MPC Trail 70

This should be cool.

That's cool Don.  I remeber riding those and the honda 50 as a kid.  How is the kit?

keavdog

That's cool Don.  I remeber riding those and the honda 50 as a kid.  How is the kit?

 

I think the kit is quite nice.  There is some flash, and fit is not perfect in some areas, but certainly not a problem kit.  Got the body sides together, painted and decaled.  May get some pics today.  Many parts are chrome.  Sprue attachments are not always in out of the way areas, but thank god for Molotow chrome pens!  For parts that are polished aluminum on real bike I coat the chrome with dullcoat for a more authentic look.  Chain/sprocket assembly is quite good.

The main body is painted and ready for decals now.  Engine is complete except for air cleaner.  I think I will touch up a bit more on fork detail painting.

How big will this be?

midnightprowler

How big will this be?

 

Looks like it will be about six or seven inches in length.

Just curious, why is the cylinder blue? 

HooYah Deep Sea

Just curious, why is the cylinder blue? 

 

My attempt at weathering.  Steel often oxidizes when really hot to get a bluish coating. I may have overdone it and am thinking of dry brushing some more steel color back on the cylinder.  I do intend to weather the exhaust with some blue and red stains (burned chrome often takes on those colors).  It looks to me from pictures that the cylinders are an oil-finished steel or iron.

Those Honda cylinders were a rough cast steel that looked like cast black iron. They were black unless someone did an after-market on them.

Having big trouble with the air cleaner.  The engine is hung from the frame on two pins that go into holes in the frame, one on the crankcase and one on the air cleaner.  The mounting of the air cleaner to the cylinder head is really crappy, and can't get the air cleaner glued at the right angle to get both pins to fit.  Now I'll try engaging the pins with the air cleaner loose, and see if I can glue air cleaner to cylinder head while those pins are engaged.

Had another setback yesterday that surprised me.  I decided I should put the decals on the main body piece before I started putting the engine in place.

I put down some setting solution, then the decals.  As I moved the first one into position, it shattered.  Now, unfortunately I had not scanned it first.  But fortunately the decals include different Trail 70 logos- alternates, so at this point I do not need to make any homemade decals.

However, as I tried to remove pieces of the old decal, I found the paint was coming up too!  The fault seems to be in the setting solution. I checked to see I had setting solution rather than decal solvent- I had the right stuff, same brand I always use, but a new bottle.  It seems to be a defective bottle- really hot stuff, even hotter than solvaset.  Now I have to repaint that side of the body :-(

I did find it easier to mount the air cleaner and carb after the motor was mounted.  I decaled the body, glosscoated it, and then installed the engine as per plan.  Even so, I found I needed to add a short length of plastic tubing to the aircleaner, where it fastens to the carburetor.

Looking good.

Paint the extension flat black. It's the rubber sleeve connection between the air cleaner and the carb. Some installations used black plastic clamps to hold those parts together, other times I've seen regular hose clamps. So, in your application, either can work.

I painted it semi-gloss.  To me rubber often is not totally flat.  However, that extension does not look that different than the gloss of the filter, so I may indeed repaint that area with flat.

Another painting problem.  The bodine cables (like for brakes and throttle) are black vinyl tubing.  However, it looks like on the real bike they are sort of a metallic gray.  I have never been able to paint that soft vinyl.  The paint never hardens.  I tried a marker, that is not doing it either.

Don 

Nice build so far.  I built the Rupp Roadster a few months back which is similar to your bike.  

The vinyl was a bit annoying, mainly the tires. After finally getting them glued I carefully sanded to make them look used/dusty. I roughed up the handle grips a bit too. I didn't do anything to the brake or throttle cables though.  Looking forward to what you come up with.  

Looks good. 

T e d

Most control cables, on most motorcycles, are black. Some companies or individuals replace them with the 'armored' style which apear as a semi gloss aluminum. As the handlebars on the Trail 70 and Trail 50 were built to be able to fold down, Honda probably put in the armored cables to minimize cable kink issues. I have seen these scoots with both applications equally. Ball back in your court.

That's looking great Don!  Love the bright work.

Don Stauffer

I painted it semi-gloss.  To me rubber often is not totally flat.  However, that extension does not look that different than the gloss of the filter, so I may indeed repaint that area with flat.

Another painting problem.  The bodine cables (like for brakes and throttle) are black vinyl tubing.  However, it looks like on the real bike they are sort of a metallic gray.  I have never been able to paint that soft vinyl.  The paint never hardens.  I tried a marker, that is not doing it either.

 

I built that kit a couple of years ago. You are correct that the cables are gray, not black. I was fortunate to have access to an original bike for reference. Light Gull gray was the best match.