway! I also detailed the rear troop hatches with some wire, and included the stowage (this still needs some work filling gaps and tidy it out). The passenger hatch behind the driver will be left open also to show the interior detail.









I've also been cracking on with the interior, starting work on the turret interior and the seating sections, all of which are completely scratched following technical diagrams and photos from various reference books







Heres the beast put together in its current progress

Hi Jon,
it looks like you haven't been lazy those late times !! Congrats for the job on the turret, it's really impressive.
How did you do your missile ? It looks much better than anything I've previously seen.
If you have enough good pictures of the vision blocks for the troop compartment, you'd see that they are not symetrically aligned. (I hope this makes sense)

Keep on posting and good luck for the next steps.
Olivier

Now that's what I call good model making -your projects look more and more ambitious, and you're pretty right about that

Hi Olivier

The Missile is a Modelpoint component, it's a great part and was actually rather cheap.

As for the troop compartment vision blocks I just followed the instructions from Eduard... I guess they are wrong? Are the vision blocks on the Zvezda kit also in the wrong place? I looked a technical drawing and they seemed the same, maybe I missed something?

Thanks Nicolas thats very kind of you!

I really wanted to try and push myself this time with the scratchbuilding as its not something I've done that much of. Hopefully the new challenge with get good results!

Very nice!

Hope to see more progress on this soon! Also, how is the T-90 dio coming along?

looking good !!