2018 to 2019 Motorcycle Group Build is Timeless. Bikes will be with us til the end of time

Stripping looks good!  For rotors I like dull aluminum, steel or my favorite color  model master  dark anodic gray.  Calipers can be metallic or painted.  I did my last ones in dull aluminum. 

GMorrison

Pictures to follow. I spent all day between work calls stripping chrome. For an experiment, I got four pint soup bowls at Safeway and did - brake fluid. Easy Off. Simple Green. Super Clean.

Easy Off is the winner.

Glued up the yellow parts- gas tank, oil/ battery covers and fairing. Primed. Sanded. Painted. Sanded again and polished. There's one important seam uphill from the headlight and in front of the bug killer. Have to get it right.

Tamiya Lemon Yellow on the way, plus three Alclad aluminums.

Painted the cylinders black.

So what color to paint the front brake disk?

The wheels.

 

Lots of fiddley bits and plumbing going on.  I sprayed the body panels right out of the Tamiya can - Big fan of their rattle cans.  Probably wrap this one up this weekend.

GMorrison

It does remove that.

That is interesting, becuase most stuff folks use to strip doesn't remove it. Thank you.

GMorrison

The base plastic is a cream color.

Mine too. Kind of surprised me.

GMorrison

I accidently stripped the gas cap, which kind of ticks me off, and I lost a part that I had to dig out of the wet kitchen garbage. A lot of this model goes together with screws, not sure why but it's kind of fun.

Sounds like you are having almost as much fun as I am. Keep plugging away.

John, that looks fantastic! Your work is really paying off.

It does remove that. The base plastic is a cream color. I accidently stripped the gas cap, which kind of ticks me off, and I lost a part that I had to dig out of the wet kitchen garbage. A lot of this model goes together with screws, not sure why but it's kind of fun.

John, looks like a motorcycle now. Looks like you did well on those finicky red decals. Does sound touchy, at best.

Bill, that's a whole lot of work done in one day!

Thanks for sharing the winner of the stripping testing. Easy Off is the one I've seen recommended the most, and the one I have not tried! Does the Easy Off remove that funny yellow varnishy sub-coat too?

Looking forward to some pics......

Pictures to follow. I spent all day between work calls stripping chrome. For an experiment, I got four pint soup bowls at Safeway and did - brake fluid. Easy Off. Simple Green. Super Clean.

Easy Off is the winner.

Glued up the yellow parts- gas tank, oil/ battery covers and fairing. Primed. Sanded. Painted. Sanded again and polished. There's one important seam uphill from the headlight and in front of the bug killer. Have to get it right.

Tamiya Lemon Yellow on the way, plus three Alclad aluminums.

Painted the cylinders black.

So what color to paint the front brake disk?

Wheels on.  The most frustrating part of this build is the red stripes on the wheels.  They are 3 seperate decals per side and I suppose my own impatience is to blame but darn they are frustrating.   They are on, but need to put setting solution on - just terrified to touch them until the set up.

Your bike keeps looking better and better, John. Front fork assy looks cool with the gold color. All of the detail on the Tamiya kit is striking, a sharp contrast to the lack of same on my old Revell kit.

Never heard of the Tamiya add-on kits. I'm behind the times and will have to look into those.

Thanks for your nice comment, BTW.

Great idea Greg!

I got the front forks on.  The Tamiya Detail up add-ons are really worth it.  There's a metal resevoir for the rear shock, full turned metal front forks and silver and anondized blue fork nuts.   And I tried scale motorsport carbon fiber decals - I need practice but they work nice and react very well to setting solution.  There's a gaurd over the rear shock spring that I tried it on.

So on the subject of my loose-fitting tires, I may be getting closer.

Here's a pic of a tire. Note how squished together the sidewalls are.

Last night I was thinking if it were real I'd add air. This morning I tried stuffing a tire with a sheet of paper towel rolled into a little tube and trimmed to a length that worked. Almost. Added another roll.

The fit is much better, and I might try to jam in just a bit more padding. The next pic I think was after the first paper towel sheet was jammed in (the tire on the right). You should see the extra width that is helping with the fit on the rim.

I have some concerns about how permanent this stuffing will be, but it beats where I was yesterday, thinking of scrapping the kit.

PS, yes, I need to trim my nails.

GMorrison

I suppose if they are both too loose its not the issue. I had a hard time figuring out which tire on the Norton was the f/b.

I think you're right. Also, I'm still not 100% convinced both of my tires are the same.

GMorrison

I screwed up by assembling both wheels in the order of left/ right spokes, left/ right rims and then tire. Only to discover I forgot to put brake drum in the middle of rear wheel. Had to take it all apart. Italeri instructions are really hard to follow.

That would be easy enough to do, especially with sub-par instructions. And I think it would mimick the loose fit I have.

I appreciate your interest in my problem, Bill.

Please see my next post below, with a progress report.

I suppose if they are both too loose its not the issue. I had a hard time figuring out which tire on the Norton was the f/b. 

I screwed up by assembling both wheels in the order of left/ right spokes, left/ right rims and then tire. Only to discover I forgot to put brake drum in the middle of rear wheel. Had to take it all apart. Italeri instructions are really hard to follow.

John, the drive train (if I can call it that on a motorcycle) adds a lot.

Looking good!

Bill, I honestly don't know. The tires are numbered 1 and 2, yet I see no indication one is different from the other on the instructions, or at looking at them. I'd expect the rear tire to be beefier, but it appears the same.

Thanks for the idea, perfectly reasonable.

Greg

My tires don't seem to fit on the rims. To refresh, this is the Revell Germany 1/8 scale US Police Motorbike.

I presume this is an older kit? I wonder if the rubber tires have mishapen over time or something? This is disheartening, sort of a big deal. The mis-fit is pretty bad.

At any rate, I am hoping those of you with experience building motorcycle models might have some insight? Maybe there is something I need to do that I'm not aware of?

 

 

Really coming along Kev! Looking

awsome!

Looking really good there kev

Got a few hours at the bench tonight - coming along

hmmm... For test fitting purposes, I'm just fitting one side of the rim to the tire, then seating the other rim half. It just flops around inside the tire.

Well, maybe not flop around but it's sure not a real fit of any sort. It sure as heck isn't too snug, or anything like what you describe.

I think I'm missing something basic, and I might have messed up trying to trim some more rubber from the I.D.

Thanks for your comment, John.

The tires are usually a pretty tight fit to get on the rim.  Takes both thumbs working around the tire.

My tires don't seem to fit on the rims. To refresh, this is the Revell Germany 1/8 scale US Police Motorbike.

I presume this is an older kit? I wonder if the rubber tires have mishapen over time or something? This is disheartening, sort of a big deal. The mis-fit is pretty bad.

At any rate, I am hoping those of you with experience building motorcycle models might have some insight? Maybe there is something I need to do that I'm not aware of?

John, thank you for commenting and for the tip to use Tamiya clear orange and blue. I'd not have thought of that, excellent.

Thanks for your kind words, Steve.

That looks great Greg!  For the exhaust staining I use tamiya clear orange and clear blue.   Try it on sprue first  

John,

The exhuast adds a lot. I really like the tinting, and am thinking of trying it for the first time on mine down the road.

Again, a little jealous of the Tamiya kit as my older Revell is a challenge with each new part.

Here's my engine finally done, I think, after my little Alclad vs enamal wash boo-boo. It was good experience stripping all the Alclad Chrome parts an doing them over I guess.

I agree,

the exaust looks great!

Thanks.  The camera really picked up the blue.  It's a bit more subtle to the naked eye.

Greg, your engine work is always beautiful.

John, Your exhaust bluing looks great 

Motor is about done, can't say how fun these Tamiya kits are!