Moto GP / GP bike enthusiasts

I'll check the M1 pipes out, may be something of use. I got the Kawasaki Lime green base color from Hiroboy today together with some 2K Clear from Hiroboy. Will be intersting to try something new.

There is a vacuum formed wind screen included in the kit.

/Joel

Time to start my builds up. I'll begin with the Kawasaki ZX-RR bike and here comes an introduction to the kit.

The Kawasaki ZX-RR transkit uses a Yamaha M1 as base but I would say there are quite a few parts needed. You'll need tires and rimbs along with brake discs and front forks and that's nearly all. I have the forks from another build but I think I'll just order the B tree from the M1 along with the tire bag instead of wasting a whole kit.

One of the nice attributes when buying S27 kits is as you all probably know, THE BOX.

Let's have a look inside it, shall we?

Here are the white metal parts (just some of them actually)

Resin parts layed out.

Seat and tank dummy is molded in one piece. As it will all be green this will ease the painting. I've ordered some Ninja Green from Hiroboy to use on this kit.

Here is the bottom side of the same part.

Engine leaves a lot to wich for. There are a lot of moulded in details that will be hard to pick out and give some life. I'll need to figure out if some parts will be replaced or if I shall just close my eyes and remember that all will be hidden undernieth the cowls...?

As you can see the front section of the exhaust system is...well, crappy...to say the least.

Here's a closer look at the side and top cowl part. Looks pretty well detailed and molded.

Unfortunately, when you put the two halves together what you get is this...

A very poor fit... I'll decide if cutting the insert pins will lessen the problem or if I have to pick out the old epoxy putty and starting filling away.

Anyhow, in general it's a fairly decent mold with just a little flash and some mold edges to take care of. No air bubbles what so ever from what I have spotted so far and the resin is very hard.

Kit comes with a PE sheet and decal sheet that both looks rather promising.

best regards
Joel

Hello Joel

Busy with the Dexter NSR500 1986 Moriwaki so far so good. Ready to spray a clear coat and then try the Dexter decals. Have had some difficulties a while back with a Ducati 916 Senna decal sheet so hoping all will go well

Barros YZR500 NSR should be next. I have all the parts ready for spraying but I keep putting it off since is is a complicated spary job, think I am just being lazy with that one

Have recieved the decal sheet for the 98 Lucky Strike Honda NSR 500 so I may give that one a try next looks great in red and white, but..... the Lucky Strike embelm decals are presented as a single decal so that will need some careful cutting up to safely apply it to the bike. Still thinking about that move?

Andrew

Aerodynamics and graphic design has changed a lot though Nice to see the two kits next to each other! I really like the Cretto build and you've done a really nice job with it.

So, what's next...??

/Joel

Completed the Cretto Yamaha YZR500. The bike and the kit is very different from the current bikes and kits. For fun I put Cretto's Yamaha next to the 2004 Fortuna Yamaha M1. Interesting comparison include the tyre width, wheel diameter, front cowling design, discs and brake systems all very different, yet in an appealing way the Yamaha of 25 years ago wasn't that bad, it is still I think a pretty bike.

Well done Ragged Edge Designs on a good decal set

Here´s a link to what I use to display my model kits. Link is from Swedish Ikea but I guess the image speaks for itself.

http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10103&storeId=2&langId=-11&productId=47149

I get 15 bikes in there. Perhaps to small for you that do larger kits as well but for bike purposes this is perfect.

/Joel

Nick: Looks really really nice. I admire that swing arm, your work on it is great.

Bushpig: I think you mean Roca. When I last heard from him he was a bit tired of the project as it took a lot of effort and time from his other projects and he put it aside for a while. Hopefully he'll get back to it in the future as the decals he made for it is really great and the seat and frame was coming along real nicely.

Regarding my own builds I tend to have two builds going on seperately. The two ducs are finished except the stand wheels will need an extra layer of clear blue. Hopefully completed photos will be up in the weekend.

Took a deeper look into the Kawasaki last night and took some photos. Will upload them tonight to give you an idea of what's it all about.

/Joel

Looking good Nick, I really admire you scratch builders. Does anyone know what happened to the aprilia cube that someone was scratchbuilding on the other group build, it was looking good but I lost track of it.

Joel I will be very interested to see how the Kawa turns out, was thinking of building one myself. Will wait for your expert opinion before laying out the dough! So thats 2 kits at once plus the Ducati's on your webpage, some people just don't know when to stop!

As an aside, a problem I have is where to display these bikes once finished, my wife thinks the garage is just fine, how do the rest of you tackle this?

My furniture arrives in 2 weeks then I can get going with my build, can't wait

Dustin, yes the idea of this build is to keep it pretty open ended and use it more as a forum to share ideas, frustrations, tips and comments on current kits etc (and of course to comment on the 1:1 scale races going on in the various categories of motorcycle sport, the inspiration for all of this afterall!)

 Happy modelling

Progress on the Aprilia 500....using an Airfix Biaggi Yamaha M1 as a base.Yes you read that right ! Came across a sale where they were flogging them off for a tenner, so picked up a few. The detail compared to Tamiya is, well, not in the same ballpark at all. And the plastic is quite soft. Anyway, the wheels are practically identical to the Aprilia and the overall shape of the fairing isnt a millions miles away. Its going to take ages, mind.

Did a bit of chopping and moulding of the frame and swingarm, some pics attached. Ive included the original Airfix pieces (white) alongside my own altered pieces (grey).

swingarm:

frame:

Im currently experimenting with spraying a carbon fibre effect on the swingarm using the wifes tights (let me clarify that Im putting the tights on the swingarm - no funny ideas there ). Hopefully get some more pics up soon.

Started the ZX-RR build yesterday evening and it seems to be a fairly easy task to complete it in reasonable time. I will try to take some photos but here are some inputs to the kit:

Engine is a nightmare for a rivet counter. Engine block and front end of the exhaust system is moulded in one piece. Thinking of removing the pipes and scratch build some from styrene rod instead. Engine is of coarse not that visible after assembly but I will know what's undernieth those cowls.

A lot of white metal as always in the S27 kits. I don't like the stuff but that's what they've left me and it's just to dig into it. Will not use the metal look on the frame but repaint it using Alclad. Airbox and engine is one piece so I'm left with either splitting that part up or assemble the frame around the engine. Think I'll go with the latter. Top, side and lower cowl comes in two halves to be glued together. Will make painting fairly easy. Seat cowl and tank dummy is moulded in one piece too.

Instruction sheet leavs a lot to ask for and you have to guess where several of the parts are to be added. That's common when it comes to PE sheets in my opinion and this kit have the same issues. PE sheet has a lot of small parts that I don't really know where they shall go. Hope I'll figure that out further down the road.

I'm about to order some Ninja green paint from Hiroboy. Black parts of the cowls will get SMS CF decals.

Kit needs donor parts from a Yamaha M1. We're not talking the full kit, far from it. You'll need the tyres, the rimbs, front forks and discs and that basically it. I'll take the forks from the Spiderman base kit as I'll use the Tamiya fork set for that build. I'll just order a spare parts tree and tire bag from Rainbow ten for the wheels and discs.

I'll try to show some pics of it during the week.

/Joel

Today I've decided to enter the Studio 27 Kawasaki ZX-RR 2003 bike along with the Spiderman M1. Have to cut the stack of transkits and this one seems like an interesting and fairly easy start.

/Joel

Dustin

It's out already.  I think it was released in Feburary if I'm not mistaken.  Of course, Pedrosa's bike is on the box top.  I think Tamiya is under Honda's thumb to favor Danielle as they do. 

Terrific season opener and the Ducs will be hard to beat as long as they are up in the field. Did you see how Stoner flew away from Rossi on the straights? Many great looking liveries to hope for. I'm not sure I like the duck back rear ends all the teams seam to go with though. Looks weird but perhaps it just takes some time getting used to.

/Joel

andrew

This is shaping up to one nice looking bike. I referred a few weeks ago to a build in the Oct edition of the Tamiya magazine in which the guy did the Sheene yammie. In particular he had a very fresh approach to the exhaust welding. If you want to email me and I will scan in the pics a method for you, I think you will duplicate it no problem. When i am set up at home again will transcribe his method and pics for everyone on this build.

Essentially he takes a thinned down filler mix and applies it to where the welded area would be through a fine needle and syringe to give the raised look. Sprayed the whole exhaust to the final shade, then clear blue over the weld seams, when dry he hand painted a thin line of maskol fluid over each seam, then tamiya x9 over the maskol with a slight feathering onto the actual exhust but try to minimise the overspary, then remove the mask. Gives a superb result, i am sure once you see the pics you'll get it. I am sure you will be thrilled with the result.

 Rossi in pole, it's gonna be a gooooood season!

Progress on the Cretto YZR 500 Yamaha. The real bike has the exhaust pipes in welded sections made of what I think looks like stainless steel. When stainless steel is welded it leaves a distinct black burn marks on the metal, which is very visible on the real bike. I did not like the recommended Gunmetal as it is too much like "paint" and not bare metal. I have tried to simulate the burnt stainless steel with the airbrush. The general effect is reasonable but I don't think I got all the striping in the right places.

Bushpig wrote:

Yammiefreak I assume you are referring to the grey on the top of the rear cowl and the lower main cowl? I may be way off the mark on this but I used tamiya x-10 gunmetal sprayed with an airbrush on my bike and it looks fine to me. When I did mine I sprayed white, applied the decals (but cut down as close to the blue stripe as was safe to do) , then carefully masked off the line using tissue etc and then sprayed the grey. This gave a much better feathered edge and looks better than trying to plonk the decal onto the grey in my opinion. If i am not making sense let me know!

Thanks Bushpig, I'll give this a shot.  Less than a day now till the season starts!  Spring's here in TX, and I'm really beginning to feel the bike riding, building, and race watching itch!  Anyone follow AMA Superbike?  Looks like they might have an interesting season this year.  Go Big Blue!

Hehe, took a dive down the decal sheet bag yesterday and found out that the two Spiderman sheets I had lying around was the one from Renaissance and the one from MSM Creations not the SMS sheet as I was hoping for. MSM doesn't look to convincing with large asses of decals and a lot of carrier film. Perhaps I have to go out and shop for the SMS sheet as well, if I don't settle with the Renaissance one. Desicions, desicions, decisions.

Hmm, the Renaissance detail set... I know it is made for the Spidey bike and all but 60 euro!! Christ! Even more expensive than the Top model set. And if I am correctly informed you'll have problems attaching the cowls using any of the sets.

Andrew: Looking good man!

/joel

Progress on the 1980 Cretto YZR 500 Yamaha. No major difficulties encountered so far, will be adding some additional cables. This bike is very basic when compared to the latest Yamaha M1 with respect to wiring, cables and electronics gadgets

Hey, I actually got around to some painting! That Hiroboy paints are awesome. Who'd have thought black with transparent purple over it would bring that colour?! And it still looked black to me untill I added the mandetory clear coat over the purple. The moment it caught the light after that, it was that magical looks-almost-like-black-but-is-blue ehhr... blue. I used a different a/b for the orange, thinking it is large areas to cover and it did not come out quite as nice and even as the whole multi-layered blue done with the finer a/b. And no masking... If all else fails, read the instructions.

Engine done and washed as well, next step will be black insides, then decalling, whilst continuing with assembly of wheels and rest of the bike itself.

Andrew, that looks like a fun masking project you had going there! Nice one!

Yep, can hardly wait for the weekend (and next weekend!) Saw that last session they had to win the Z4. The rear ends looks... interesting! Something to get used to... Very much like the new Fiat-Yamaha (very white-ish) livery.

Nice to see this build gaining momentum. Joel how about incorporating the Rennaisance detail set on the M1, I think it was specifically done for the Spidey bike. On the S27 brake disc issue I think the consensus was something to do with Melandrie having a specifically different disc on the left of his bike. It is a nice detail set and adds a lot to a kit, I used them extensively on the M1's I posted on the other GP build. Still waiting for my furniture to arrive before I can get going on my build!

5 days and counting, it's been a long winter waiting for the first race!

Andrew - looking forward to your Moriwaki bike looks good do far.

Joel good to see tackleing spidey bike have had a nightmare with the one I was doing ,used the Renaissance decales that are good  .

Runing out of time will have to go to work will tell you about them when get home.

St27  ZX-RR luky bugger ( they are quite dare over here)

Shayne 

So, visitors of onetwelvth.com has helped me choose the 2004 Yamaha Fortuna M1 in Spiderman livery for this GB. Will be something to dig into. Still deciding on what sheet to use and I'm also awaiting a Crazy Modeler PE set for some better detailing.

Talking about detailing, I got myself a S27 transkit of the 2003 Fortuna M1 over at detailanddesigninscale.com (together with a S27 ZX-RR t/k ) I think we had a discussion on this theme in another GB but why does S27 give you only one front disc rotor? Tried to figure out if there is one that has more details to be recreated but couldn't find a satisfying answer. Any ideas or speculations from you guys?

/Joel

Busy assembling the 1980 Cretto YZR 500 Yamaha, and so far so good, tried simulate the manufactured expansion boxes and the weld marks with paints, will post pictures when at that stage of the assembly. I am adding a few additional details such as accelerator cables rev counter cables and water temperature gauge sensor but have tried to simulate most detail with paint

Have sprayed all the parts for the Dexter NSR500 1986 Moriwaki see picture below

Yammiefreak

I assume you are referring to the grey on the top of the rear cowl and the lower main cowl? I may be way off the mark on this but I used tamiya x-10 gunmetal sprayed with an airbrush on my bike and it looks fine to me. When I did mine I sprayed white, applied the decals (but cut down as close to the blue stripe as was safe to do) , then carefully masked off the line using tissue etc and then sprayed the grey. This gave a much better feathered edge and looks better than trying to plonk the decal onto the grey in my opinion. If i am not making sense let me know!

Guys, for those who haven't seen it yet the July 2007 copy of Sport Rider magazine has an incredible article on the MotoGP bikes, the end of an era (990cc) showing amazing details of engines, air boxes, electronics, etc...The best is on the 06 M1...unbelieveable motor and air box pics...A must for us modelers.

Enjoy!

Racer155

Hey Gents,

 Got a quick paint question: I'm in work on Rossi's Nastro NSR, but I've encountered a small road block. The instructions call for MS-5 Metallic Gray for certain portions of the cowl.  I've had this color on backorder since before Christmas with HLJ, and am considering my options.  Does anybody know if Tamiya has replaced MS-5 with another color?  Will one of their TS spray colors like TS-38 Gunmetal be a suitable substitute?  I know they have XF-56 Metallic Gray in bottles, but I'm not certain it will match the cowl decals, which if you've built this kit can see why I'm trying to match the decal stripes exactly.  And I'm not crazy about thinning and shooting XF-56 through the airbrush, just a lack of experience and confidence on my behalf.  This paint issue is the only thing holding me up on this build, which by the way is probably the last kit I'll be doing before I move to Iwakuni Japan in June.  And the Mrs. isn't real happy with me spending my prep-for-the-move-time "playing with my bikes".  Any help is appreciated.