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This is my first ever miniature for Bolt Action. I am working on a Waffen SS army and the unit you see here is Rubicon Model's BMW R75. I decided to paint the soldiers in the M44 Pea Dot pattern. The camo was done with Army Painter paints. I pretty much just picked out some colors I thought would work, which I believe they did very well. I plan to buy AK Interactive's Waffen SS set, but again, I am very pleased with how the AP turned out. The bike was painted with Vallejo's German Grey. The final touch was AK's ultra matte varnish which works incredibly well. Forget Vallejo matte, forget Testors Dullcote - THIS STUFF WORKS. Slight dry brush of flat earth for some mud, and voila. Thank you for checking out my work and C&C is greatly appreciated. Also, I wanted to showcase my Marder III - it is not completed yet but it was my second time airbrushing (ever) and I couldn't resist. I used AK Interactives Real Color line-up. Sorry, the photos have a yellow tint to them. Maybe my poor choice of lighting, lol.

Is the flag from a sourced photograph? I've never seen a motorcycle with a flag for identification (seems it would fly into the face of the gunner immediately).

TBH I just made it up, only some time later did I actually find a source photo. I thought I saved it to my computer but no luck. I am trying to find it now. Maybe it was... pinterest...? Anyways, the model is so small I wanted something to make it pop on the table. I think it worked. Plus, given the fact its the SS, it would make sense. I thought about taking sewing string and tying it off to the sidecar frame. Not too late to do so.

It strikes me as an unlikely thing to happen naturally, but I could see it being staged for a photo op.

BiC910 wrote:
TBH I just made it up, only some time later did I actually find a source photo. I thought I saved it to my computer but no luck. I am trying to find it now. Maybe it was... pinterest...? Anyways, the model is so small I wanted something to make it pop on the table. I think it worked. Plus, given the fact its the SS, it would make sense. I thought about taking sewing string and tying it off to the sidecar frame. Not too late to do so.

From a historical standpoint, it had nothing to do with the SS or any soldiers enthusiasm over their country. Flags were strapped to the tops of tanks/vehicles/etc. to attempt to avoid being strafed or attacked by their own aircraft. It was used as an identifier to the pilot (I'm not sure how effective it was) in the hopes they would not be accidentally attacked.

Example:


Flags were also occasionally prominent on captured and used enemy vehicles (Germany's term was "Beutepanzer" or "Trophy Tank"). Captured vehicles being used by an army were often heavily identified with flags or army markings to help avoid friendly fire incidents.

It just strikes me as odd that you'd bother with something as mobile/small as a motorcycle.