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Good afternoon All, here's my latest off the bench. This has been an on again - off again build over the last 18 months or so. The Tamiya motorcycle kits are well known to those who have built them as superbly engineered and just about perfect fitting models, but they take patience and the painting can be fiddly. At various points in the build I found myself distracted by other models (Squirrel!!!) and at other points I found myself lacking the confidence to try new things, like painting the bodywork. If you want some great tips on painting bodywork and getting a high shine look no further than 'Matt's tips for painting cars' here on this forum. A big thank you to Mattfor the excellent guidance. I am not sure the photos do the shine justice, but it is much better than any I have achieved before. The model represents a mate's bike and the numberplate, photoshopped to remove most of the text, is as per his real bike. The body colour is Honda's Candy Phoenix Blue Varadero and I used Zero Paints for this. This comes as a silver base and the candy blue on top, misted on in light layers to achieve the required depth of colour, then a quick whizz over with Mr Color's GX100 gloss for the decals as the Zero Paints go on matt. Once the decals were well set I followed Matt's guidance to apply the Zero Paints two pack gloss, which went on brilliantly giving a great shine. After two weeks to let the gloss go nice and hard a quick tidy up was needed to remove a couple of dust motes in the gloss with micro-mesh. That done I went over the bodywork with Mer car polish which really lifted the shine. With all the fiddly bits done the final assembly was quick and easy as most of the main sub assemblies are held together with micro screws, so familiar to those of us who have built Tamiya's bikes before. My only disappointment came at this final part of the build as the instrument decals shattered as soon as I tried to slide them in to place. The speedo decal broke in to six pieces and it took me an age to get it all lined up as well as possible. Enough chat, here's the model in my favourite colour for the Blackbird: Than you for stopping by to look.

Well, I'm going to make a start. The kids are going away for a week - it may be my only chance! I'm adding the Top Studio Detail-Up and Chain sets, as well as the Tamiya Front Fork Set. I think I'll keep the Hobby Design set for another build. I planning to use white for the main colour, more than that, I'm still undecided. Cheers, Andrew

Background A couple of years ago, inspired by the pictures I saw of others’ efforts, including some on this site, I decided to try my hand at modeling again. The last time I tried was so long ago that cyanoacrylate glues probably hadn’t been invented and acrylic paints weren’t widely used. Tamiya was just beginning to market some 1/12 scale kits, and, fortunate to have parents who indulged me, I built a Lotus 49 and Honda. It was certainly long before the arrival of the internet. The Lotus 49 in Gold Leaf livery always appealed to me. Chapman’s chassis/engine combination influenced the design of F1 cars for years to come and the early 49s before they sprouted wings, were some of the loveliest F1 cars ever. The cigarette sponsorship, too, changed F1 racing (not necessarily for the better) and Lotus were almost the first to swap national colors for commercial sponsorship (John Love in South Africa, driving under Team Gunston sponsorship preceded them by a few months). When looking for a prototype to model, Hill’s car at Jarama in ’68 became the ‘obvious’ choice. His winning the Spanish Grand Prix shortly after Jim Clark’s tragic death probably saved Team Lotus. The model I enjoy making the small parts that are visible at 1/12 scale and hoped to build a model that captured the look and feel of the 49, with many of the details of the prototype including wiring and plumbing, while not being too obsessive about rivet counting. When I started this project I didn’t know much about variations over the life of the car (e.g. what distinguished a 49 from a 49B). In the course of researching and building the model, I’ve learned a lot: both about these cars and, unfortunately, about modeling. This has been as much an exercise in rebuilding and repainting as it has been in ‘building a model’. I’d not used a proper airbrush before and, when I started, believed the way to glue polystyrene was with polystyrene glue! The obvious lesson has been, ‘it’s not a good thing to learn - i.e. to experiment - while you’re building ‘the' model”. Now that I've finished it, I thought I'd show the building process in reverse. Starting with the finished model, in due course I'll add some pictures of details and parts in the earlier stages. Having no access to a prototype on this side of the Atlantic, I relied on photos off the web - with enough searching there are many. I later bought Michael Oliver’s wonderful book and was given Ian Wagstaff’s 49 ‘owners manual’ as a Christmas present. Both proved invaluable. Michael Oliver was kind enough to send me some photos including the only one I have of Hill's car in the Tasman series with it's nose off (important because these races preceded Jarama). Peter Morley sent me a stack of photos of chassis R3 at Beaulieu, from which I was able to see details not visible in other photos, and Doug Nye sent some beautiful photos of the car during the race at Jarama. My grateful thanks to them. Very little of the model consists of Tamiya parts out-of-the box. The basic body shell was widened by 6 mm because the block is a bit too wide. This part was easy, but I didn't realize it would mean vacuum forming a pair of windscreens, nor did I reckon on how much work would go into trying to get the nose 'right'. The block of the DFV and transaxle, known to be inaccurate in this model, were heavily modified as later pictures will show and the entire front end is scratch-built, as are the rear ‘fir tree’ subassemblies for the rear suspension (lots of stainless tubing here!) and all the peripherals on the engine. Needing to remake the uprights, rocker arms, brake calipers and hangers, I asked Brian Fawcett if he'd be willing to cast parts for me (he has his own line of excellent castings including correct transaxles and gearboxes for the 49). Brian did so out of the kindness of his heart and I can't thank him enough. While I tried to keep the purchase of 'third-party' parts to a minimum in order to limit the overall cost, I finally gave in to purchase the CNC machined wheels from Scale Details after having failed to produce a passable shiny aluminium painted finish. The wheel nuts unscrew to remove the wheels.

Hello everyone, I have started this kit 6 months ago. I used Hobbydesign's detail set and Tamiya's front fork set along the kit. Tamiya's panigale kit is very nice, not for beginners probably but the kit comes along nicely, although there are a few subassamblies that can drive you nuts:) Especially the tail and side cowlings fit are not that good. Both detail sets are amazing. Front fork set is a great addition, it is very easy to assemble and saves your from a lot of painful mask and paintwork. But the hobbydesign set is a little difficult, especially the chain set and exhaust pipe require a lot of patience but the end result is worth that patience. Some images from the construction: And here is the final images from the complete bike. Beginning with the naked pangale first: And here is the normal ducati, with her clothes on: Thanks for looking... salih

I actually started this a few months ago, but it's been languishing in the pile of shame for a while now. However, seeing as my dad had one of these before he progressed to a Harley, and his birthday is coming up in just over a month, I've decided I'm going to finish this one off and present it to him. Along with the earlier assembly of the frame and stripping of the chrome, I've made a start on the engine, and given the ex-chrome plated parts a nice coat of alclad black base. I also filled the awful line that owes its thanks to the two part fuel tank. The fuel tank and side panels have now had their first coat of halfords grey primer. Once it's cured, it's time for a coat of white, then painty time.

Well, she's finished!! See what you think & let me know. Always good to hear feedback from your piers. She was sprayed using Halfords Vauxhall 'Diamond Black' as a body colour. Alclad II ALC-101 Aluminium for the swing arm & Humbrol Chrome Silver 191 for the exhausts & poilished up using Tamiya TS-13 Clear varnish.