Here we are just prior to painting. All the hard details are done at this point.
I pre-painted areas that would have white lettering and then added stars and vehicle numbers with adhesive lettering.
Here's the vehicle just after painting and the adhesive letters being removed.
Next unit markings were added, printed on thin paper and glued to the surface.
Next part of the project for me was gathering up all the "soft" crew details that I wanted to incorporate into the vehicle. For me, this is the fun part, junking them up and giving them that lived-in look.
Before I could start on that though, I needed to do a little detail painting... painting the fire extinguishers, the radio, etc.
It's small, but you can sort of see the gauges on the instrument panel. The extinguishers are painted and have had labels added and there are maps in the driver's map "case" box, which is an accessory that I saw in several photos.
This is how my vehicle sat when Phil came up for a second session, which was a two day process. The first day we finished the second phase of details on his vehicle. Painted the areas white that would need adhesive letters and did that lettering. The second day we painted his vehicle first thing in the morning so that it would have plenty of time to dry. Then before he went home at the end of the day, we repainted the rubber on the road wheels and get his track back on.
Before Phil went home I took these pictures of the two Bren together along with their crews. Our two vehicle has some differences. He has a different configuration on the back of his vehicle and it also sports a Vickers Water Cooled Machine Gun, which I decided not to put on mine.
The next day I started detailing my Bren because I wanted it to be done in time for the September SSCC Meeting where I planned to display it along with my Dingo. At the same time as I was making crates for my vehicle, I made some for Phil's as well. I was going to use these shallow little buckets that I found at Hobby Lobby on each vehicle because they no longer sell the nice one they use to have. I got to looking at the cups that come with a bottle of Nyquil though and decided that one could make a decent scale bucket out of one those and a piece of brass wire and that is what I ended up doing. I had seen someone else's model online and noticed that they had a cricket bat and wickets in the back of their vehicle and I thought what a great idea. I don't know who you are, but thanks for the inspiration. I ended up making two sets, one for each of mine and Phil's vehicles.
Here's my "finished" Bren with all the details added. To the side you can see the pieces that I have made for Phil.
The day before the SSCC Meeting, I brought my Dingo up from the Joe Room and took these pictures of my vehicles and crews together. Hope you enjoyed the WIP on the Bren. It was a fairly fun project and my Irish Guards now have two rides. Thanks for looking - PM