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I'm not going to pretend to know anything about the Honda NSR 500 racer... truth is, all I know is what was written on the Tamiya instructions. Spent about nine weeks on it and for a majority of that time it's had my undivided attention, just doing a little here and a little there. Because it's a racer, the only 'shiny' on it are the satin chrome exhaust tips, and for that I used Mr. Hobby lacquer 'SM206 - Chrome Silver'. I also home mixed the dark aluminium / light gunmetal tone for the frame rather than the flat aluminium that Tamiya call-out. Fairing & mud-guard are Tamiya rattle cans and match the decals perfectly. Talking of which, there are a number of imperfections - all user error - in the decals especially around the intakes ahead of the No.3 decals, so there's some touching-up there. Again decals were applied over about six sessions, I spent a lot of time with the Micro Sol, cotton swabs and the hair-dryer, rolling and conforming them to the complex shapes of the fairings. Not 100%, but close-enough-for-government-work ! So that's all to say, have a brilliant Christmas & New Year. Please comment, criticise and ask any questions. Cheers from a VERY humid NZ. Ian.

So after fifty-plus years of hammering bits of injected plastic together, I decided it may be time to build my first ever motorcycle. Didn't put any thought in to 'which one', just bought a cheap Tamiya kit, watched a couple of YT build videos and took a brave pill !! Nothing extra added except glue and paint (Tamiya TS51 Racing Blue and my own brew of 'dark silver'). Did I enjoy it ? - well yes, it really did fall together probably because I followed the instructions VERY closely; Will I buy another, erm... perhaps, if I do it will be a racing machine, but which one depends upon whether I can find another cheap - probably Tamiya - kit hereabouts. Feel free to ask any questions, hurl any insults or make any comments. All the very best from New Zealand. Ian.

Revell 1:12 Honda CBX 400F Motorcycle The Honda CBX 400F was produced from 1981 it has a 4 inline producing 48hp, it has aluminium swingarms, and suspension to save weight, with disc brakes to slow it down. It is a popular bike and sold well for Honda before this model was discontinued in 1984. Revell have produced this bike kit in 1:12, a popular scale for Bike builders with this kit being Revell Level 5 as its classed as a complex kit. The kit is laid out over 6 sprues and includes 2 rubber tyres and some soft rubber hose. The instructions are the new style type, and they are clear and easy to follow with paints referenced back to the Revell paint range. The parts are vey crisp and there is no flash or mould lines visible on the review sample. You get 2 chrome sprues, and they are nice and not too shiny. The frame and other parts are done in black; engine is in grey and the body is white. A small clear sprue includes the lights and glass for the dials. Construction starts with the 4 inline engine, the parts have nice surface details and will give a good representation of the engine. The rubber hose is cut to length and added to the engine to represent fuel and oil lines around the block. Looking at reference photos the engine is a realistic part, and you can add HT leads and other wiring to give a very detailed model. I would add some more detail here as the fairings on this bike don’t cover the engine so its visible on the model. The wheels are on the chrome sprue and I would keep the chrome so cut away with care. The wheels are in 2 parts with the axle sandwiched between the 2 parts on the front wheel, with the dampers added next. The rear swingarm is a single part, and the back wheel is added with the chain and brake hub. The engine is sandwiched between the frames with the stand and rear swing arm/ wheel assembly. I would probably build and detail the engine, before building the frame I would paint that and all the ancillary parts before assembling the bike to allow detail painting and extra detailing like wiring. The exhausts are chrome, but they join along the length top and bottom so will have a join line that will need work, this is a shame as the real bike has nice polished pipes. The bodywork can be painted gloss whit as the red is all included as decals, the decals are as expected from Revell, very nice except the UK registration plate is wrong and should read A400 HCB. I would go online and get a replacement made up. This is a nice detailed model from Revell, and can give a detailed build from the box, but leaves scope for some super detailing if wanted. Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For further information visit or

Just a place holder for now. Will post some box shots soon. Need to finish a couple of F15s & the Auto Union in some other GBs.

I hope this is the right place to post this project, it's a sweet little dango dumpling shop my mother in law bought me from back from Japan. The model is available here, along with a whole ton of traditional Japanese shops, if anybody fancies it. http://www.billy-doll.co.jp/?pid=52437467 It's pretty basic, nowhere near as detailed or amazing as what you all are working on, so I hope it's OK here. I thought it would make a nice stop gap model as I impatiently wait for my Christmas purchases to arrive. And the contents all in the bag. I laid out all the wood parts, but not the other bits (sorry) as my desk is so tiny and I'm scared of losing parts if I spread them out. The manual is in Japanese! I don't read Japanese so there is a huge amount of guesswork going on. I put the walls together and glued on the paper decorations. I messed up and put textured paper behind the print outs of the side walls. I have no idea why I did that, I assumed it was for texture! Turns out that paper was designed to go on the outside...opps. Added trim and tables. I had to cut the trim from this insanely hard card, and I guess I have zero upper body strength because it took me forever. That or I need a proper craft knife. Cushions are made out of card, wadding and fabric. It was at this point I found a tutorial for this model on Youtube, thank goodness! Cushions and tables are now glued in. I've glued the shop onto a stained base and am sticking on masking take to make the paving stones. All done! The brick sizes in the manual are much bigger but I thought it looked funny so I made mine smaller. That's all I got done for now. I'm super nervous about doing the bricks, I'm scared that when I pull the masking tape off it will be a huge mess. More to follow, thanks for checking in

Hello again, This is one of the easiest kits I have ever done. It took me only 2 weeks to complete it (normally I can finish kits in 6 months on average). The fit excellent, plastic quality is wonderful. Chrome parts are excellent, I did not remove chrome and directly used all of them (except the brake discs, for which some drilling was required for a more realistic look). I would advice this kit to any modeller at any level, it was very enjoyable and even though it seems complex, it is just a tad more difficult than a Lego:) If you are looking for a rehabilitation after some difficult models, try this one:) Regards, salih

Hey all, I'm looking to purchase Tamiya's FW14b as my next build. I was just curious if the kit comes with paint masks to paint the body?

There doesn't seem to be much online for this one. Any thoughts? Cheers, Andrew

I actually finished a model and it only took me two months... I present my first motorcycle model, hopefully not the last. I hope you like it. There are no doubt many things that could have been better, but overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. One of the flame motif decals is missing (thanks to a masking incident) but a replacement sheet is one the way. It's built out-of-the-box and finished in Tamiya Spray, Tamiya Acrylics and Alclad metallics. I used Alclad Aqua Gloss to seal the decals, but to be honest I didn't really get on with it and the finish is not as glossy as it might have been. Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 Special Colour Edition by Caution Wake Turbulence, on Flickr Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 Special Colour Edition by Caution Wake Turbulence, on Flickr Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 Special Colour Edition by Caution Wake Turbulence, on Flickr Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 Special Colour Edition by Caution Wake Turbulence, on Flickr Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 Special Colour Edition by Caution Wake Turbulence, on Flickr Thanks for looking! I'll add a few close-ups later. The build thread is here. Cheers, Andrew