Tamiya BMW R75 Sidecar

[David Madsen]

Here is a little kit that I'm working on before I get some tank kits. It's a fun little easy one that I'm trying to work on my weathering with.

[Dario Risso]

Nice bike, David. Keep posting advances

Darío

[David Madsen]

Thanks, I'm just a beginner so I've got a lot to learn still. So with that said, if anyone has some hints and tips, that would be great. I can handle constructive criticism.

Here I have the sidecar attached. I've done some weathering with a dab of Khaki thinned with iso alcohol. I've also used some putty to simulate mud on the undercarriage. It turned out better than I expected.

[Jamie Tainton]

Hi David, glad to have you post your work, hope we can be of help along the way. One thin about posting your pics- these are a big large- you may want to adjust your future pictures to be around 800 pixels wide and not more than say 100-200 KB for the file size.

[David Madsen]

Well I made myself a lightbox, though it took awhile to get decent pictures. Many times they became underexposed; my camera is a quick picture style camera that is embarrassingly almost 8 years old with only 3.2mp. I know a good photographer, which I'm not, takes good shots regardless of the camera but I beg to differ from my stance. Anyways, almost done with this little project, I did my very first time oil washes with some raw umber and was surprised with the result. Though my coat of future didn't seem layered enough, I started taking some of my base colors off. Maybe I had too much thinner.

[Jamie Tainton]

Hey Thats much better photography already! The picture size is way more manageable, glad you could take the suggestion and improve your presentation.
Now one thing more I could suggest, before you size the picture to 800 pixels, try and crop as close to the model as makes sense, that is get rid of all that extra white space surrounding the model (either by getting closer in the first place, filling your viewfinder and editing in camera , or use Photoshop or the like to crop the image), and try and bring the model closer to us, the viewer. Also it may help to try and get a bit more light on the front aspect of the model as it may be a little dark.
Here I have cropped and resized. (The picture is pretty pixel lated because the original was so small. You would crop the original and then resize so it would look okay compared to this sample I have made.)The reason I did this was to show how to crop

[Tim Coulson]

[David Madsen]

Thanks James and Tim for the tips. I'm about at the closest range that camera will allow me, I can no control of the focus so when I get closer it gets all blurry. What I can do is take highrez shots and crop closer, never thought about that. Thanks Not sure what to do about more light, here is my setup that I found online and made. When I use a flash, all it does is overexpose, do I need direct light from the front then? I will try the aluminum trick Tim. My camera is an Olympus 300, it has really no features at all.

[Tim Coulson]

David,

I've just found my built BMW R75 & sidecar in a box, under my bed! I thought I still had it. It doesn't look bad seeing as I was only about 10 when I built it.

I will post some photos in the next couple of hours, using only a reflector and white paper background, so you can see the difference with the same kit. I even used the same license plate decals that you did.

It might be time to consider getting a new camera, as digital cameras have come on a long way since, particularly if you are not able to focus closely.

BTW have you enabled the macro function on your camera, if it has it?

Tim

[David Madsen]