Scratchbuilt motorcycle frames

Thanks Metalhead, I'll give the Alcad a try. Now all I have to do is get our hobby shop to get some in. I decided to go ahead and carve the tank and then make a mold and cast it with resin. This way I will always have a mold for the basic tank and can always make modifications ot it for other projects. Now if I could just get the energy up to put my model desk together. I don't know which is hurting more, the wreck, or the move. LOL

Hammerfly, you are right about finding any Harley Davidson kits. I was lucky abd found a couple IMEX kits at the LHS. I payed about 30 bucks apiece for them. For your tank the best results I had is from Bass wood and craving. This way you get the right shape you want. As for your engines if you want a chrome look, the best I've found is Alcald. It Looks great when applied, the only thing you have to do is seal it with a gloss or semi gloss coat. It rubs off real easy. Hope this helps you out.

Scott, I know there are a few Sportster kits out, but I"m not sure what size engine they are. Finding any kind of Harley kit now is like pulling hen's teeth since Harley put the shut down on most of the models due to the copyrights and the fact that they want way too much in royalties fromthe model companies now. I've been doing 1/6 scale Tamiya kits that I find on Ebay, but that has gotten so expensive I want to learn how to do resin casting so I can make my own engines from one of my Tamiya kits I have left. I'd like to get a more modern engine in a larger scale, but the Tamiya kits are all from the AMF days, except for the one Fat Boy kit they had. I'd love to get that kit, but so far the only ones I've seen on Ebay went for over $100 before shipping. The Fat Boy is the one I had my wreck on so I'd really love to find one some day at a price I could afford. At least then I would have a modern day, belt drive Harley that I could do some newer style choppers, plus have a model of the Harley that put me in the chair. Imai or Imex makes a smaller scale Fat Boy that I'd love to get too, but it's almost as hard to find. I haven't seen very many smaller Harley's than the 1200 out there. I know there was an old model of a flat tracker out, but I can't remember who made it. Keep an eye out on Ebay and you never know what you will find. With the Harley models getting so hard to come by, resin casting is the only way to go. It's that or switch to the crotch rockets, which I am building a few of now anyway. You may have to end up scratch building you engine, which for a Harley, wouldn't be that hard to do, just tedius unless you know how to make your own photoetched parts. If I could learn that process I may just go to a smaller scale and make my own. I saw a website about someone making their own engines by stacking PE parts for the jugs and then casting the crankcases and trannies. The engines sure looked good on their models.

Hammer, where are you stealing your Harley engines right now? I saw one of your bikes on a earlier post. I am looking for a 750 to 1000cc Harley engine for a dirt tracker I want to build. Most of the kits I have seen are of XLH's--an engine way too big for what I want to do. I am looking to build in 1/12 or 1/6th scale just that the available engines are too big. Any ideas?

use aluminum sheet for the tanks, the brass is good because of soldering, but dents way to easy, and some of the dents wont come out. aluminum is more pliable and will work out better in the long run. unless you have some sort of small english wheel i guess.

I'm about to start my own chopper myself. I plan on chopping a 1/6 scale Tamiya FXE1200 and hope to do some radical stuff to it. Let me know how you are doing as you go. Once I get going on this, I'll post some pics of my progress. I'm planning on using some Plastruct tubing to make my frame which I want to make as a hardtail. I'm trying to find one of the Arlen Ness collectors bikes to rob the wheels from. We just finished moving and I'm still in the process of setting up my modeling desk so I have a bit before I can actually get started. I want to make molds of the engine and tranny and different parts so I can resin cast some more for some future bike projects so the going will be slower than usual for me. I want to do something semi modern looking but still have the chain drive version of the Harley. Once finished with this one, I want to do something along of an old school chopper. I just wish I could find an inexpensive way to get a chrome finish on the engine and other parts. The metalizer paints will have to do though even if they aren't perfect. I've already been experimenting with bending the tubing and had some moderate success. I guess a little more practice will get me there. Now, I just need to see about hammering out some thin brass for the tank and fenders. If that doesn't pan out like I hope, I may just carve them out of wood and vacuform them, or I could resin cast them too. So many choices, it's enough to drive you crazy.

i built an extremely small chopper as a joke, but it was a lot of fun. use brass tubing, or rod. solder it. just start going on it, thats how you learn, just go and hope for the best, if you mess up thats how you know not to do that again.

Do yourself a fovar, (if you want accuracy) buy a scale ruler.....


http://www.thescalecard.com/index.html

Scott, You've already got the best think you need and that is good reference material. I scratch bulit a chopper alwhile back, and I used styrene tubing and wire. Insert the wire into the tubing, this helps the tubing hold its shape. Then just use your reference material. I also used a Tamiya motorcycle kit that I put together for reference to the correct use. Hope this helps, hope to see pictures of your bulid up.
Thomas

http://hometown.aol.com/tomcatban/index.html

This might get you started.

[code]http://www.briansmodelcars.com/tutorials/tutorial.asp?TutorialID=13&CurPage=1[/code]