Question for those that have built a 1/12 Honda RC211V

Robert,

Easiest way to go is to line up the parts and stick them together with masking tape from the inside. This will allow you to align the decals. Afterwards you still have seperatable parts.

Hope it helps! Good luck and enjoy!! 

Align the parts with masking tape?? woah...thats an idea. I hadnt even thought about that. Will the parts stay together enough and stiff enough to where you can put decals on them?

 and while im at it...for those of you who may have painted a bike with two tone paint on the tail, say one color on the bottom half and one on the top half, how did you accomplish that? Because I beleive the same thing applies, the instructions dont want you to glue the tail to the seat portion, is tape the way you keep them together for painting and the decals?

Hi,

 re the tail section, I always prime and paint it before I attach it to the seat or bike. Dont see how you could paint it otherwise.

When applaying decals I usually attach the piece to the finished bike - you can align them better when you can see the whole piece.

hope that helps.

nick31 wrote:

Hi,  re the tail section, I always prime and paint it before I attach it to the seat or bike. Dont see how you could paint it otherwise. When applaying decals I usually attach the piece to the finished bike - you can align them better when you can see the whole piece. hope that helps.

Nick, so when you apply the decals to the finished bike, you are handling all of the bike, wheels, clip-ons, etc...isn't it too fragile to handle that way?

Paint beforehand - as Nick said, can't see another way to do it! Do your subassemblies, such as the rear cowl, fuel tank and the bottom two halves of the cowl that must be glued together. Prime and paint. Then "hold together" with masking tape - and this actually only applies to the top two parts of the cowling to that bottom part allready built up - and decal. 

You may also get away with doing the decalling on the bike itself, the parts will be alligned then. But not the painting!  But, decalling at that stage dows not leave you with much options for clearcoating and some extra buffing.

 Also, have a look in the group build section. There's a long-running MotoGP GB where you'll find some good hints and tips! Not to mention some awesome builds.

xierramilan wrote:

Nick, so when you apply the decals to the finished bike, you are handling all of the bike, wheels, clip-ons, etc...isn't it too fragile to handle that way?

No not really...if youre careful its cool.

 Like I say, once its painted I put the bodywork on (I dont glue anything mind - but a lot of the pieces screw on). Then I put on the decals - carefully !

When theyre dry, I take the bodywork off and apply a few coats of Klear (Future) to seal the decals and give a nice glossy shine to the bodywork. Theres a lot of info elsewhere on the forum about Future and its uses - its cracking stuff.

 Then its ready for final assembly.

Finally hop over to the MotoGP Group Build thread like Seabee said - good tips there and great bikes.

xierramilan wrote:

and while im at it...for those of you who may have painted a bike with two tone paint on the tail, say one color on the bottom half and one on the top half, how did you accomplish that? Because I beleive the same thing applies, the instructions dont want you to glue the tail to the seat portion, is tape the way you keep them together for painting and the decals?

Hey,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Tamiya 1/12 scale motorcycles, and the rollercoaster of frustration and satisfaction that goes along with!  For your Valencia RC, Tamiya has included a masking template for the two-tone tail section.  Paint the lighter color first- I think it's flouresent yellow- then mask off and paint the dark mica blue and viola.  Cutting the mask is a bit tedious, but if you take your time, it'll turn out fine.  I do all my painting of the panels off the bike, there's really no other good way to do it IMHO.  And Tamiya/Cartograf have gotten so good with their decals now that you really don't have to hold together the parts to get the decals straight.  The cut lines of the decal match the part pretty much precisely, and all the graphics should line up when the cowls are assembled (without glue, of course).  Like the others said, come on over to the Neverending MotoGP Build, you'll be amazed at what some of those guys can do. 

Thanks for everyones responses and help.

Let the building continue!!

Try attaching the painted body parts to the frame before the bike is assembled, then apply the decals which facilitates alignment. When you are finished you can remove the body parts, apply a clear coat and then assemble the entire bike using the sub assemblies as mentioned previously, sort of like building the real bike in the factory.