Bedford MWD (Gecko Models 1/35) - Waiting in the pits

[APA]

or The original 'White van man' of the desert 😎

 

My second Gecko MW build and equally frustrating and rewarding. Gecko make amazingly detailed kits but they do have their quirks to say the least. Anyway this build was inspired by the classic photo of a Rhodesian photographic unit in North Africa.In particular the driver who does have a certain air of smugness about him.

 

 

 

So on to the build. This is an early version with the aeroscreens and is depicted somewhere in North Africa around 1941 and is complete with the Caunter scheme. The driver is a keen fan and amateur driver in the Voiturette class. (This is the rabbit hole for this build, thankfully not too deep!) This was a popular class pre and post war, similar to formula 3 where drivers cut their teeth. He's a driver and takes the opportunity when whizzing around the desert to relive his sporting days back home complete with flying helmet, goggles and white scarf. This is depicted between deliveries and he is reading a few old copies (1939 to be precise) of Motor Sport sent to him from home. You will notice on the bonnet front that he has replaced the Bedford logo with an ERA badge as he is a big fan of the mark who were one of the top teams pre war. 

 

If you want to know more about Voiturette racing theres a few sites including Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiturette

 

Here's the build. Forgive the figure, it's my first since I was a nipper and you can see why I don't do them 🙄

 

 

 

The caunter Scheme isn't quite right on the back.

 

There is actually a diagonal paint line up the side of the rear deck however the differences in the AK paints is very minor and disappears once weathered.

 

The engine has pretty much disappeared as well which is a shame. I added a couple of Brass plates which were on the bulkhead.

 

Scratch built aeroscreens as one was missing in the kit and they are way to thick anyway

 

 

Ooooh! I've just noticed how that '3' decal edge stands out!!! Grrrrrrrrr

 

 

Slightly startled expression! I left the wires from the broken off side light dangling out the bracket 😁 I laso hand turned the horn which our driver has added

 

God he's awful 🤬

 

 

 

 

 

You can only see the difference in paints on the bonnet.

 

Enjoyed this one as well as it was a nice change from SCC15 etc.

 

WIP is here:  

As always thanks for looking and on to the next one 🤓

 

Andrew

 

 

[Pete Robin]

Nice little vignette. I like the little extras like the papers, the horn etc. Very well done.

Regards

Pete

[Milan Mynar]

Your model looks very nice, especially the curved fenders give it a worn look.

[neilspen]

Really nice finish. It is great to see the inspiration picture and then the finished article. 

[Autle]

Good effort, well done 

[Nenad Ilijic]

Beautiful model Andrew. Painting and weathering is spot on. Wheels and wooden planks in particular turned out fantastic.

 

Cheers,

Nenad

[FrancisGL]

Hi  Andrew,

Interesting subject, very well weathered, I love the little details that accompany the model with its little story, those magazines are super cool....
I remember that I have authentic copies of Signal and Der Adler of the time stored in some piece of furniture, unfortunately, they were never taken care of (since I am aware of their existence, before my birth, of course, and they are very deteriorated.... a pity )...
I understand you perfectly with the figure, 100% the same as you, I don't include figures with my models (another shame)....I wonder...how can it be so difficult to make figures (at least decent ones), to the point of denial, and make models as good as yours?...For God's sake...
Cheers and TC
Francis👍

[APA]

22 hours ago, Pete Robin said:

Nice little vignette. I like the little extras like the papers, the horn etc. Very well done.

Regards

Pete

Thanks Pete 👍🏻

 

22 hours ago, Milan Mynar said:

Your model looks very nice, especially the curved fenders give it a worn look.

Thanks Milan, I had to do them a couple of times. Went a bit too far!

 

22 hours ago, neilspen said:

Really nice finish. It is great to see the inspiration picture and then the finished article. 

Thanks Neilspen I do like giving a back story

 

21 hours ago, Autle said:

Good effort, well done 

 

Tah Autle

 

9 hours ago, Nenad Ilijic said:

Beautiful model Andrew. Painting and weathering is spot on. Wheels and wooden planks in particular turned out fantastic.

 

Cheers,

Nenad

Hi Nenad thanks for that. Glad you like the wheels they are one thing I seem to obses over.I'm alway looking at lorry tyres to see how they weather 😁

 

6 hours ago, FrancisGL said:

Hi  Andrew,

Interesting subject, very well weathered, I love the little details that accompany the model with its little story, those magazines are super cool....
I remember that I have authentic copies of Signal and Der Adler of the time stored in some piece of furniture, unfortunately, they were never taken care of (since I am aware of their existence, before my birth, of course, and they are very deteriorated.... a pity )...
I understand you perfectly with the figure, 100% the same as you, I don't include figures with my models (another shame)....I wonder...how can it be so difficult to make figures (at least decent ones), to the point of denial, and make models as good as yours?...For God's sake...
Cheers and TC
Francis👍

Glad I'm not alone Francis. I think the problem with figures is our human eyes and brain are specifically designed over thousands of years to spot living things and in particular other humans and specifically human faces. It is fundamental to our survival! This means it is next to impossible to fool us. Even harder at 1/35 scale 😂 We can weather or models reasonably and our brains will say "Yeah that looks like something old and worn". If it is a face our brain will say "Nope thats not a human its a lump of plastic with paint all over it".

 

Cheers all 

 

Andrew

[StuartH]

Beautiful model which is brimming with character and storytelling. The weathering of the wood and the mud/dust effects are superb 👍

I quite like the figure....his eyes suggest he's been quite startled by something in the paper!

Great work 👏

[APA]

Thanks very much Stuart. Yes he seems a bit amazed at something in the magazine 😳

 

Andrew 

[Muchmirth]

I really love the story line Apa. Gives it all character… the picture at the start has plenty of character. 
  Also really like all the bespoke mods you made to the kit along the way too. 
  Wouldn’t worry about the ‘3’ decal as didn’t see it until I read it below the pic. 

[Maginot]

Very nice evocative period piece.

[Bertie McBoatface]

Not bad Andrew, Not bad a all. I like the idea of the camouflage line disappearing. We see that often in the old photos.

[APA]

Cheers Bertie 

 

Yes that's what Mr Starmer told me. 😊

 

Andrew 

[Geo1966]

Fully agree with all that has been said above. Really nice!

 

I enjoyed the WIP also.

 

Very well done,

George

[APA]

14 hours ago, Geo1966 said:

Fully agree with all that has been said above. Really nice!

 

I enjoyed the WIP also.

 

Very well done,

George

Thanks George it has been fun! 

 

Andrew 

[robgizlu]

Cracking build and finish - that tarp in the back is to die for 

Rob

[supersonic]

Beautiful, the Tarp and all the little details are gorgeous!

 

Hans

[APA]

3 hours ago, supersonic said:

Beautiful, the Tarp and all the little details are gorgeous!

 

Hans

Thanks Hans

 

Yes I am rather proud of my tarp 😁 less so of the driver 🤪

 

Andrew 

On 5/9/2022 at 11:00 AM, robgizlu said:

Cracking build and finish - that tarp in the back is to die for 

Rob

A and thanks Rob

 

Ditto 😊

 

Andrew 

[Bertie McBoatface]

24 minutes ago, APA said:

less so of the driver 🤪

 

May I offer a suggestion for your figure painting?

 

Take a 1/35 scale standing figure and a human friend outside (I did it in the park). Hold the figure up in front of you at about your usual viewing distance and then walk away from your friend until the figure and friend are apparently the same height. The friend will now be roughly seventy feet away! Then study your friend's face, particularly the eyes. Can you see, the whites? Can you see the iris? Maybe all you can see is a dark shadow under the eyebrows. You can vary the distances, bringing the figure and friend closer and further away but keep them the same apparent height. I can almost guarantee that you will be surprised how little detail you can see on another person's face when they are further than say, 15 feet away.

 

We think we can see their faces in detail but in fact, we can't see much at all, we supply the detail from memory if we know them or from imagination if we don't. Did you ever fail to recognise someone until they got quite close and then suddenly you saw them in full detail? You could say that we 'don't see something until we believe it'. We don't see out friend's face until we know it is our friend, then we add the details with our visual cortexes, not our eyes. I'm very conscious of this with my current eye problems. In my house where I know everything, I 'see' perfectly but in the supermarket where I don't know in advance what Brand X Baked Beans look like, I can't make them out without close study.

 

The implication for figure painting is that unless you are very very skilled, it's better to just paint some shadows in the eye sockets, maybe with a simple, easy wash like the Warhammer guys do it, and let the viewer imagine the details for themselves. Almost every time someone paints eyes on a 1/35 figure, that figure looks like he is staring with crazy googly eyes about to burst out of his face. Usually the eye spots are overscale anyway but even if they aren't, they still look oversized because the viewer's brain says "I shouldn't be able to see eyes here so they must be really big!"

 

I say almost because once or twice I have seen figures painted with all the detail by the kind of person that can write the Lord's Prayer on a grain of rice. However I've seen them only in photographs where they are enlarged to perhaps 1/10 scale. I think even those exceptions wouldn't work in normal viewing conditions.

 

Less is more.

 

 

 

[APA]

On 5/10/2022 at 12:20 PM, Bertie Psmith said:

 

May I offer a suggestion for your figure painting?

 

Take a 1/35 scale standing figure and a human friend outside (I did it in the park). Hold the figure up in front of you at about your usual viewing distance and then walk away from your friend until the figure and friend are apparently the same height. The friend will now be roughly seventy feet away! Then study your friend's face, particularly the eyes. Can you see, the whites? Can you see the iris? Maybe all you can see is a dark shadow under the eyebrows. You can vary the distances, bringing the figure and friend closer and further away but keep them the same apparent height. I can almost guarantee that you will be surprised how little detail you can see on another person's face when they are further than say, 15 feet away.

 

We think we can see their faces in detail but in fact, we can't see much at all, we supply the detail from memory if we know them or from imagination if we don't. Did you ever fail to recognise someone until they got quite close and then suddenly you saw them in full detail? You could say that we 'don't see something until we believe it'. We don't see out friend's face until we know it is our friend, then we add the details with our visual cortexes, not our eyes. I'm very conscious of this with my current eye problems. In my house where I know everything, I 'see' perfectly but in the supermarket where I don't know in advance what Brand X Baked Beans look like, I can't make them out without close study.

 

The implication for figure painting is that unless you are very very skilled, it's better to just paint some shadows in the eye sockets, maybe with a simple, easy wash like the Warhammer guys do it, and let the viewer imagine the details for themselves. Almost every time someone paints eyes on a 1/35 figure, that figure looks like he is staring with crazy googly eyes about to burst out of his face. Usually the eye spots are overscale anyway but even if they aren't, they still look oversized because the viewer's brain says "I shouldn't be able to see eyes here so they must be really big!"

 

I say almost because once or twice I have seen figures painted with all the detail by the kind of person that can write the Lord's Prayer on a grain of rice. However I've seen them only in photographs where they are enlarged to perhaps 1/10 scale. I think even those exceptions wouldn't work in normal viewing conditions.

 

Less is more.

 

 

 

TL;DR 😐

 

 

 

 

Only joking 😉

 

Some excellent suggestions and observations I fully concur with. 👍

 

I will take into consideration and will apply if I ever do another 😶‍🌫️

 

Cheers Bertie 

 

Andrew 

[vytautas]

Completely agree with the others. Brilliant model, well painted and weathered. Top job!

 

Vytautas