Prison Break. You can do it in an MG! :)

[klutz_100]

This will be my first build in 4 or 5 years and was inspired by this 1970s magazine ad that I have hanging on the wall of my garage.

This was an ad that was run in the UK in 1974 and was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that an escapee from Wormwood Scrubs prison in London allegedly made his getaway in an MGB.

As you can see, they felt that it fitted perfectly with the “You can do it in an MG” campaign

I like to have some kind of setting for my builds and this seemed like a simple but interesting project.







I am using the Aoshima MGB kit, some white metal Rostyle wheels to replace the wire wheels in the kit, a cheap picture frame for the base and will be adapting/modifying some of the Fujimi Drivers set figures.




I hope that the car will be the relatively easy part of the project so I am starting with the diorama first.


The first thing I tackled was the cobbled – or to be more more technically correct - the setted street.

I decided to replicate this by making a plaster cast of a pattern in Plasticine. I did a test piece to see if this was feasible and to practice making a pattern.





I was quite happy with the results so I went full scale. I rolled out some plasticine, cut it to the approximate shape and size and then “punched” the pattern into it with the ends of bamboo chopsticks that had been sanded to the desired shape and size.

The formwork was made with strips of styrene. Everything was lightly dusted with talcum powder to act as a release agent and the plaster poured.





I couldn’t resist adding a little memento for posterity into the back




F**k-up nr. 1: I made the noobie casting mistake of forgetting that when you make a cast, you get the mirror image of your mold. Duh!

I had to re-punch the mold in the mirror image of what I wanted and cast again. Fortunatley the formwork could just be flipped over. The upside of all this was that the new mold had an improved pattern




Also, thanks to the talcum powder, I was able to use the mold several times to make copies so that I had spares to allow for any breakages and to try different painting options.



To make the brick wall, I toyed with 2 possible solutions: dry walling stripped of its paper backing and foam core mounting board also stripped of its paper backing.



Initially I thought that the dry walling would be perfect but it turned out that the plaster is VERY weak without the paper backing and snapped very easily. The choice was made to go with the Kapa-line foam board. This has a polyurethane core that holds impressions and score lines very well and doesn’t “bounce back”.



I cut out and scored the wall, pavement and curb. This was weathered and battered a bit with a scalpel blade and wire brush. Some bricks were pushed in or crumbled out.

One of the Fujimi drivers was modified with epoxy putty and a heat gun to get the arms into a better position. I made some barbed wire to top the wall.








Thanks for looking in

[MidMazar]

This is going to be a thrill to watch this progress. Nice to see you building again. I hope I get the itch soon myself. Good luck.

[willimo]

Oh boy oh boy! This is totally awesome!! I love the idea, I love the plan, and we all know how well your work turns out. Fantastic, fantastic, I can't wait. These are the builds that make AF so amazing.

[kopek]

0 to 50 in 8 secs? A Family Hatch could outrun it today?
Mind you, I think the Police only had Bicycles in those days!
A caption for your last photo, ''better put the wheels on Love, I'm nearly down''.

Look forward to seeing the escape.

[Hermanzini]

Great stuff!!

[MPWR]

There has not really been another build that has threatened to be so much FUN here in many years.

Damnit, it's good to have you back!

[HondaSan72]

This is sooo freaking cool!! Love your imagination. Can't wait to see more...

[jochen kieslich]

Klutzi, pal............i ALWAYS love'd your wip's and your ingenious comments, so cooool to "see" you back at the desk!!!!! And what a stunning project......keep it coming, i'm with you, ALL THE BEST!
The start already looks very promising, chapeau!
Yours
jochen

[ianc911]

Fabulous in every way! Subscribed...

Ianc

[bigfrit]

Awesome subject ! Obscure yet perfect... looking closely!

[klutz_100]

Some updated progress.

Originally Posted by kopek

Mind you, I think the Police only had Bicycles in those days!
A caption for your last photo, ''better put the wheels on Love, I'm nearly down''..

Actually.......





Now I want to build one of THOSE!



The base has been progressing with painting. This is the first time if have worked with the kapa-line board so I did some testing to see what worked/what didn’t etc.




In the end primed the foam with Tamiya Grey Primer and used tubes of acrylic paint.

The sett-paved street was primed in black and then various shades of acrylic were hashed on and applied with a sponge. MIG pigments were washed over it (some say “not enough” )






I gradually built up the weathering on the wall with different tones of the base colours, picked out individual bricks, added stains with MIG washes and made some moss with chinchilla sand, white glue and acrylic paint.









Getting close to finished









I made some barbed wire out of twisted wire and coated it with Rustall.
Styrene rod was used to make the supports for the barbed wire and it was aged with baking soda/CA glue, Rustall and MIG pigments.

Finishing touches/rust stains will be added once the barbed wire is fixed in place - but that won’t happen until the figure and bed sheet escape rope are ready.







The wall was finished off from behind with some thin sheets of balsa wood whichmay be stained later.
(BTW this was f**k-up nr 2. The balsa strips warped from the moisture in the PVA glue and now the whole wall has a slight curve to it )





Multi-media masking for the wheels. A combination of blue-tac, Humbrol Maskol and Tamiya tape. Then Tamiya gloss black X1 (?) was airbrushed onto the centres.




They were tidied up with a scalpel blade and a 00 brush and then a wash of oil paints was applied..



(Warning: purists should NOT read the next part )

I worked on the white metal wheels. To make my life easier, I used the “great cheat” and rather than spend hours reworking the stubs to fit the Aoshima kit and vice versa, I simple ground the wheels’ stubs down…




… and then attached discs of styrene with 5min epoxy. These discs can then be glued simply directly onto the plastic kit wheel hubs.




Additional discs of various thickness of styrene can be used as necessary to adjust the track width. This system is quick, painless and allows virtually infinite adjustment of ride height and stance .











Steering wheel painted, masked and painted




Thanks for looking


..

[gtziaf]

Nice idea and execution!!!
Can you post a link with the wall material?

[Nissanmotorsport]

Nice project

[klutz_100]

Originally Posted by gtziaf

Can you post a link with the wall material?

THIS is the one I used.

Kapa is also good although I am not really sure what the difference is
The important part is that it has a polyurethane foam core

HTH

[MPWR]

I think you know what I think.