Production Bikes GB 06 (March 01, 2006 - March 01, 2007)

if it looks as if it can work out in reality, engine, tranny, brakes, fuel tank, steering and suspension, I'd make the exception and look very much forward to it.  sounds like honda should keep an eye on this thread too eh?

Revell Germany started to have a Nortan Manx kit.  I don't know if it's a remake of matchbox or somebody nor the quality of it.  The last two Revell bike kits I got from that stvb seller on ebay were both old matchbox kits.  Ack at least he was always cool on shipping charges for buying in bulk.

I think I'll build the Tamiya 1/12 Yamaha Virago 1000 I have in the stash.

I have a Blackbird, an NR and a 'Busa too, but I'd rather get a little more practice before starting them. Maybe if I finish the Yami quick enough I'll pick out one of the others.

The yamaha is a pretty tricky kit (at least for me, even if it is as simple as it looked like) though, especially with all that chrome w/ mold lines in them and all.  do you plan on redoing them at all?  since otherwise the NR would be make a better practice kit.  more expensive (n harder to find nowadays without ebay) but sure has some well-fitting parts and one piece single color cowlings.

Anyone knows where I can find a Tamiya ducati 900SS without paying the overly high premium on ebay?  I am beginning to debate whether or not I should just resulpt the body pieces onto a Mike Hailwood replica version.

archangel571 wrote:

The yamaha is a pretty tricky kit (at least for me, even if it is as simple as it looked like) though, especially with all that chrome w/ mold lines in them and all.  do you plan on redoing them at all?  since otherwise the NR would be make a better practice kit.  more expensive (n harder to find nowadays without ebay) but sure has some well-fitting parts and one piece single color cowlings. Anyone knows where I can find a Tamiya ducati 900SS without paying the overly high premium on ebay?  I am beginning to debate whether or not I should just resulpt the body pieces onto a Mike Hailwood replica version.

nope.  the 900SS from Tamiya had only top half of the cowling in a slightly different design.  it curves under the handle bars.  the cowling behind the seat is also rounded off.  this one:

http://www.hsgalleries.com/gallery04/ducati900ssap_1.htm

I have two of the Hailwood replica kits and was thinking about just chopping that body cowling to get it as close in the look as possible.  I got a soft spot for naked bikes.

Ok, so I'll be the first one posting pictures in this thread, better keep up now ladies and gentlemen

I'll start with an introduction of this project wich will be my largest (first??) bash/scratch job ever.
I'm starting out with two Tamiya boxes, the Yamaha R1 and the Ducati 916 but as you will notice I will only use minor parts from teh 916. The kit is getting a mono swing arm so my first thought was to steal that right out of the Duc box, but when was life so simple?? The Ducati swing is too short as the R1 swing fits in the frame a bit more forward. Have to redo the existing one instead... Chain and rear brake system will be from the Ducati.

Thought was of coarse to use the beautiful wheels from the Ducati but as I have to use the R1 swing I'll go with R1 wheels as well. They will get the rimbs in black and spokes in gold. I'm thinking of wheather to use the tyres from the R1 or from the Duc or even from a Suzuki Hayabuza X1...hmm
Brake discs will be altered to wave style and the front forks will get brake calipers from an YZR500 GP bike, brembo ones for that extra grip So far I've just cut the R1 and YZR forks. They will be joined with sliding parts made out of machined brass that I've stolen from a GP after market kit.


I will do seat pipes. This will, together with the swing arm, probably be the most time consuming part of the build. Muffler cans comes from the Duc but they will get slightly altered and the pipes will be scratch built out of plastic beam. I'll use the R1 pipes between the engine and the exup.

Frame will be flat black with minor modifications. I'll remove passanger foot pegs and install some crasch pucks. I've just started filling it with putty. In this pictures you also see the cut swing arm parts.


Cowlings has undergone a larger modification and are still not finished. Seat cowl is built as single rider version and together with the tank and the front fender it will have ventilation holes with mesh installed from the back.




Side cowlings are cut to recreate a more modern style but has to undergo more sanding to look really good. Undertray will not be used and neither will the turn signals. I've filled the holes in the side cowlings.

 Front fender is swapped, I'll use a more aggressive GP one. Original fender to the right...

Any comments?
Best regards
Joel

ps. anyone want to know what color it will be? I was drewling over some Cobra Colors but as I'm in Sweden that's a no go. I'll set for some Tamiya Metallic red over Silver leaf. Hope it turnes out well.

Hmm, don't know if I know how they look, do you happen to have a picture or could you find one matching them. Perhaps that could be interesting.

Here's what I've acomplished today. I've cut the brake discs to represent wave style discs. I've reworked both front and rear discs with knife and drills and sanded down the washers and rivets to replace them with PE ones. As you can see there is some cleaning up to do...

Glued the cut swing arm parts together so that I can start reworking them with putty.

/Joel

archangel571 wrote:

The yamaha is a pretty tricky kit (at least for me, even if it is as simple as it looked like) though, especially with all that chrome w/ mold lines in them and all.  do you plan on redoing them at all?  since otherwise the NR would be make a better practice kit.  more expensive (n harder to find nowadays without ebay) but sure has some well-fitting parts and one piece single color cowlings.

I'm using the Yamaha as practice because I don't care so much if I bugger it up, not because I thought it was easy. I may re-do the chrome with Alclad, I'll have to take a look at where the seam lines and sprue attachments are.

What's the procedure with group builds here in FSMland? Should all the posts for progress reports be in this thread?

edit: one more question not specifically on this group build but motorcycle kits in general. How do most folks handle the inside of fairings? Paint them the same as the outside? Semigloss black with overspray of the finish color? (that's how my two 1/1 bikes are: Honda VFR800i and Honda PC800)

Are race bike fairings painted inside or are they carbon fiber pattern or something?

thanks!!

edit#2: Joel, nice work! I like it!

Yea you can post your progress pictures in this thread or some new thread if you want.  I didn't make it a big requirement that you have to have progress pictures as long as you share the final results, but I sure find a GB more fun and well updated when people share them. 

As far as my knowlege for race bikes, which is very little, from the pictures I have seen, the interior of the cowlings have a matt black finish.  I don't know if it's left bare CF or not since Tamiya would also have otherwise called out their favorite semi-gloss black for it but they instead noted flat black.  I have only played around with two bikes in real life that my uncle had (yea they don't have cowlings...).  If I remember clearly looking down the little front cowling of the GSX1100S it was black.

I would stripp the chrome plating with oven cleaner and then wash the parts properly. Then glue and start your putty/sand job to get the seam to disappear. Prime the muffler, spray with tamiya black enamel and then coat it with Alclad II chrome or aluminum. On larger surfaces like this I wouldn't recommend using Bare Metal Foil.

Joel

archangel571 wrote:

planning to redo the chrome for the cbr400f 's mufflers since they come in two pieces from Tamiya.  i have read about using alclad or bare-metal foil ultra bright chrome, how do you guys do it to get that wet reflective surface without leaving the ugly seam on those long mufflers, like the ones from CB750F or roadstar, or pretty much every Tamiya bike that has a chromed muffler??

Like Joel said, Alclad II looks very nice. Another option would be carbon fiber decals and make it look like an aftermarket pipe. I did that on a Ducati's cans and it looked pretty nice. I did the pipes in regular MM metalizers since they didn't have to be so chrome-like because I weathered them a little to make them appear heat stained.

Alrite, guess it's time I finally order alclad chrome then.  I only have their aluminum, polished aluminum, and steel since that's all my LHS had. 

What about snj's aluminum with their polishing powder?  Well they are kinda out of business now but the only thing that didn't let me get it is their website says it shouldn't be used with putty.

Alrite alrite I couldn't wait for another weekend to start on them...  got some minor work done today while watching movies off of the PC the whole time.  Mostly just filling body cowlings and primered them for both the CBR and the katana.  Still needs some touch up but considering my past experience they came out ...okay.  Drilled out the cleaning holes for the CBR's brake discs as well.  I think I made the holes too big...  and still got a bit of thinning work to do for them.

as for the combiner in the background... that's from my narrow gauge bachmann 2-6-0 Mogul for colorado & southern.  took it out for Xmas but the girlfriend managed to break the door glasses off...

I have never quite figured out why Tamiya discontinue a kit for up to 20 years. I have been looking for the Ducati 900 NCR but have never even see the kit.  I fortunately have a Ducati 900ss but would love to build a couple for my “built collection”. Maybe with all the new Ducati GP4’s Tamiya will reissue some of the older Ducati kits?  Hope so Mr. Tamiya as I would buy a couple of each of the older Ducati kits (except 900MHR)

Progress photos on Honda CX500 Turbo. The kit is one I bought 18 years ago so I hope the decals are sill OK?

Andrew

wow, the decals ARE in nice condition.  how come some of those open box ones I got from ebay has crapped out decals??!! 

as for the ducati kits, yea i ended up getting the super sport 900 and the NCR on ebay for like 40 shipped... each...  (@#$%@$%@)  which is insane of a price tag when the reissued MHR was 13 bucks...  it's just not right.

Living in Africa we do not get too many of the paint products for aluminum finishes here or if they are available they are very expensive . I use bare metal foil and have found it to be quite successful especially for exhausts like on the Honda 400F and Honda 750 F where I used the chrome foil and it turned out OK . The preparation of the parts is critical as any flaw or seam will show through the foil and you do need to be patient and apply the foil carefully it is very thin .

The gold and black BMF are great for the stanchions of the front forks producing quite a realistic effect.

Here are some photos of the Honda 400F. The rear cans of the exhaust are covered in foil but judge the results for yourself . I will spray the foil with a clear coat next time as it appears that with time the foil oxidizes and becomes slightly dull

Andrew

Honda CX500 Turbo: Progressing reasonably well but masking the cowling for all the grills was a mission, hope no decals peel of after painting

Very nice detail on the engine Andrew.

I love the crisp look of your builds

Archangel it was not the tail pipe that split but the tail piece  I have sprayed and decaled all the body parts and was polishing the final clear cote when the tail piece split leaving me with a real mess, Just think of glue, sanding and touch up with the decals literally millimetres away - ouch! The missus says I should order the spares body parts and decal sheet from HLJ so I may do that in the near future when I have another spares order but for now concentrating on the Honda CX500 as that is nearing completion.

I see.  yea that kinda does suck a lot.  I can feel your pain after ruining my nsr500 after clear coating.  I have yet to get back to it.

Shayne, they do have their 1/6 beasts which sure cost 2 to 3 times more than those 1/9 Italeri kits.  But that's to the detail level of having working suspension and all.  I got myself 2 of them newer Honda monkey and gorilla mini bikes recently and boy they are cool as hell.  I wonder why they kinda just stopped releasing them after a while.  It'd be pretty cool to have a 1/6 RC211V on the displayshelf and well worth the probable 300 bucks they are gonna charge us eh???

small... BUMP~

i've been ignoring the CBR for a little while trying to churn out 3 other kits within 4 weeks just in time for mosquito con in NJ just for the heck of it.  i am one of them clutch player guys so without any good pressure i will be in the sofa channel surfing.  hope everyone else is getting some good progress.

So, how's it going for everyone?? I'm back from the States since saturday and trying to cope with jet lag... I have to do an essay about the trip before I can start getting some work done on the R1.

/Joel