Malayan Emergency 1/35 scale.

[rtfoe]

Hi, I'm currently re-hashing a dio I have left idle for years and it's about a jungle police truck stopping at a bridge to check a suspicious clump of branches sticking out from the road ahead of the bridge suspecting an ambush.
This scene is in the late 40's early 50's during the First Malayan Emergency between the British Colonials and the Communist Terrorists.
The weapons of the time were a mix of pre and post WW2 material such as the Bren, Stens, Webley's and the newer Sterling and Jungle Enfields. I have almost all the weapons except the Jungle Enfield or carbine in kit form. So I will make them so I'll start with it...

I've had some experience in scratching weapons by utilising parts from existing guns. It ought to look like these examples below. Basically a shortened version of the Mk.4 Enfield...



Searched in my stash for Mk.4's and found these three I had painted and mothballed.



Soon I stretched som sprue to the right gauge and sliced equal lengths and cone shaped three from larger rods. I sliced the enfield and scraped a portion of the wooden grip. and glued the parts together.



I managed one with the barrel sight guards needing a little trimming. Have also shortened the butt and rounded the edges. Another two more to go...



Next 45 mins and another is done. Stopping now for dinner and resting my eyes.



I hope to take some shots of the dio after I have dusted it.

Cheers,
Richard

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
Excellent looking conversion. I look forward to seeing this come together.
Jim

[Airborne01]

Hi, I'm currently re-hashing a dio I have left idle for years and it's about a jungle police truck stopping at a bridge to check a suspicious clump of branches sticking out from the road ahead of the bridge suspecting an ambush.
This scene is in the late 40's early 50's during the First Malayan Emergency between the British Colonials and the Communist Terrorists.
The weapons of the time were a mix of pre and post WW2 material such as the Bren, Stens, Webley's and the newer Sterling and Jungle Enfields. I have almost all the weapons except the Jungle Enfield or carbine in kit form. So I will make them so I'll start with it...

I've had some experience in scratching weapons by utilising parts from existing guns. It ought to look like these examples below. Basically a shortened version of the Mk.4 Enfield...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1155124[/ATTACH]

Searched in my stash for Mk.4's and found these three I had painted and mothballed.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1155125[/ATTACH]

Soon I stretched som sprue to the right gauge and sliced equal lengths and cone shaped three from larger rods. I sliced the enfield and scraped a portion of the wooden grip. and glued the parts together.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1155126[/ATTACH]

I managed one with the barrel sight guards needing a little trimming. Have also shortened the butt and rounded the edges. Another two more to go...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1155127[/ATTACH]

Next 45 mins and another is done. Stopping now for dinner and resting my eyes.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1155128[/ATTACH]

I hope to take some shots of the dio after I have dusted it.

Cheers,
Richard

Richard,
Love the 'longs' - very nice conversion! Looking forward to your dealings with the '44 Pattern Web Equipment'! (Incidentally, the real-life Enfield conversion was a real 'Buggers Muddle' - excessive recoil and muzzle climb, and the muzzle flash was something to behold!) Very unpopular with the Toms!
Steve

[Graeme C.]

Nice conversions of the Enfields there Richard, my eyes are hurting looking at how small the parts your making are!

[rtfoe]

Hi Richard
Excellent looking conversion. I look forward to seeing this come together.
Jim

Thanks. Nice to have you along for this Jim.

Richard,
Love the 'longs' - very nice conversion! Looking forward to your dealings with the '44 Pattern Web Equipment'! (Incidentally, the real-life Enfield conversion was a real 'Buggers Muddle' - excessive recoil and muzzle climb, and the muzzle flash was something to behold!) Very unpopular with the Toms!
Steve

Yup, my Dad used to tell me how much of a kick it had and really loud. Without the muzzle flash suppressor one would be blind a few second after firing even in the dusk, a favorite time for a jungle ambush, Steve.

Nice conversions of the Enfields there Richard, my eyes are hurting looking at how small the parts your making are!

Thanks Graeme, after number two I needed an eye rest even with the magnifiers on.

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Promised you some images of the dio and soft skin police Dodge M37.

I was surprised that we used the Dodge M37 and found they were surplus left-overs and later switched over to LandRovers when available.



The only modification I did was to add the post for the Bren gun. The figure was a left over from my "Hold Until Relieved" dio and just placed in the back for fun. It's sprayed overall dark blue and will be misted over with a lighter shade in the wide areas. I've had that masking tape over the clear windscreen for ages and wonder if it can be peeled of cleanly.



The dio hasn't changed since I left it 10 years ago...the balsa bridge itself is probably 35 years old or more. I constructed it around the time I heard Eurythmics Annie Lennox's "Sweet Dreams". Then I built the base around it later and the interest fizzled out when I couldn't figure out how to get clear resin for the water.



The vehicle isn't following SOP when approaching a bridge suspected of being rigged with explosives...didn't have enough space.



The construction of the bridge looks quite similar to Scotties bridge and very uncanny being 30 odd years apart.



Having done the rifles I will need to reference the uniform of the local forces attached to the British army then. The most distinct would be their cap which was called "Topi Bakul" or Basket Hat similar to the early Gurkha round cap with a little round tuft on the top. Here's one...



Cheers,
Richard

[JR]

Loving the bridge Richard, and nice work on those rifles.

[rtfoe]

Thanks John, nice of you to take up a seat. I've turned down the air-conditioning to give the atmospheric ambience of tropical heat and humidity. Choice of attire is free...sandals and shorts are permissible. The coconut bar is open. :smiling2:

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Hi, back to my rifle "trompet". Got all three done as close as possible and painted them up...



There's one good thing about close up photography is that you spot stuff you can correct like the third rifle had some molding problem around the trigger and magazine, so I sliced off the offending bit and repainted. The first rifle has a bit of a wriggly barrel. :tears-of-joy: And all that rework has rubbed off the black from the rifle butt stock.



I did a bit of research on the uniforms and got lots for army units and not many of the Jungle Police except one. There were some re-enactors all kitted up in Malayan Emergency period dress. Also some SAS and other Commonwealth troops including Australians and their Owen Stanley's...that would be some scratch.
I'll post something from Wiki regarding the Emergency as it was called. It was one of the new dirty wars fought with no quarter on both sides each as vicious and ruthless. The Australians learnt well and adapted their skills in Vietnam. Special Forces around the world still come to Malaysia to learn jungle warfare.

Cheers,
Richard

[Jon Heptonstall]

Great work Richard.
Have you seen these pics of the Malayan Police Field Force and Malay Regiment?

[rtfoe]

Yes I have Jon and thanks. The PFF were the real jungle fighters that went into the jungles in pursuit of the CTs. My figures would be the constables that normally would guard convoys and camps. They would be in khaki shirt and shorts, some in pants with long socks and puttees. Their webbing would either be olive green or blanko'd. I've got a few pictures here...

Purely for reference.




They're all with the early Mk4 Stens and not the Sterling. I wonder when they were first issued in Malaya?

Cheers,
Richard

[scottie3158]

Looking forward to watching this one progress. Lovely conversions of the No5 carbines. Your bridge looks stronger than mine.

[rtfoe]

Looking forward to watching this one progress. Lovely conversions of the No5 carbines. Your bridge looks stronger than mine.

Thanks Scottie/Paul. I hope so...don't know if balsa has a shelf life...:thinking:

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Hi, today I planned the way the stream was going to look like. Previously I was just having a calm stream flowing level from one side to the other. This time I went berserk after seeing a few rivers and streams done in this forum I thought I'd try my hand at some fast moving water.

Fast moving water needs elevation to flow down so I used blocks of polystyrene stacked up and carved away...

I first removed the bridge which was detachable. I make everything detachable as possible so they can be detailed as sub assemblies.



I carved out ditches on either side of the road and will use card for the concrete drain molds. These narrow hill trunk roads still exist with their bridges and make lovely stopovers for a refreshing dip in clear mountain streams. On one such road towards Frasers Hill was where Sir Henry Gurney the British High Commissioner to Malaya was ambushed and killed. That was when the situation in the Emergency was at its lowest.



I will be adding some river pebbles I found in the garden to the ones I have carved out. Then will patch areas with Das to seal any holes and then deepen each level to take the clear resin. Meantime I'm collecting different types of sand and fine stones for the stream bed...the figure is always there to check scale.



Scrounged some of my dried roots for the over hanging trees and using some the fine roots as vines. Time to search for my paper banana trees, palm and ferns.



Cheers,
Richard

[JR]

Enjoying this with each update Richard. Love the start of the base. :nerd::thumb2::thumb2::thumb2:

Will enjoy the sealing up process .