Imai 1:12 Suzuki FY50

[BrianI]

A facebook modelling group I'm a member of, is having it's annual limited budget memorial build.

 

For this, i found a rather jolly Imai 1:12 Suzuki FY50 for not much money at all.

 

So here is my build log.

 

Box Shot:

 

Sprues:

Now the build instructions say to fit the front wheel, then glue the fork halfs together.  However this will make it difficult to prime & paint the fork & bodywork, with the wheel in the way.

 

So I filled in the wheel axle mounts on the fork, filled them with off cuts of sprue.  Then I drilled them, and the wheel axle so I could use an off cut of paper clip as a removable axle.  This meant I could fit the wheel at the end of the build.

 

I also drilled the rim, and added a doobrie of 20 guage beading wire, painted black with a black sharpie, to make a rough representation of a tyre valve.  Adds a bit more realism to the wheel.

 

 

Dry fitting the assembly together:

 

 

I done a similar trick for the kick stand, which according the instructions should be fitted before glueing the chassis halfs together.

 

So far, here is the frame and fork glued together, with wheel fitted:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2016 by BrianI

[Maximum warp]

That's a cool little subject! The simplicity and low partscount make it a bit of a painting challenge I guess. I love the two-tone box art, what colour did you have in mind?

[BrianI]

Lol, I just spied the copyright date on the box. I was 2 years old, then!

I'm probably going to go for the same red & white paint job. However my cunning plan is to scratch build a couple of pizza boxes to sit on the luggage racks! :-)  Might need to look at getting some inkjet decal paper to make some "Pizza Hut" decals.  The decals supplied with the kit have gone rather yellowed.

Apart from that, the only real scope for detailing is the crude tyre valves which I've added, and perhaps some brake cables out of insulated wire. 

 

It should look OK once built, if not up to Tamiya 1:12 scale motorbike standards...

Anyway, I've got some priming done:

 

 

 

[Alan R]

Cute!

[BrianI]

Ashamed to admit that I've rage quit and binned the kit following a lot of troubles with painting.  Paint either stayed tacky, or dried but was easily scratched off. I was using Tamiya Acrylics thinned with either X20A, or Cellulose thinners, on top of alclad grey filler.