Moto GP / GP bike enthusiasts

Hey all,

 FINALLY, I have completed my Nastro Azzurro NSR.  I'm sure they're not as bad as the spidey decals, but the seat cowl on this thing was a genuine pain.  Will take pics and post probably tomorrow.  After the race, that is. 

Semper

  Are there any good web sites out there that have good close up pictures of these bikes??  I wish i could read Max Moto modelings web site.

thanks 

let me know your email and I will end the site to you translated by Excite. It may work if I forward direct to you.

Or look up translating pages "Excite" and  click japanese to english, then save on favorites   :-)

Rod. 

shanusa@centurytel.net

  Thank you

SEABEE (or others that've built the Spiderman M1 using the SMS set. I was applying the left side Fortuna logo yesterday and it was just too damn big. Did you encounter this as well or was I putting it on in a wrong way?? Seems pretty straight forward to me... When I tried to put the decal into position so that the cut out in the middle would fit the air intake I had the F and half of the O around the front end... I can use the markings from one of my other sets but I was cureous if I did something wrong here.

I also messed up the lower cowl left side webbing. Damn. Honey comb decals is troublesome as well cause they tend to wrap. When the webbing does that it is pretty easy to unwrap it but the honey comb ones are too fiddly for me. Lucky me SMS gives you a rather big stripe of extra material.

/Joel

Thanks!

/Joel

Some progress...

Let me first direct a huge thanks to Steve Hemming at Hiroboy.com for the VERY kind gesture shipping out some Solid Lime Green before I had the time to say "damn".

So, to fix the green issue I just sprayed the solid green paint on top of the pearl one. Put on a new coat of clear and I was home safe. The new green covered the old one perfectly.

I first thought I'd mask and spray some black on the lower cowl where I was to put some CF but then I changed my mind. I was afraid to get a ridge between black and green forcing me to put yet another coat of clear on before I could start decalling this monster up. I took a shot at trying to put the cf on without a dark base. It turned out great in my opinion.

All decals besides the CF are supplied with the kit. CF is from Crazy Modeler. Kit decals went out without problems, they are quite few and small. CM carbon fibre decals was a pleasure to work with and a new aquaintance. Went on well and conformed great with some decal solution and the heat from the old hair dryer. Decals are yet to be clear coated.

Off to do some exhaust pipes...
/Joel

*Phew* Stunning, Joel! That looks great. Giving me some ideas for the upcoming Kawasaki release. I never knew it was bare CF, thought it was sprayed black as part of the colourscheme. That's what I get for never seeing anything but the races on telly! Which brings me to the black bits on the LCR Honda - are they CF or black colour?

Back to the Spiderman decals. Mine was biggish, yes. But sounds not as bad as yours. The bottom leg of the F is a bit around the front curve, still visible though, the bottom of the o just on the curve. The top of the t and bottom half of the u touching around the edge of the vent. Quite a tricky mother to apply, because the top parts of the u just also never look right from multiple angles, you have to choose one you prefer. I, for example, alligned them for a good view side-on and thus it looks utterly crappy when viewed from a 45 degree angle, as an example.

From the pictures I've viewed I'd say both the LCR and the Kawasaki bikes from the 2006 season have painted on black sections. So you're safe there :-)

Thanks for the input on the Spidey. I got a treat from Decalman so that I can fix the messed up parts. I'll see what I can do with the Fortuna markings.

/Joel

Hey all,

Well here it is, my Nastro Azzurro NSR 500.  Finally.  Hope you guys like.  Will post closer pics when I figure out the camera a little better. 

YamahaFreak, very nice kit. I am actually looking for one myself, having built it ages ago and it was ruined in a move. Have the 2001 test run decals for it as well, somewhat disappointed since they've been done in black (thus you paint the yellow) and it's not quite enogh of a CF look - maybe it looks better when applied.

As for the pics, I have just a normal point-and-shoot, frustrating the living daylight out of me, having been used to a very nice SLR "film" camera. But try to use the macro mode setting (most cameras nowadays will have it) on your camera. This may enable you to get closer with good focus. 

YamaFreak: From what can be viewed in your pics I think you've done the kit justice. Looks like quite a troublesome livery to me... Will have to try it out sometime. (Seems like there is a lot of transkits using the Nastro kit as a base kit... besides the 2001 Mugello and Test versions of the same team, both 2002 NSRs from S27 use it. I think I have 6 of this kit...)

SeaBee: I just got the nsr test transkit myself this morning. I haven't seen any pics of this bike, are you sure the black areas are to be CF? If so I think it's quite bad of Renaissance not recreating that in the kit. I also think my resin parts was very thin, on the brittle side which was quite disappointing. Will have to be careful when removing all that flash...

/Joel

Gents,

 Some mo-better pics of my NSR, thanks in part to SeaBee's camera help.  A few seams here and there, but I was really running out of steam on this one.  Will probably order some c/f decals from SMS tonight and start on my Fortuna M1.  Speaking of c/f, it's there on the NSR, rear fender for one instance, but hard to see in my pics. 

Yamafreak your bike looks good. I also struggled with the rear fender decal, it seems to me that sometimes these decals are expected to contort into the strangest places. I might re-do my whole bike at some stage!

Judging from your comment it seems we all get to a point where the enthusiam drains away and you start to think of the next kit. This is usually when there are a hundred little things still to finish and they seem to go on forever. This is just about where I am with my NSR Mugello bike but hope to finish in the next few days.

 I note your comments Joel on the test kit you have received (btw Joel your Kawa is looking great) As I have said before this Mugello kit from Rennaisance is my first resin kit and to be honest I have found many problems. I had written most off as part of the deal with resin and vowed that I would probably never do this media once I had finished the South Africa NSR test bike. As you mention the resin in places is very thin, I spent ages repairing nicks and damages, the parts of the cowl do not line up properly (I tried heat to bend them to shape but did not have much luck, will have to try and  sort this out when finally putting it together), the chassis is very crooked once put together. The mounting hole for the main fairing support on the left side of the frame is simply missing. BEWARE the rear shock is extremely fragile, mine has snapped a few times now (especially when you put the spring in under compression, I cut the spring shorter to relieve the pressure which seems to have worked for now), I think it would be better to remove the thin part and relace it with a bit of metal rod before putting the whole thing together. I have found the decals quite difficult, very thick and not too responsive to solution (to be fair with some patience they have ended up quite nice). The main issue with the decals is that on the main side cowls the printed hole for over the side vents is just too big and far forward so you end up with a white edge when it should be blue. This is all the top of mind stuff and I am sure there are a few more things I have forgotten, as you can probably see I am pretty disappointed!

Anyway will finish it and probably do a straight out of the box Tamiya just to restore my faith.

So it's that bad, is it? I had hoped for quite some quality actually but just looking at the parts I recieved was a bit of a disappointment. Thin and fragile resin I can live with (by the way, go for a Studio 27 resin next time and I tell you that THIN resin isn't the problem) but warped parts are as low as it gets. I'll try and build the two 2001 nastro kits from Renaissance if I get to finish the Spidy. By the way, got a new decal sheet from Decalman, so if anyone else ever figure to build the SMS spiderman kit and is looking for extra decals just send me a line.

/Joel

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

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.

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! 

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...

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.

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!

 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

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. 

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??????????

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, 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.