Els Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 I hadn't worked on a motorcycle for a while. At the IMPS Nats in Orlando I bought a couple of the old Tamiya kits and decided to break them out. I used these two kits: Even though these kits came out in 1983 they are still great kits. The figure kit is a little bit of a pain because it can be used for four different riders/bikes. This means that it has to be modified a bit for each bike. It is also tough to paint the leathers because the picture of the rider that is to be used as a guide is standing straight. The figure is in the racing crouch and trying to get everything to line up is challenging. If you look all the Showa decals are missing from the front forks and swing arm. These decals were 30 years old and I wanted to try a small decal first to see if it would still work. I figured a swing arm decal from the inside would not be noticeable if it didn't work. I put it on and it worked fine so I went ahead and put all for Showa decals on then went to eat dinner. I came back after dinner and the decals had broken up and the ink had bled out. I had to take them off. I sprayed some decal bonder over the rest of the decals and they worked well enough with some paint touch ups to finish the kit. I made the base out of a bass wood plaque and 800 grit sandpaper for the track surface. The rumple strip or whatever it is called was built up with some excess sprue covered in Durhams putty. It looks cool on the shelf so I am happy with it. Els Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rdrunner Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 (edited) Nice looking build Els , I did something similar, when I was a teenager, but used Eddie Lawson and Yamaha, and your dio reminded me of my build. You should post your build in the bike section on EScale dot com, lots of biker fans there Ken Edited March 22, 2013 by Rdrunner Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChippyWho Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 Lovely build, Els -and lovely memories! Never really tried a bike kit (except for an ill-considered swipe at an Airfix Honda 750 back in the 70s), but would really like to do Freddie's #19 VF750 Interceptor Superbike if I could find the right bits... Watching the likes of Spencer, Lawson, Rainey, Merkel, Baldwin et al dooking it out (Superbike and GP) was a lil bit of Eighties magic! Many thanks for showing some of it here. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Els Posted March 24, 2013 Author Share Posted March 24, 2013 Thanks. I would like to build a few more of the older riders on their bikes but I am not sure that I want to tackle the rider figure again anytime soon. Does anyone know if the new Valentino Rossi rider figure is the same old kit with a couple of upgrades or if it is a new tool? Chippy, I used to really like to watch the races back when these guys raced and even up to Rainey, Gardner and Schwantz days in 90's. I don't really care for it much anymore, not exactly sure why. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bigasshammm Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 That is a fantastic display. Nice job all around. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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