Ruben's Build; Bison I from Alan Models Finished 07/07/09

Hello friends, long time no see!
Finally, after some major interruptions I started this build. So let me show you what have been done ‘till now on the little beast.

First, the driving compartment, this is fairly basic but since most of it won’t be seen I built it without modifications except for drilling the holes for the battery cables in the battery box. (It wasn’t in place when I took the photo cause the floor had to be modified for it to fit.) The small circle in the side of the drive shaft cover that looks like something broke is where the second support for the suspension goes. (More on that later.)




Next I put the supports for the return rollers. And the front end of the chassis.


THEN you’re supposed to insert the driver’s compartment thru this hole in the chassis, which is impossible without damaging it so I took the front off. (That’s the reason why the suspension support needs to be removed.)


I primed the interior to paint the driver’s area and the fighting compartment but after painting the forward part decided to continue building and leave the paint for later. As I’m using the Eduard PE set I had to remove all the detail of the fenders including two tabs that help support the side shields but don’t exist in the real vehicle. That leaves the fenders with some ugly scars and destroys the details on the fenders. So taking a piece of “German anti skid plate” I redid the upper area of the fenders. Here you can compare the before and after.


And here are the two fenders completed.

Now the rest of the details…

The rear ends of the fenders were installed. I also drilled out the exhaust.


Next the details for the rear area and the top of the engine compartment were dressed up with PE.


Here is a better view of the bolts in the fenders. They are pieces of hexagonal rod.


I installed the front ends of the fenders next. This is a little tricky due to the little surface area so I glued two small tabs under each one to help support them.


Then it was time to start painting the driver’s area to finally put it inside. Here’s how it is at the moment.




I hope to get up to speed this week and continue to post on a regular basis so, until next week!

Ruben

Dear Ruben.

...nice start my friend...I´ll be folowing with a big interest because I love the Bison!

All the best!

Luiz.

HI Ruben , Where have you been ? I missed you !

Your Bison is looking very nice already , I just got the Dragon one ! I really love the new fender tops , the pattern of the non slip is heaps better ! I love all the fender attachments & the drilled out exhaust !!!

Keep up the good work

Jenny

hiya ruben! great start!

do you have any news from dave?

Hi Ruben,
I love Bisons (I, II and III) too. Good P.E. work! Go on!

Happy modelling
Jose

Looking real good so far.
I gotta say that you are a brave brave man taking on the Allan kit for this build.True nerves of steel.

Luiz; Gracias! I'm glad you like it.

Jenny: I was doing some work around the house that needed to be done. That didn't leave much time for the hobby but I was building a little at a time. Thanks, I too think that the fender improved a 100% with the PE.

Laura: thanks to you for having faith in my work! Dave is OK in Arizona. He has been doing some work in a KV-II from Trumpeter because he left everything here in Puerto Rico but this Saturday I'll go to the post office to send him his tools and some models. After all, he's got a Wespe to finish.

Jose: gracias por el elogio! I love Bisons too! By the way, I also have the bison III from Dragon built and with a yellow coat of paint applied on the "on hold" shelf. I'm having this crazy idea running thru my mind of building every vehicle that used the 150mm gun.

Cooper: thanks! I've always been attracted to these weird vehicles and since the only one that existed was the Alan one I took the challenge. And believe it or not Alan included PE on this kit also; all the engine vents and the muffler cover are in PE.

BTW does Dragon, or any other company, plans to make a Bison II? If not, Alan is the only way to go!
Take care everyone.
Ruben

Ruben-
Good for you! It takes a brave man to build an Alan kit, especially after the mighty DML releases one!
You are doing a great job on it so far, to boot! I'm building the DML panzerjager, it's quite a contrast to see what you have to work with..
Keep us posted.

Shaggy

Wow , I dont remember seeing this at our meetings. great work so far, the Alan kits are a good way to improve in our scatch building skills, keep it up

Hi Ruben.

Wonderful update. It definately has the Ruben Voodoo going on.

Rick

Propaganda

Nice detailing work!!

It´s always nice to see how from a bad kit someone makes a nice model ....

Hello my friends, thanks for your interest.

@Bob, I don't now if it's bravery or insanity but I'll do my best.

@Abdin, you're 100% right on that.

@ Rick, I've been chanting around the bench like there's no tomorrow.

@Jose Luis, Thank you!

So lets continue...
After dealing with the chassis it was time to start the gun for two reasons; to see how it fits in the chassis and to see how the shield would fit around it. (After all, this is an Alan not a Dragon.) I started to build it and as with the Bison II there are many missing details that need to be made from scratch. (Maybe even more since the Bison II doesn’t have the wheels or the details that go in the back of the carriage.

As you can see in the photos every piece in metal is from Eduard and every bit of white plastic is from me. The barrel is from Aber and is a very nice improvement over the plastic one. (As if you didn't know that! )





Of course there are details still missing from the gun but this is enough to test the fitting of it;

After that the problems started.
The interior part of the shield is too wide and the drum brakes of the wheels aren't wide enough to fit around it so it was time for surgery. Using a saw I cut the two interior walls. Here you can see it after the cut.


And mounted on the chassis.




Then I made new walls with .010 styrene sheet.

Even so it is a very tight fit but at least the gun fits in the area.

Then I proceeded to assemble the shield itself.
I decided to show the armored flaps in the open position (Since everybody leaves them closed) so I cut them and made new hinges for them in the open position. Here's the result:


Now it’s time to start working on the tracks.
See you soon,
Ruben

Here again gals and guys. Just a small update to show two things; first, the interior details of the shield...


...And the completed tracks.


Now I'm going to work in the tools for the fenders and after that the first coat of primer is on its way.

See you soon.
Ruben

oh cool ruben! that's sweet looking!

any news from dave???

Ruben's got a Nice, Big Gun!!!!

Looks fantastic, Ruben. I'm always in awe of your scratch/detail work.

Rick

Propaganda

Dear Ruben.

...great job so far on this model...you are doing a very good job...I like very much the gun...nice details overal...

Regards!

Luiz.

Lovely kit.... and you are doing a fine job!

I'm waiting for mine to arrive!

Regards
Noel

Your kit is looking fabulous , I am watching this one closely as I love the Bison I , Yours is the ultimate

Jenny

too many good models on this group build to keep track of
simply fantastic
alex

ruben where are you and the rest of the voodoo boyz? what's up with the voodoo boy in exile, is dave all ok?

Hi everyone. To all of you that took the time to reply to this thread; Thanks! Your comments are always welcome.

Now, to show you that I'm still alive I'm going to do a small update to this thread. Just two photos to show that the Bison has been painted.

Here they are...


From the other side...


And that's all for now but let me explain why. I made the mistake of starting three kits at the same time, two for T&T and another for Planet Armor, the problem with that is that I felt like I was running in the same place since none of the kits were finished. So, to avoid this I'm going to finish the oldest one (The SWS) and then i'll continue with this one. Thanks for your patience, specially you, Jenny and Laura; I read your comments this morning and have to agree with you 100%. But rest assured that I"ll be back to finish this one.
BTW, Dave is ok but still have no internet so it will be awhile until he post back.

Thanks and see you soon.

an update - splendid! and what a beautiful one!

that makes laura happy!

too bad that dave has no internet! could you forward some greetings from his friends at tnt to him and tell him that we all miss him? that would be nice!

Hiya Ruben ,

Glad you are back & running ! The Bison is looking extremely cool . Keep us updated on progress !

Jenny

This is really starting to look super sweet You have taken a and made a out of it.

It's interesting to see how the gun was mounted on the PzI.

I love this kit and it's the first example that I'm seeing a built of. Mine is talking ages to arrive from cyber-hobby and all I can do is drool over your build!

Really look forward to seeing this done!

Regards
Noel