Moto GP / GP bike enthusiasts

Hi Chaps. Well I managed to knuckle down and finish the NSR500 in the Renaisance Mugello livery. As you know I had encountered some problems along the way which eventually made me pack the whole thing away for a better day! Once I got going again I realised I was never going to get the 2 cowls to line up so I decided to go with an "in the garage" look by showing the lower cowl removed.

I made the lower cowl stand out of wire and some epoxy metal bond, added a bit of black tube and it all ends up looking OK. This way I got finished and manage to show off a bit of the engine detail in the process. In the final assembly I had major frustration with the two top exhausts, however eventually realised I was trying to put them in upside down  (in the build you remove the kit mounting brackets so I lost my frame of reference - note this anyone who decides to make this kit up and the South Africa test bike from the same supplier).

So in summary, as my first venture into resin transkits I learnt a lot, made a load of mistakes, but in the long run I think the bike is a nice additon to my collection. I certainly will approach the next one quite differently.

I think I will take a few days to decide what to build next, so many options so little time!

Hey Sano. Just relax, build and enjoy! We all start somewhere and hopefully improve with every kit we tackle.

 I just found this browsing the net, has anyone used any of their product? The Rossi test decals really appeal to my desire to build out of the ordinary / test bikes / anything to do with Rossi. I hope this means Tamiya are not too far behind in getting ready to launch the 800cc bikes at last! I see he has a Stoner section but only one bike so far.

http://www.schumi-rossi-diecast.com/epages/61462714.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61462714

thanks 4 all of the positive feedbacks seabee, joel, and all the guys here

now i'm currently working on doohan's nsr500'99 as my first motoGP kit. the bike number is 1, it's my 1st kit, and i hope the result to be the numero uno also (even though i screw it later, at least i started with a good philosophy ). (maybe) i'll put on some pics here later (if i didn't screw up too much )

about the decals on the screen: is it really okay to not seal decals? cuz some decals on one of my gundam start to fall apart (peel) after about 2 months. maybe it's because the direct hit of sunshine from my window, but i didn't risk it, i immediately buy TS-13 and clearcoat all of my gundams, ahahahah

btw: cool looking site joel! u just got urself one more loyal visitor! and i see u've also done doohan's nsr'99. any more tips for me? hehehe

Seabee I cant comment on the kawasaki but as you say it seems unlikely Tamiya would have such an error in this day of computerised tooling etc. The only thing it maybe is a defect part which warped whilst cooling, I am sure they must get this now and then. why not take it into a dealer and try to compare to a new one, I am sure they would relace it if you find it to be a problem. (Tamiya are fantastic with after sales service in my experience)

Racer on the screen question firstly I would not recommend ever trying to put any clear coat onto the screen (refer back to seabees woes earlier in this build). As for the stickers I tend to try and get some reference photos of the real bikes and then apply as close to reality as possible. Some are just stickers placed on the screen so you get away with just sticking it on without cutting. Others seem integrated with the clear screen so in that case you would have to cut. I dont really like cutting decals so in most cases I would just leave it in one piece, I find once it beds down after some microsol it looks fine. On a few builds I have actually sprayed clear onto the panels after applying decals and so this has entailed making a plan with regard to the screen (the Go!!!!!!!!!! bike is one I think).

In this case I leave the small decals which go onto the side of the screen off till afterwards (in Rossis case these are the little insurance disc and his comical picture) . I have carefully applied Tamiya masking tape onto the screen, keeping slightly away from the decal, you need to do a bit of cutting and fitting to get it right but avoid putting it on and trying to cut to shape with a knife, you will just lift the decal as you pull the trimmed bit off and probably damage the screen. Also make sure you mask off the rest of the screen on both sides. Spray as normal with clear and once dry carefully remove the mask and apply the little decals on the edge / side. Hope this makes sense, difficult to describe but I could try to do some pics to show what I mean if it doesnt.

SeaBee wrote:

Maybe I stuffed up something else.

Well, probably Unlikely to me that a Tamiya kit would have that of a fitting issue. I don't have the kit myself though so I can't really look at the instructions to maybe figure it out...

/J

Joel - you don't... but not as in you don't thin it, you don't airbrush it! Learn from my mistakes... I've once tried it and it was a complete mess. Talked to somebody who uses it all the time on 1:20 F1's and he said in that scale it smooths out so nice, he allways brushes it on. I've tried it and it works fine - also on bike panels. Since we don't have the real thing in SA, though, I am not using it much any more. Back to "the dreaded" (by many) TS13 for me...

Question from my side. Just added my exhausts on the Kawasaki this morning. I was absolutely dumbfounded to see one pipe (central one on the left-hand set) not fitting properly where it "enters" the engine. Any of you ran into it - or heard of somebody running into it? It is the first time on any of these modern Tamiya bikes I've had a fit problem of any sort. And if I remember correctly, the front end of the pipes are molded and you only glue on the open ends' halves, so I could not have done it much differently. Maybe I stuffed up something else. 

racer155 wrote:

So joelrydh, you don't use any clear or future on your windscreens?

No I don't... I haven't found any good ways of masking off the clear part when using clear paints. If using Future there could be an idea to dip the whole screen in the stuff, I know car modelers that dip the entire window in future to make it look more glass like and remove scratches. As Future is self levelling it should be ok.

While talking of Future (not to mix with THE Future ;-) ), do you thin it in any way before spraying it through an airbrush?

/Joel

So joelrydh,

you don't use any clear or future on your windscreens?

I think they look just fine without anything but I'm interested in the different aproaches...

racer155

This is just the thig a gb is for, to learn and get inspired from each other.

With wind screen decals I separate them with a sharp blade and disregard the gap. I don't seal the decals at all...

Joel

joelrydh and bushpig,

thanks for all your input, thanks for the time you put into replying to my post! It really helps!

I visit onetwelvth.com almost every day looking for info...great site joel! and I look closely to your builds bushpig, they are awesome....I see the difference it makes to use an airbrush!

I don't have a lot of experience but I'm detail focused so I take my time.....I can't wait to get that airbrush!

The 000 brush was a good thing I found out about by reading your reports...so I'm buying a couple of those as well. I made my own "detail" brush by cutting a regular brush down to about 2mm...it does great when I need to paint the brake rotor rivets, screws and bolts or to fill up a small area such as the chain tensioners.

Oh! since I'm here....how do you deal with decals that go over the front cowl and windscreen? I tried putting the 46 on the GOOOOO!!!! M1 over both and then cutting it with a blade but I ended  up with a visible gap.

Also, what do you use to seal the decal onto the windscreen, Tamiya clear, Future or do you just leave it like alone?

Anyway, thanks for sharing!

racer155

A+ for the build bushpig and the same for pulling out the old nsr again!

/Joel

Racer I think Joel has pretty much covered your questions. As I have said before you will not look back once you have upgraded to the airbrush. I use mine for virtually everything (eg if you look at the Yammie pics above I even airbrushed the carburettors - both the metal and yellow parts) The most I use a brush for is to do the rivet heads and screw heads when picking out detail. You will have to learn the art of creative masking techniques but that comes easy enough.

Below the complete Roberts Yammie. I would say I have really enjoyed putting this one together, the only frustration came right at the end when I glued the clear screen in place. As I was easing in the glue I got the shakes and a blob ended up on the left side, not the end of the world and I am sure I can polish it out easy enough.

So onto my next build. I think I am going to finish up the Mugello NSR 500 that gave me so much trouble earlier on, it is so close to finished that it seems a waste not to give it one last go.

Hi Racer155

Regarding enamel and acrylics it seems to be a matter of taste. It feels to me that enamels dries slightly slower wich is good when brush painting. Both acrylics and enamels are sensitive to heat from your fingers when handling the parts and they both dry A LOT slower than laquers.

I tend to use acrylics and enamels on engine parts and smaller details and laquer on cowling parts, but then again I'm using an air brush. When brush painting it all sums up to one thing, the correct ratio of paint and thinner. And there is no easy way other than to expriment with your own settings, temperature and humidity will affect the results. What you want is the paint to blend together after every brush stroke. Only thing I can say is that there is very few, if any, paints that you can brush paint directly from the jar without thinning them.

Try not to use the brush on already painted areas as you will get clogs of semi dry paint. If you don't get even coverage, wait until the paint dries and then go over it again. And remember it is REALLY hard to get a smooth surface with regular brushes, so don't get too hard on yourself if you don't accomplish that perfect job you are looking for. I promise that you'll be very satisfied using the air brush later on.

When it comes to handling the larger parts you are correct. Most people stick the parts to a stick or piece of plastic sprue using masking tape, blue tac or whatever is close to hand. Some parts have holes that you can put a tooth pick in. I myself have experimented with heating a plastic sprue and then carefully pushing it to the cowl, making a plastic bond. It works so so. Sometimes the join brakes and sometimes you get irregularities in the surface wich is'nt looking too good. But I'm getting there. Worst for me is when dropping a part in my spray booth when painting.... hate when that happens.

Best regards

Joel

Hello there!....I'm building my second bike, 04 Desmo, and I still have some paint and painting issues, I thought I might get some answers here.

I'm using mostly Tamiya Acrylics....should I be using Enamel?

I also use some Testors Enamel....and here is where things get weird.

I notice the Tamiya Acrylic when applied with a brush, goes on nice and smooth as long as I do one pass and let it dry before I do another pass...otherwise it gets "gummy" and starts to ball-up.

With the Testors Enamel, I find doing smaller parts or details is a lot easier but as soon as the brush has to cover more than its own width, the strokes are noticeable.

So, should I change my paints? should I thin them? Any suggestions?

 For my next model I'm getting an airbrush....finally, and I know things will be different but for now, I need to figure this out.

Using Tamiya cans has been amazing! I can't believe how good it turns out every time....so no issues there.

One last question on techniques....when painting bigger parts I noticed most builders use some sort of stick to hold the part they are painting....is the part glued to the stick? is it held by double sided tape? some kind of clay maybe?

Thanks in advance,

Racer155

Bushpig: Looks like a great little kit! The older versions are a great change sometimes and I'm amazed how high the quality is concidering todays standards from the T factory. I think you've done a great paint- and detailing job. The old 500 kit looks pretty cool with that muffler exiting just undernieth the seat...

Sano: Very welcome to the forums and the GB section. I'd recommend you to enter the GB wich is a giant gold mine to raise your modeling skills. No need to be afraid, the Tamiya models are great to work with and if ýou face any problems along the way we'll be much happy to guide you with tips and ideas to progress. I know all of the modelers here to be VERY humble persons and I promise you will get very constructive critisism and helpful tips.

I think SeaBee got all the basics in his answer, some more regarding modeling in general is found on www.scalewiki.com and some regarding bike modeling can be found on my own site www.onetwelvth.com , to mention some.

CF is the part of modeling where I find my own skills to be at the lowest, it is pretty hard and you'll just have to practice. I'll recommend that you do small shapes of masking tape as guidelines and cut out CF decal after those. Put them in place and use a hair dryer to heat them, they will conform and give you a snug fit. The tricky part is to get the patterns to line up ... practice practice practice... Cover the parts with clear and perhaps some smoke clear to flatten the appearance.

 Best regards and again welcome!
Joel - who has updated onetwelvth.com for the first time in 13 (!?) months...

Hi Guys. Things seem pretty quiet round this virtual workbench! I am almost done with the Roberts 500. I have enjoyed it so far, it is clear it is an old generation kit but is still good Tamiya quality. I have done a few mods, such as adding accelerator cables to the throttle and carburettor connector as this was not in the kit (had to add some wire attachment points to the throttle)! I tried something new with the exhausts, as they are older generation they had quite obvious welds. I sprayed them chrome (Alclad2) then by hand carefully added lines where I thought the welds would be in X10 and with a very fine brush. If I did it again I would choose a lighter colour such as XF56. Then I sprayed X19 with a touch of clear blue with a fine nozzle right over the lines, trying to keep the spray line as fine as possible. When this was dry I switched to clear orange and airbrushed on the 2 edges of the X19 line and the result is pretty convincing.

All thats left is to let the main Cowel dry properly after clear coat then put it all together. I took these pics as a lot gets covered up once the main cowel is installed.

Sano, let me start off with a disclaimer - there are more knowledgeable guys here! I'll get you started off with what I know and the rest of the guys can fill in/correct me.

Your paint question: I only have experience with TS sprays and Zero paints. Esp the TS sprays have translucency, so the base coat affect them very much! The Tamiya grey primer is what I use for multimedia kits to get everything sanded smooth. For some weurd reason, the grey shows up imperfections very well. I use the white before I paint on all models, even where grey was previously applied. Have also experimented with putting down a coat of silver paint before I did the blue on my Spiderman bike - and it changed the blue completely, as I hoped.

For clear I mostly use TS13, sometimes Future. The version of Future we get in SA is not the same, so I stick to TS13 as far as I can. Have only had one issue and that was when I went for a wet layer immediately, causing some melting on one decal. You do get the effect of either bubbling or melting decals very soon - not after a month or so only. I also alleviate the chances of that also by letting decals and their setting solutions dry properly before even misting the clear. But test first, please! Most people will tell you to stay the heck away from TS13! For me, it's available and practical and has not bitten me badly.

I'll let the CF experts cover the CF topic. I just use decals with smoke over them. At other times I've painted in metallic black (MS5) or gunmetal (with or without smoke, depending on situation) to creat a slightly different pattern/feel. It also depends a lot on scale! Also throwed in some clear yellow beneath the smoke at times for variation. As you can see, I am also still experimenting (a lot!) here... Next thing I want to try, is the stocking technique: painting the part in grey, pull a sticking over it and mist a coat of SG black over it - where the stocking strands were, you'd get the grey weave.

But mostly - very welcome! Hope you enjoy this facet of the hobby. Do you have a kit lined up yet? If I were you, I'd go for one of the newer Tamiya releases, but one with a not-too-complex colourscheme.

Good luck, enjoy and don't be scared to ask!

And yes, great to see Vale back on form! Great race and 4 winners from 4 races is good for any series! 

U guys are absolutely amazing, page by page of this thread only amazes me more and more..!

I've been doing mechas (gundams, evangelion, etc) model kits for quite some times now, but marking their panel lines are as far as I go when it comes to coloring them >_<

However, I'm also a huge huge fan of motoGP races, and just recently tamiya motoGP bike scale models really caught my attention. Surely I am not yet worthy to join the GB, but if u guys don't mind, I'd like to ask a couple of very basic questions, just to help me getting start on the motoGP scale models ^^

How does the surface primer's color would affect final result..? cuz I see that surface primer comes in various colors such as medium grey, light grey, white, etc

Any more methods/tips u recommend for creating tidy CF effects..? cuz I saw fabulous CF works in this thread. Such as bushpig's gauloises YZR M1 and joel's upcoming ZX-RR

One more thing: I once read that wrong selection of clear coat could damage the decals after a month or so, what are your experiences about this..?

Tq very much in advance..!

Great race in China, and really nice to see Rossi back in the groove. I think this is going to be a brilliant season.

Holding my breath now for the first Tamiya 800 cc kit, my guess is they will follow trends of old and launch with a Honda so guess I will be waiting a little longer for my Rossi Yammie! I see they are launching their first road bike kit with a Kawa 1400, should be nice for the road bike fans to get their tools into!

I have started a new build, spur of the moment decision to go with the Kenny Roberts #1 Yamaha YZR500. I just want to see how it looks next to the M1 in the anniversary livery. Will keep updating on progress.

Hi Joel. I found them quite straightforward and certainly easier than some others I have done before (some of the NSR liveries spring to mind which I found really challenging around the tail section). They look pretty big on the decal sheet but are actually in easy to handle sub-sections.

My advice to anyone doing this livery is to attach all the cowels to the frame once painting is complete and apply the decals, once set etc you have to carefully slice between front fairing and side fairings and again between side fairings and bottom cowel section to separate them (after slicing I again applied a little Microsol to get them to bed down into the join between each cowel). Same again on the tail section you have to slice through the decals on top to allow you to separate the 2 sections. Once separate I then applied clear and it all comes back together again nicely lined up.

Bushpig: How was the decals to work with. This is a fantastic livery and from looking at the sheet tamiya has made them pretty straight forward to apply!

SeaBee: Sorry mate, I don't own that kit yet. But for sure some one else does?!

/Joel

Hi Guys. I finished this one over the weekend. As I said I started this ages ago for a friend of mine and never got round to finishing, better late than never! It is basically staright out the box, no CF etc and just a bit of heat stain on the exhaust. Not sure what to start next so will ponder for a few days on that.

Heeelp! Anybody with the Kawasaki... and still have a full decal sheet. I started applying the decals and in the cutting process removed the numbers above a decal - can somebody please tell me what the decal number must be? The decal is a smallish almost-rectangle black decal down at the bottom, next to decal 15.

May be able to figure it out through elimination, but thought I'd rather be sure by asking you guys - one of you will surely have this in the to-do pile... 

Bushpig wrote:

Hi Joel, I agree this does look like a nice version and I am sure if there is enough demand it will come eventually.

Hopefully you are right, I just remembered someone talking about it around the time of the LCR bike release...

Bushpig wrote:

I have been toying with buying this Renaisance decal set that allows you to make up Edwards bike at the 2006 USA GP with the US flag on the cowels, just because it looks so good!

Yes, it is a fantastic looking bike. I have a sheet for it and will definately build it soon. I'm a bit scared regarding those large side pieces though.

Bushpig wrote:

Why has your onetwelvth site gone so quiet, I used to enjoy going there for regular updates?

I agree, almost a year now since I made any updates. I will definately get to it again, I just fell out of it when we started building the house and all. I'll have a go at it next week! Thanks for pushing me in the right direction Bushpig!

/joel

I got the S27 LCR sheet mentioned above in the mail yesterday. Small sheet but the quality looks super. 

New trend from Tamiya? Jeez, like the Stoner bike's, these decals are playing hard to get. You need really very warm water to get them moved off the backing paper. Once they're off, they are superb, thusfar.

Btw, these talk you guys have regarding 800 models - is that wishfull thinking, rumour or fact? I get totally depressed by the sight of hlj upcoming auto's site featuring not a single Tamiya product other than prebuilts and mini 4wd... No cars, no bikes... 

Hi Joel, I agree this does look like a nice version and I am sure if there is enough demand it will come eventually. Seems like one could start to build a nice collection around Stoners versions of his bikes, I am doing much the same with Rossi and once you get a few done it starts to look really nice and is interesting to see how the bikes developed over time.

I have been toying with buying this Renaisance decal set that allows you to make up Edwards bike at the 2006 USA GP with the US flag on the cowels, just because it looks so good!

http://www.mediamixhobby.com.sg/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_7_15&products_id=5061

Why has your onetwelvth site gone so quiet, I used to enjoy going there for regular updates?

Bushpig wrote:

I may be on the wrong track here re the Stoner cowel decal set but saw this on the new items page at Mediamix, it just says it is for #27 RC211V 2006 so I assume this is his? http://www.mediamixhobby.com.sg/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=5755

Yes, this is to make some of the set ups of the 06 stoner bike (and you can say he had a few...) but I have another livery in mind. The race of the Australian GP had the livery below.

Looked damn nice and I've wanted to build it since. There were a lot of talk about it and I assumed this would hit the shelves pretty fast, but no luck so far.

/Joel

Chrisga, it is the TS colour they brought out specifically for this kit. Not TS52 (or TS22 mentioned in the instructions). It's called TS Lime green with a small description stating "1/12 Kawasaki Ninja XZ-RR" on the round label on top of the lid. I got it locally (in South Africa). Since you're in the UK, you can try the Zero paint range from Steve (Hiroboy). Just note he's got one (Kawasaki Lime green) for the touring bike and metallic, so not correct, but recently also one for the new kit. I've heard TS sprays had a bit of a labelling issue and was pulled off the shelves over there...

But if you can lay your hands on it - this one is a good match for the decals. Not only does it look good! (And after all my good intentions, I only managed two decals on the bike.) But they are both dead ringers and matches the colour sprayed real well.

SeaBee wrote:

I even started on the Kawasaki during the week. TS Kawa green turns out to be awesome, looks very thin when applied and runs easily, but the colour is great.

Seabee is this the TS52 candy green? I am really really struggling to find it in the UK or anywhere that would ship to the UK. Can I ask where did you get yours from? Was it your local shop or airmail from anywhere?