Not sure I follow.. There is a small "tab" that protrudes from the hull side, it has two bolts that secure the inner portion of the water vanes. It's visible in some of the pics posted above. If that is what you are referring to, I've got that covered. If not, please provide a bit more info, I probably missed it.

Post some pics of your BMP, I'd love to see it.

With regard to markings, I've been searching for something unique. Was going to go with a Ukrainian vehicle but found some BMP's that are even more interesting.

http://www.echelonfd.com/firstfrontier/D356190.htm

Order placed!

Here you go. See the fender and the white strip. Bolts were added from white and green spare parts. I just ordered markings yesterday from Echelon for the Syrian civil war.

Here's a walk-around where I say the strip and bolts.

http://www.modelersalliance.com/222-walkarounds/826-bmp-1-walkaround-danbury-ct

Nice walk-around. I've been in the Danbury, CT area many times, never knew there was a BMP down there. Looks kinda sad, rotting away in the grass.

Did you see what I mean in the photos?

Hi John, I must say this is a great build you have going on here. I just wanted to mention one small omission in the kit I came across while building mine- namely the retaining straps and the guide hooks for the un-ditching log. Included in the kit are two small PE eyelets that go on the very back end- those are the eyelets for the ends of the retaining straps for the un-ditching log but Trumpeter failed to add the other guide loops that sit further up on the top of the hull that secures the straps- and the retaining straps themselves are missing too.

Hey Greg- thats a nice BMP you have yourself there too!

Thanks Karl, I've got those retaining straps on my list. I've been using Jacques's Build Log as a reference. Lots of good bits of info on parts that Trumpeter missed. And I agree, Greg's BMP is a nice one!

Greg - yes, thanks for the tip on those fender straps. I overlooked them. They are added to the ever-growing list!

Work continues at my customary slow pace. I've installed the SP troop hatches, the hinge detail is much superior to the kit parts. They fit quite well, just need to address a chipped edge on one hatch and hit them with a light sanding. I've started to install the hatch torsion rods, the kit parts were molded direct to the roof, I think going with styrene rod makes a big difference. It looks a bit sloppy right now but I think it will clean up nicely. I also added the SP resin air filter on the top of the deck. Much better than the kit part. Still highly impressed by the quality and value of the SP set.







That's it for now, thanks for passing by!

Don't forget the fuel port.

(keep working on it, it looks good)

Hadn't forgotten Very surprising that Trumpeter missed that feature, it's pretty obvious. Anyway, the SP Designs fuel port is an amazing piece of resin, can't figure out how he was able to mold such thin sections. It takes time to remove from it's resin backing (I didn't bother trying to cut it away, would have broke it). I ended up just sanding away the backing. My only gripe is that the part is just a tad bit over-sized but it is what it is. Still looks much better than having nothing there and there is no way I could scratchbuild this myself.

Here's a quick pick of my progress. I've got the styrene rod in place (going to probably replace a couple of sections, not 100% happy with them) and the fuel port. Still have to do some cleanups, still have many other details to add. That's it for now.

After looking at some pics, I decided the troop hatch torsion rods I fabricated are too thick. Instead, I used .020" rod. Small difference but I'm happier with the results. Would have been nice if I figured that out earlier, would have saved me an hours worth of work re-doing all this. Still have a few small adjustments to make....

A bit of progress to report, I've got the exhaust installed. Three PE "slats" and a decent PE mesh on top. Once the mesh is in place it's pretty hard to see anything inside.

One thing that Trumpeter missed was the shallow metal guard around the exhaust outlet. I'll have to replicate this with some cut up PE strips. I've got one section in place in the pic below, still have to add the other two. It's a bit fragile, I may hold off on the rest until I'm close to completion. I also added those reinforcing straps on the rear fenders (also from scrap PE). I still need to add the three bolts on each section.





Sorry for the horrible 2nd picture. Trying to photograph with interior lighting, doesn't work very well as you can tell. I'll try to post something better in the next day or so.

Looks great so far.

I'm back... Project was on hold because the subject of my model was going to be a Russian BMP-1P from their Chechnya adventure. The issue was that the one I wanted to replicate was a very late model -1P that had the turret covered in those anti-radiation panels.

Thankfully, SP Designs just released a turret update for this variant. Order was placed and received within a week. Looks like they nailed it, very nice resin indeed. Also includes all the hull upgrade parts and you get a new IR searchlight for the turret. This wasn't provided in their previous sets. Here are some pics of the turret parts:

I like the looks of that new turret. Time to finish it....

Made a bit of progress. Add the reinforcing brackets on the rear fenders from scrap PE and some bolts made from thinly sliced plastic rod. Also made the shovel bracket and handle clamp that goes to the right of the turret, from PE with a plastic wingnut added to the clamp.

Started work on the headlights, they will need the wiring added. In addition, the kit provides some sort of rectangular block that is installed behind the headlights. Think I read somewhere that this fitting was only found on a very few late production BMP's. The vast majority had a circular conduit housing, so I replicated this from thicker dia plastic rod.

Not sure how Trumpeter missed all these details....

Started adding all of the small hooks and eyebolts to the hull top. Also added the grab handles for the engine cover. One note here is that the left grab handle is shown to angle inward, when in reality, it is angled outwards, in the same direction as the right-side handle. Some pics:







Also received my decals from Echelon. Nice stuff and good service. This set represents some late-production BMP-1P's assigned to the 101st MVD Battalion during the Chechen War. This unit had some pretty interesting color schemes and markings. Not sure which one I'll replicate at this time....

Thanks for the update...I like the one with camo from the decal sheet....but that's me.

Plugging along slowly. I added the 6 smoke grenade launchers to the rack on the turret. I know one is a bit out of alignment, I'll check references, if I see any pics of something similar on the real thing, I'll leave it as is. Always looking for a lazy way out .

I'll be adding a small length of conduit for each launcher, on the underside of the mounting rack. Also added some additional bits to the turret. Very impressed with the SP turret, details look to be first rate.







Also added the driver's and commander's hatches. These are also the SP parts and have the appropriate anti-radiation panels on the top (for some reason the gunner's hatch has this panel on the interior). I also added the commander's IR searchlight. The SP part had better detailing, it also came with a cover, unlike the kit part. I still need to add the prominent power cable to this light.

One issue I have is that Trumpeter provides nice clear periscopes for everthing except the central periscope used by the vehicle commander. I find that to be pretty disappointing, since it's tough to drill this out. Not sure what I'm going to do. I might just bite the bullet and paint it a glossy black at the end of the build. We'll see...



That's it for now. Thanks for looking...

Cut a piece of crystal plastic and paint in smoke color..done. the area which doesnt have crystal parts holds the IR search light. so if it is clear plastic part? super glue will make it as foggy as it can be .

Looks good, hope to see the turned barrel up next.

Thanks guys!

A bit a of progress today. Added the power cable to the commander's IR searchlight and a couple of bolts on the mounting bracket.



Moving to the turret, I added the gun barrel (very nice turned brass piece), some kit parts (lifting lugs, MG barrel - also a nice part, hollow molded, the mounting lug for the AT-5 anti-tank missile, etc). I also tried to touch-up the turret searchlight. I thinned the "L" bracket down a bit, added some conduit, a cable connection and a bolt on the bottom of the bracket. Still much more to do but I'm happy with the progress so far.

Hey John, I was there as well. We liked to refer to our 113's as 11 ton beer cans. Everyone in the higher ups freaked with the BMP's. Since the fall of the wall we have found out that the BMP's were junk. Amazing isn't it? Freaked out for junk!LOL

I think the BMP was a good piece of kit, especially at the time it was introduced. Any reputation as "junk" was more due to non-Warsaw pact troops who used it in combat.

It certainly wasn't perfect but how long did it take the US to field a track with built-in ATGM capability, a main gun w coax mg, firing ports for the grunts, basic night-fighting capability and NBC protection?

Got to remember the BMP-1 was the first of its kind at the time and was ground breaking.

Front end is complete. This was probably the section of the kit that needed the most work.

As noted previously, the kit provides a rectangular fitting to be glued behind the headlights. This was only seen on very late production BMP-1's (and all BMP-2's). I ended up adding the two circular junction boxes behind each light, which are much more common. In addition, I added the wiring between the boxes and to the light fixture, the light bracket (scrap PE) with a plastic bolt (forgot to take a picture of this) that goes on the inside of each of light, the grommet on the light fixture that the power cable passes through and the bracket direct in front of the trim vane arms (made from scrap PE). All told, I added 18 additional parts to the headlight assemblies.

Sorry for the crappy pictures, my camera doesn't work well with artificial lighting.