Moto GP / GP bike enthusiasts

The method I follow is pretty much the same regardless of the part size. My rule is to try as much as possible to keep the decal to one piece. This makes it harder to bed down and get around difficult angles but gives a nicer finish in the long run. I cover the part in strips of masking tape and then trace around the edge of the part with a marker. Carefully remove the masking tape and then try to gently lay it flat on a piece of clean glass, this gives you an idea of whether it will lay flat on your decal. Here you may need to make the odd cut. I did the Desmo and basically in the middle had to cut a large V from the base to approximately half way up the piece (go have a look here http://www.dextermodels.com/pages/dcl12pag.html and look at the decal template for the CF for kit DC-L12006 and you will see what I mean). Then cut out the shape using your drawn line and allow about 1mm spare on the outside of your line to allow for any shrinkage during application. Remove the masking tape carefully and then apply. Mostly it should bed down ok, where you cut the V you now have to carefully bring the edges to meet in the middle. Then it's a case of lots of Microsol and getting it all to smooth down. Dont stress too much if you mess it up, the great thing about CF is you just soak it off and start again till you are happy.

I did this bike a while ago and if you look closely you will see I CF'd the whole thing.

Hope this has all made sense.

Chris look at Seabee's Stoner RC211, you will see he felt he screwed up a good model when the Klear damaged his visor.

Bushpig,
I think it was 2K that messed up that screen youre talking about.

FWIW, Ive used Klear on all my Tamiya screens and never had a problem. Just dip it in and let any excess drain off.

Bushpig and Seabee--thanks!  Great tips! 

Bushpig--love your YZR!  Can I ask what CF you used (scale, pattern, and color)?

Abso--lutely.  It was 2K. Learned my lesson. It also buggered my airbrush when I believed the salesman that it could be cleaned with normal lacquer thinners. I hope to have it sorted with a new head assembly... 

But back to Future or the much talked-about and dreaded by some TS13 for clear parts for me. 

Bushpig--another question: what exactly do you do with the Tamiya smoke on exhausts?  Spot spray or the whole thing with a light coat?  Also, do you mean the Acrylic Smoke? 

The exhaust weathering is based on a technique I picked up from another build by Andrew Collodale (master modeller in my opinion, check out all his other contirbutions in the other forums).

Once you have the base chrome or metal colour it is then a case of free hand spraying the various clear colours (I only use the tamiya X enamel range, no acrylics). I use low pressure, a fine nozzle and needle set up on my airbrush and try to get as realistic a heat stain as possible. There are loads of pics around of the stationery bikes to use as a guide. You may notice on the M1 that I have used a lot of blue etc below the muffler but on the end of the pipe basically just clear orange and smoke, this is how it looks to me in the pics I use as reference. I finish with a very fine X19 smoke layer which seems to tone the whole thing down and make it all more realistic. I have seen elsewhere that guys will finish with a very dilute solution and fine spray of the initial metal shade to bring back the metal look but I dont bother. As with any technique it is trial and error, I practised for ages on pieces of sprue till I thought I had it half mastered and then totally screwed up my first attempt, love this hobby!

Incidenatlly with the CF decals some of them seem to be more silver than black which I dont think looks good so I spray over them with X19 smoke as well which seems to give them a more toned down blacker look. I use Scale Motorsport CF decal sheets, mostly twill weave and in 1:20 scale. The M1 was a plain weave design in 1:12 scale but since doing it I realise it should have been twill but dont have the heart to start again.

Bushpig! Why haven't you shown us this test bike before?! (Or have you...?) If you haven't I'm really angry on you for withholding such a great piece of work. It looks great and I'll always be tremendously impressed with you that can do such great cf jobs. Truely inspiring but non the less seems so totaly unachievable for me.

To you new guys, a very warm welcome and please join the group build with whatever is in your stack, as long as it is a GP bike.

Regarding Future/Klear/Klar and whatever names it is sold under I have just tried it ones and didn't like it at all. Probably did some moves wrong and I shall concider making another go, but right now I think I'll rather take my chances with a rattlecan of clear instead of brush painting a cowl with Future. IF, and I say IF, you don't save up for that air brush and compressor. It will turn your modelling into something completely different, and with different that is said in a really good way. The technique is rather straight forward and you'll be stuck with the cleaning hazzles but I'd say the paint loss is at a minimum as the paint is sprayed at such a high preassure and what's left in the airbrush is easily poured bak into the jar. I spray laquers, acrylics and enamels and I'll never return to brush painting. But then again, it is a bit of an investment.

2007 is coming to an end and as always it's time to sum up what one has achieved wich in my case was easier than ever. I haven't done much this year since the hole house building hysteria has taken up so much time. AND what's next when you finally think there is some room for some modeling again? There's a baby coming in May! Feels great though and hopefully I can sneak into the modeling room from time to time.

To sum things up, GREAT to see so many posts in the last couple of days, I think the GB is alive!

 Best regards

Joel

Bushpig: Thanks for the wonderful advice!

Joel: congrats on the upcoming delivery!  And thanks for the welcome (remember me from the AF forum?)

SeaBee: ditto, ditto, ditto!

FYI: call me Mike.

Hi Joel Thanks for the compliment. I have shared this one before, in the Moto GP build started by Pingtang. You may remember me as the guy who spent 2 years in sri lanka and shared some of my challenges to keep my hobby going there. Now back in South Africa and so much to do I am finding it hard to get to the modelling bench.

Well done on the up coming little one

Hi guys,

I have managed to get some Klear frm my local supermarket. I am now at a stage with my current RCV build where I have fixed the fairings together. Do i just paint the Klear on with my brush before putting decals on and then another coat after decals or do i put decals on first and then paint over?

Just a quick question about airbrushing before I make a decision whether to save up and atake the plunge; When you are painting the engine say do you assemble the engine block and then spray each colour one after the other. If this is the method do you have to individually mask off everytime you change colour or does an airbrush spray fine enough to not need masking? My current method is to paint everything while they are on the sprues and then assemble, and finish by trimming sprue stubs and overpainting where these were.

Thanks in advance,

Chris.

p.s. pics to follow...

Chris I have never used Klear so cant help with this, there are other more qualified chaps around to comment. However my method with fairings etc is to join together where necessary, fill any imperfections, apply primer, base colour then a layer or two of clear. You will find that you may have to lightly sand with fine grit water paper between coats to get rid of little imperfections etc. When I have a clear base I am happy with I let it set for a few days out of harms (and dust) way. Apply the decals then finish with a few coats of clear.

Air brushing parts, I tend to build up the pieces as much as possible then spray them individually ( ie there may be parts to the engine block you have to join and paint, others you paint before adding onto the block, you just have to play it by ear). There will be times you have to mask off areas, it is impossible to control over spray to that degree. I also tend to clean up and paint together all  of the parts that call to be the same colour, eg all the bits that need chrome or X18, you run the risk of losing them but at least you save paint and they are all done at once.

Hi guys,

 Here are some pictures of progress so far on my latest RC211V in West colours.

Just opened the Chrissie pressies this morning and I got a Konica Minolta kit so looking forward to making that one! Also got a dremel type tool so am hoping to do detail work with that! Am waiting for some carbon decal that I ordered to arrive before I can properly finish the West model.

 Oh and the front mudguard has had Klear applied and looks pretty shiny!

Happy Christmas!

Chris

OK Gents, here's my progress on the Desmo Marlboro.  I tried the Crazy Modeler additive decals but wasn't happy with them--I actually wasn't happy even looking at 'em before application.  The print quality didn't seem so good and there were obvious irregularities in the white side decals.  I tried one and removed it.  I ordered a set of TABU additives and am still waiting... In the meantime I worked on the CF--here's some pics.  Always appreciate feedback, good, bad, and ugly..

This is the Scale Motorsport 1/20 twill weave black on pewter:

Here are some more shots of the cowlings:

I took the Marlboro logo here from the ST27 transkit sheet (I'm planning on doing the South Africa livery, so don't need it for that bike):

chrisga wrote:

Hi guys, I have managed to get some Klear frm my local supermarket. I am now at a stage with my current RCV build where I have fixed the fairings together. Do i just paint the Klear on with my brush before putting decals on and then another coat after decals or do i put decals on first and then paint over? Thanks in advance, Chris.

Not a GP issue but this is something special...

 Take a look at the upcoming release from Model Factory Hiro and this preview pictures...Amazing...and not to mention pricy.

http://www.modelfactoryhiro.com/shop/Y-S%20032.jpg

http://www.modelfactoryhiro.com/shop/Y-S%20017.jpg

http://www.modelfactoryhiro.com/shop/Y-S%20007.jpg

more pictures at www.modelfactoryhiro.com

/Joel - amazed

That looks like its going to be a suzuka 8 hour race GSXR-1000. Am I correct? Unfortunately the website came out only in japanese on my computer.

I emailed Tamiya a while ago and asked if they could do more litre road bike models, i.e. start with the road bike, say a GSXR (or my preference a CBR1000RR as thats my 1:1 toy) and issue that as a model. Then they could do various superbike race bike models with the kit based on the road bike kit, i.e. from BSB, WSB, AMA superbike, Japanese Superike series. Their answer was that they stick to the GP bikes because they are more widely known around the world and are more recognisable to more people. I think though that doing some more road bikes and then basing racers on that would be fantatstic and may get more people interested in making them. Certainly in the UK I'd say that the domestic superbike series is as strong if not stronger in terms of support than Motogp but i realise this may not be the case in other countries.

Realized today that I have misplaced the entire resin/pe parts box for the Rossi 2001 test version. Doesn't that just make you so sad?!

Happy new year everybody!

/Joel

Today I realized that I have to give myself a fresh start, as I've been out of modeling for quite some time. The ZX-RR and Spiderman kits seems a bit too tough to complete at the moment and I'm awaiting the chance to get my hands on some details to add.

So, today I picked out not one, not two, not three but four (why keep it on the low side...) older kits. Two YZR Antenna 3 ´99 and two YZR Factory ´01 kits. My plan is to make a Marlboro quartet with the ´99, ´00 + early and late season ´01 bikes.

I've never done the Marlboro kits before and as the YZR kits are quite straight forward I reckon I can manage all four at the same time. My basic intention is to keep it low when it comes to detailing but I know how that tend to be in the end.

I'll put some pics upp when I get somewhere. And I'll try and finish the others as well when I get up to speed (anyone that happen to have a small piece of brass rod (4 mm diameter with room for a 2 mm rod inside it) that they are willing to part with? Just need a few centimeters)

/Joel

Hey Joel can't help you with the metal rods, I have always found my local model railroad supplier to be quite obliging with a few off cuts.

Welcome back to the bench and an ambitious start! I have done 2 of the same kit at once before and found it got so boring to have to do the same thing over and over. The upside though is once you finish you have swelled your collection that much faster. Good luck. I look forward to following your progress here and on onetwelvth.

I have had a bit of a break from work so have managed to make some good progress on the Duc 888, herewith a bit of an update.

Cowlings have had their 2 coats of clear and now ready for the decaling.

Wheels complete

Engine complete

Chassis complete

Next steps are basically to finish off the front forks and handle bars, decals and final clear coat on the cowlings and then put the whole thing together.

Looks great Bushpig. May I ask what is to be attached to the rearmost black items of the frame? Looks interesting.

I thought I'd ask you if you happen to have some reference pics of the ´99 and ´00 Marlboro bikes. They would be most appreciated and can be sent to my mail address joel@onetwelvth.com

/Joel

Joel the attachment points are for the exhausts. I have installed the engine etc so will post a pic tonight (back to work today ) I will check in my ref photos for any marlboro pics I may have.

Well a quick update, disaster has struck (why does it always seem to be toward the end of a build?). Quite inexplicably one of the rear decals split whilst settling down with the Microsol, I am not sure if it had an inherrant weakness but I now sit with a torn decal. I have to weigh up my choices, as this is for my neighbour I am tempted to try and just repair it as best I can and move on. I suppose the best though will be to order a replacement decal sheet and do it over. Damn!