Jump to content

Harley Davidson Fat Boy 1990 (Tamiya 1/6 rebuild)


Recommended Posts

Hi!

 

I recently decided to rebuild my Tamiya Harley Davidson Fat Boy.

It is the kit from 1996, and I built it around 2000. It wasn't the cleanest build to begin with (my skill wasn't sufficient).

It was sitting in an open cabinet for some time and even fell to the floor during cleaning, so it was dusty and had some not so clean repairs.

 

HD_Fatboy_90-1.jpg

 

HD_Fatboy_90-2.jpg

 

It doesn't look so bad on the pictures 😉

 

However, I decided to try to tear it appart and rebuild it.  The plan is to rebuild it in the paint scheme of the first year, which is an all-silver paint scheme, even the frame is painted silver. Some yellow trims add a tittle colour.

The engine covers will have to be altered.

 

As it wasn't built very thoroughly, it came appart quite well:

 

HD_Fatboy_90-3.jpg

 

Many of the parts are already stripped of their old paint.

The oil tank and the rear fender brakets will be painted in the body colour, therefore I striped the chrome.  The exhaust pipes will be chromed with alclad to get rid of the seams. Maybe I will 3D print the heat covers of the exhaust, which are missing in the kit.

 

I didn't manage to sparate the front brake disc from the wheels without damage, but the brake discs are not very beautiful anyhow.

 

HD_Fatboy_90-4.jpg

 

I plan to create replacement parts with a laser cutter. I will also make the engine covers with a laser cutter.

 

That's it so far.

 

Cheers,

Markus

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Of course you may follow 😉

 

Anyway, after some more cleaning up, I started to paint some parts. I began by painting the engine block with Alclad duralminium.

 

HD_Fatboy_90-05.jpg

 

HD_Fatboy_90-06.jpg

 

The oil filter should be changed, as in 1990 it was mounted to the frame. However, I will skip this conversion, since it is only a minor change. I am sure there are other things as well, but I am not aware of them 😉

 

I got a set of replacement silk-screened decals, which are finely printed.

 

I decided to strip the plating of the wheels as well. I will paint the rougher parts with Duralminium and the polished parts with Alclad Polished Aluminium.

 

Cheers,

Markus

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

The build continues...

 

I painted the yellow parts on the rocker boxes.

I masked the area, applied metal primer and then a coat of Insignia yellow (FS 13538, Gunze H 329).

 

HD_Fatboy_90-07.jpg

 

As i mentioned in the previous post, I stipped the chrome off the rims, as well as the instrument unit housing. They were pinted gloss black in preparation for the alclad.

 

HD_Fatboy_90-08.jpg

 

The frame and body parts were painted with Tamiya Mica Silver (TS-76)

 

HD_Fatboy_90-09.jpg

 

Cheers,

Markus

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

After a very light coat of clear yellow, I started with assembling the frame:

 

HD_Fatboy_90-10.jpg

 

The orange reflectors were sanded and painted to match the pictures of the real thing.

 

HD_Fatboy_90-11.jpg

 

Furthermore, I found no pictures of dark green dampers, only black ones, so I ignored the Tamiya call out, which is for XF-27

 

I also found some time to work at the laser cutter and make new brake discs:

 

HD_Fatboy_90-12.jpg

 

They are made from 1mm black acrylic glass.

 

The covers for the gear boxes were cut from 0.5mm acrylic glass. I tried using styrene sheet, but the laser melted the fine structures.

 

HD_Fatboy_90-13.jpg

 

And in place on the engine:

 

HD_Fatboy_90-14.jpg

 

HD_Fatboy_90-16.jpg

 

I have yet to make the mounting bolts.

The engine and gear box was attached to the frame.

As the parts holding the rear swing arm to the frame were broken during a fall off the shelf a few years ago, I had to craft another solution. To make this durable, I used a 2mm steel rod and drilled a hole all through the siwng arm. So there is one steel rod going through the mounting area. It will be held in place by the original plastic bolt heads.

 

HD_Fatboy_90-15.jpg

 

Cheers,

Markus

 

 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I was a bit lazy in uploading my progress reports, but the build continued and by now is already finished 😉

 

I painted the body parts using Zero Paints 2k Diamond Gloss.

 

HD_Fatboy_90-17.jpg

 

Once the micro screws arrived, i could finish the gear covers:

 

HD_Fatboy_90-18.jpg

 

The rims were painted with Alclad Duralminium (flat parts) and Airframe Aluminium (shiny parts):

 

HD_Fatboy_90-19.jpg

 

The brake discs were also painted with Alclad and attached to the rims with allen head micro screws:

 

HD_Fatboy_90-20.jpg

 

Assembly continued once the lacquer was dry:

 

HD_Fatboy_90-21.jpg

 

HD_Fatboy_90-22.jpg

 

Fork attached:

 

HD_Fatboy_90-23.jpg

 

Brake handles were also stripped of the chrome plating because of the ugly mold seams. The handle bar and mirrors were attached using steel pins for strength.

The exhaust pipes were painted with Alclad Chrome.

 

Here is a picture of the finished bike:

 

HD_Fatboy_90-24.jpg

 

More in the ready for inspection section.

 

Cheers,

Markus

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...