Moto GP / GP bike enthusiasts

Welcome Ronald, nice to have someone new on board. Looking forward to seeing your progress. Let us know how the PE set turns out, I am a big fan of this media though admit I do end up not bothering with a lot of the bits as I have 10 thumbs for fingers so the fiddly bits can be a challenge! I am looking to buy a few for my kits though.

I am interested to see the bad press on Tamiya TS13. I have mostly only used tamiya X22 enamel through an airbrush and never once had a problem witha decal. Surely they are the same product? Maybe just too much goes on at once with the aerosol?

Actually meant to get some on my last order and then did not due to this question: I do have some automotive 2K clear - won't that be the same? It's called "Formula Forty Professional 2K clear" and 2k hardener. Haven't used it before yet. Even the mixing ratio is the same, which makes me suspect it might be so near to the same... But maybe you guys know better. Didn't cost much, so if it was a dud buy, don't be afraid to say so before I ruin a kit!

I did see some awesome results with that Zero 2K clear on F1M, so if it's "enough so" different from the stuff I have, I definately then get me some on my next order from Steve. The rest of his stuff is incredible, these can't be lagging! 

Hi,

      try the clear 2 pack from Hiroboy.com  It is giving incredible shine over his other paints

(ZERO).  It will probabl go over Tamiya paint as well.

Rod, I was about to answer myself for the benefit of others. Yeah, they just take so much longer to release. I leave them in more than double the time in the water, leave them longer outside, then they glide off. And agreed, they do go down well. So a heads up - don't know whether maybe the other similarly timed releases from Tamiya have the same issue.

Thanks a stack for the word of warning about TS13 and the gold! Geez, that saved my butt... Will most likely use Future in that case.

Hi,

   I did 4 kits at same time and all the sheets are same, they just take 4-5 minutes to release properly. They do stick very well tho, once on the model, wih a bit of sol'n.

Warning, TS13 ill craze the gold decal part so try using 2 pack or a water based clear.

Rod. 

Hey Ronald, welcome. Hope your move goes well. Looking forward to seeing you getting going. Good luck on that Top Studio set. I have one for the 2004 M1 and is leaving it for a while, looks quite daunting. Yet I still went ahead and ordered one for my F2000 as well as the detail in these sets are amazing!

Guys, I've just started decalling the LCR Honda. When I did the first couple of decals on the engine, I thought my water was too cold, no worries. But now I've found it's not the case. I am using scorching hot water (with a drop of dishwashing liquid) and yet this decal sheet seems very reluctant to part with the decals. And with this scheme, that can cause some heartache on the long run. They go down quite fine once off the sheet, but it's such a struggle to get them off the sheet that I allready had a slight tear in one of the decals. Any ideas on how to ease this process? I do exactly the same as with all other decal sheets and is also busy withsome F1 decals and they come off the backing sheet like a charm! These just stiiiick!

Hi all you MotoGP enthousiasts!

I've been following this GB for some months now and I must say: wow, some impressive builds here !

I'm a long time fan of MotoGP and other kinds of bike/motorsport. I'm doing some 1:1 racing competition with bikes as another hobby, so the choice of subject to model was not very hard

I'm getting back at modeling after a hiatus of some 10 years, so my skills will probably be rusty. I'm reading up a lot on tips and techniques. While I'm doing that, I'm gently building my stash to contain a lot of MotoGP stuff. So far I've managed to get:

2x Tamiya Yamaha YZR-M1 2005 Valencia edition

2x Tamiya Yamaha YZR-M1 2005 US Edition

For 2 of these kits I have the Tamiya front-fork set, with 2 additional fork sets on the way. I have a Rossi #46 decal set from Crazy modeler, so I can make 2 sets of #5 Edwards/#46 Rossi bikes.

For one of these kits I ordered the Top Studio Super detail set, because the idea is to make a pitbox -like diorama of some kind with one of the bikes naked without fairings.

Building these will not start before december unfortunately, because we're moving house in november ...

Hope to learn a lot from you all and generally have a good time here.

Regards,

Ronald 

Geez tales of woe all round! we have snow in a lot of parts of south africa at the moment, lets blame it on the weather shall we and just move on!

Yammie, to answer your question on the Gauloises decals give Mediamix a try at this link. I buy all my after market stuff from them, great service.

http://www.mediamixhobby.com.sg/catalog/index.php?cPath=2_7

Happy modelling everyone

I have taken a bit of a nose dive with the model  bikes (and my 1:1 Ducati which I dropped last month) .

I messed up the 1998 Lucky Strike NSR 500 and the 1998 Barros NSR 500 Honda. I had painted all the colour coats and just wanted to lay a layer of clear over the lot before starting the decals, but unfortunately good old Tamiya TS13 was a bit too "HOT" and the separation line between the colours very nicely melted and caused a great Picasso effect so I had to junk the whole lot.  I have ordered replacement parts from HLJ so I am waiting for the bits to arrive and we will start again.

Busy with the Konica Honda but struggling with the Cartograf decals, which do not stick well. I am finding that Mr. Mark decal solution is far too strong and really melts the decals. I sprayed all the blue and black parts on the Konica Honda and it is looking OK thus far and a bit more realistic than the big Tamiya decals with the "dotty" effect which I do not like much. I will post some pictures when the body parts are finished

So generally having a really bad modelling month but I am sure it will turn out in the end, must be because it is winter here and the old grey matter is a bit frozen

Hi Joel

In terms of the cowels firstly there is a fit issue of the main rear cowel onto the frame, when I look at the Renaisance website it seems he made a mistake initially and corrected it to a degree. At the front end it is a little narrow so does not fit nicely onto the frame and the angles are slightly out so you would end up with gaps between the frame and cowel. As I mentioned before the whole main frame sits at a strange angle vs the engine so looks a bit strange. The tank fits nicely! Also remember I mentioned before that he has left off one of the mounting holes for the upper cowel support rods (left side).

With the main cowels you screw the top one into the frame as normal, I had to do a fair bit of cutting away and sanding of various bits (either in the cowel itself or for instance on the air filter) to get it to fit onto the mount peg at the front and then line up with the screw holes. I had to totally leave off one of the electronics boxes that fits to the right side of the frame as when in place the cowel comes no where near to the mounting point. When trying to fit the lower cowel this is again done the normal tamiya way by hooking together but is seriously out, I can't quite figure which part is the main culprit. I did dry couple of fits initially and tried bending to shape after applying a bit of heat but have not managed a clean fit. I am sure in experienced hands this would be a breeze.

Decals are OK. As I said before a little thicker than I am used to working with so needed a lot of patience and Microsol! Also as I said the main decals on the main cowel do not quite line up with the air vent holes, no matter what I tried so you end up with a white edge where it should be solid blue. Overall decalling effect is nice though.

My summary is that for the price this kit is disapointing though as I say for a skilled modeller very used to working with resin etc may well be fine. I have the South africa test version and am stubborn enough to try it sometime!

So, it's the undercowl that will not line up against the side cowls is it? Are they to be put together using screws, the Tamiya way, or are they supposed to be glued together?

Nothing that will help you at the far stage you are at but did you test fit the cowls on earlier stages? And if so, approx. when did they start to bugger you? Can be nice to know when trying my luck on it. AND, how was the decals to work with?

/Joel

I thought I would share my progress anyway on this bike before it goes in the box for a while.

As you can see I am pretty close to finishing but when the cowls would not line up that was it!

I am used to my Tamiya kits coming together like this!

Hey guys thanks for the words, nice to know I am not alone. I guess that is the joy and pain of this hobby, always a challenge but also satisfying!

Which kit to choose, I have done the RC Valencia bike (I assume you all mean the Austin Powers scheme) and had a lot of fun with it. I want to get the 05 M1 versions done at some stage so think that includes the white / red valencia, a CF test version and at least 2 versions of the gauloises blue scheme. I think there was an early and late season version, was there baccy and non-baccy versions of the same? I have already done the Yellow USA 50th anniv version and shared it in the other Moto GP build. I am tempted to try the Top Studio detail version but think I may frustrate myself further so will stick to out of box. Will ponder for a while and let you all know.

Nice one Stoner, as a hardcore Rossi fan it's frustrating to watch but as a Moto GP fan I am just loving his mastery of that Ducatti. The way he slides it is just sick man, I could hardly drive a car straight at 21 years old.

Bushpig: Just stuff it away and pick it out in a couple of months or even next year. Never worth tackling those tough parts when frustrated.  I'd go for the Valencia livery. Would be a nice shift from the resin troubles.

Myself I'm struggling with my 1:1 house. A lot of painting and wall paper hanging to do. And then it's the garden...

Spiderman build troubles me. I'm still a bit afraid of failing this build. ZX-RR is getting somewhere, but I don't know where exactly :-) Still waiting for the wheels and I had to redo the priming of the frame sections. I've also decided to cut the airbox off the engine piece so that I can put the frame together before mounting the mentioned parts.

/Joel

Hey, we're still a group build!  J/k, things have been kinda quiet here lately, though.  You're right, SeaBee, Stoner was impressive today.  I just hope Michelin can get things sorted before MotoGP turns into the Casey Stoner Show.  I know if Rossi had the right gear, we would all be in for a treat seeing the two of them duel it out.  Oh well.  Bushpig, sorry to hear about the kit.  Can't say I blame you though, my first attempt at the Gauloises YZR 500 went into the garbage twice.  And that was a Tamiya kit!  Do something OOB, enjoy it, and you'll be GTG.  Are you thinking of the M1 or RC211v in Valencia colors?  I did the RC and had a lot of fun.  The decals are tricky and you need a lot of micro sol, but it builds up nice.  I really don't care for the red/white Valencia M1 scheme.  I've got the kit, but I'll probably just get aftermarket decals and make it an '05 Gauloises to go with my '04. 

My Fortuna M1 is progressing.  Have the fairings painted red and masked for silver, engine built and painted, frame also done along with the wheels.  Now just fiddling with all the PE parts, something I'm new at.  Frustrating at times, especially without tools specifically for PE parts, but still fun. 

BushPig, that may be a wise decision... I did the same a couple of months ago with a 1:43 FW19 (Villeneuve's WC Williams). I did the "difficult" part and got the paintscheme right, built the rear wing, did the decalling, everything perfect. And for the life of me could not get the rear suspension to fit properly. It is now also shelved untill I get into the mood to struggle again!

If you're looking fr a vote, I'll give it to the "Good-bye Honda" Valencia ride. Love the scheme, but never even bought the kit - allways another one coming out, plus the yellow was a bit unobtainable. Maybe should just go and get it and have it wait for me... Esp since I see Steve's fluo paints are real good - used fluo red on a McLaren just now and it was superb, so the yellow should be just as good.

On my side painting the body parts are done, so decalling can commence shortly. On the construction side I'm... well... ...done with step 1! Allways like to get the painting and decalling done, though, so as not to rush it when I get there and have nothing else to do. This time it was just 3 models having to go through that process at the same time, so construction on all of them fell behind a bit. 

And another great ride from Stoner. Impressive. 

Hey guys, seems we are losing steam here!!?

In disgust I have finally packed away my Mugello NSR. I am so close to finishing but the build is just going from bad to worse, I have had so much trouble trying to get the cowls installed that I have called it a day for now. Better to tackle it again when my energy levels have come back. I am sure in the right hands this makes into an awesome bike but I have struggled, guess it's best to stick to basic out the box going forward.

Anyway looking forward positively, I have a choice between a Rossi M1 in either Valencia livery or one of the Gauloises variants. What shall it be??????????

Gentlemen,

Here is a pic of what you get when you order the 04 YZR-M1 c/f templates from SMS.  I thought you got everything, including the insides of the fairings, but sadly no.  I tried to take pics of the reverse side that actually shows the c/f pattern (1/20 pewter) but they didn't turn out.  Starting this build tonight, I shall make every effort to post in-progress pics. 

 SeaBee: There's nothing like the smell of braking fluid in the morning...

 Bushpig: When you get over your frustration, please write down the heads ups and post them so we can avoid some of the problems.

/Joel

Gotta love this hobby! I have said it before, has anyone ever built a fault free model. Somehow I doubt it.

My NSR Mugello bike is really starting to p..s me off, I am so close to finishing but have hit little snags again and am really developing a mental block with it. Half of me is saying pack it away and do an out the box build to restore sanity but on the other hand I just want to push on and finish. Oh well at least I have work to occupy my mind during the day!

No doubt you'll find the one you thought you had within the next couple of days!

Amateur hour hit this side. I mean, how difficult can masking in straight lines be?!  The one interesting thing is that there were not even slight marking to indicate the masking lines as on some older Tamiya models. Maybe to be able to re-use the molds as a whole. But I had more leaks in there than I had on my much more complex FW24's masking effort. Most likely just a bit too much of a hurry and not sealed proberly. Sorry, had to spew out my dismay at myself... Now to fix it.

Gents,

Working on the pics of the templates.  I was wondering, has anybody used Lion Roar PE parts?  I've got the set for my M1 and was wondering what pitfalls to look out for as my PE experience is limited.  Also ordered the 04 fork set for the bike from hlj today.  Coulda sworn I had one...

Got to agree with you, Bushpig. I take my hat off for them to even attempt it! I am building all around my Top Studio detail kit - and here we show the fruit of the effort. Joel, you're going to turn out that heap of resin to look better than I do a straight Tamiya build!

Absolute stunning race! Those guys pushed each other sooo hard, drifting all over the place. Man, that was awesome! And hats of to Randy de Puniet for even getting on a bike in the state he was in, let alone finishing 5th! 

I have said it before, I admire you scratch builders. looking 100% better already Joel. a bit of paint and some heat staining and even the kit providers themselves wont recognise the part!

superb race yesterday, I think this is going to be a season to be remembered.

Ok, as I told you earlier this transkit has a resin blob as an engine with molded in exhaust pipes. Although it's all gonna be hidden under the cowls it looks terrible. I don't think it will get MUCH better as I'm not that good with fiddly parts of styrene and the exhaust system of the ZX-RR is quite tricky to represent as the outer pair of pipes goes undernieth the inner pair.

What I started out with looks like this:

I started by carving away all of the molded in pipes and was left with this.

I bent pieces of styrene rod over a candle and cut them roughly where they intersect.

Finally I formed some Tamiya putty around the lower part to make them hold together.

This lump will hopefully get a more decent shape with some abrasive paper later.The pipes are not perfectly straight and the original kit exhaust wasn't aligned properly so it looks so so. But I think I have a chance of getting it to look ok. Also, this way the engine block can be painted without messing up the exhausts.

/Joel