Looking for advice on Mike Hailwood's 1979 TT-winning Suzuki

[rs2man]

Recently I've been pondering on building a model in 1/12 of the Heron Suzuki 500 used by Mike Hailwood to win the 1979 Isle of Man TT .  I had thought that the best starting point would be Tamiya's kit 14003 , which my limited motorcycle knowledge suggests to be a 1979 RGB500 .  However , looking at one on Ebay suggests that , at the very least , the wheels , exhausts & rear section of the fairing are wrong .  I looked at the Matchbox Barry Sheene 1977 RGA500 which looks closer but is very rare .  Can anyone suggest what would be the best kit to start with , or would I need to combine 2 or more kits ?

 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated .

 

John Green

Nantwich , Cheshire

[ocatlub]

Tamiya No. 14009 1:12 Suzuki RGB 500 Team Gallina is probably the best starting point as it has the 5 spoke wheels and the nearly correct faring, but the seat faring needs some adjusting in the area of the exhaust pipes and the pipes require shortening, also the faring requires the winglets making and decals finding. Also the kits on Ebay are not cheap the cheapest being I can see is  £50. This boxing also has the Heron Suzuki on the side of the box.

 

[rs2man]

Thanks mate , excellent info .  See what you mean about the kit though - well expensive .  Since the kit's a fortune & the decals are out of print as well , I think I'll stick that one on the back burner for a while in the hope that kit and/or decals are reissued .