1/12 Hasegawa Kawasaki KH400-A3/A4

[Lee Chambers]

Finally found some time to finish this build, hopefully the owner will be pleased with how it turned out. I will forward him the photos later.

 

Not an easy build this one, apart from the fiddly cables, I found the front mudguard was constructed with very thin styrene, it was scale accurate, but too much Tamiya Extra thin cement caused the mudguard centre bracing to distort and show through the chrome, so I had to strip it and attempt a repair, the shape of the guard is also slightly out of whack, but it's not a deal breaker.

 

Overall, I think it came out nice, but I doubt I would build another, I prefer larger scale kits these days.

 

Finally, if you want to see the work in progress of this build, click the link below.

Edited December 21, 2021 by Lee Chambers

[Stef N.]

Very nice indeed Lee. Top work.👏

[Lee Chambers]

50 minutes ago, Stef N. said:

Very nice indeed Lee. Top work.👏

Cheers Stef.

[Bigglesof266]

Definitely deserves a trophy from me. 👍 🔟 

And it invoked nostalgia.

Short anecdote re the KH400. Circa 1976, my riding buddy/mate owned that same bike for a short while, in that exact same colour scheme. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending upon owner pride or dimmed memory perspective, I had the opportunity to ride his on several occasions in our and its heyday. Zippy enough in a straight line for its era, not one of the better handlers even of its day. I much preferred its Yamaha RD350B or earlier A contemporary as was. 

 

KH400 memory caveat. Avoid riding it in the wet if at all possible. Although far from alone in this regard, fine in the dry its early solid stainless steel SINGLE rotor without machined water sipe/cooling cutouts became pathetically ineffective in the rain tending to either perform very poorly (worse than an overheated drum brake) or grab and lock up with overenthusiastic application in trying to overcome the former. Typical of the initial era of front disc brake fitment, my considerably heavier 1973 Honda 350 Four suffered from that same wet (non-) braking foible. However the KH400's wet braking impact on its handling was compromised by its steering head angle and frame geometry tending to characteristic negative stability. Any overapplication of the front brake lever reactive to its lack of braking response when riding it in the rain made staying upright unduly hazardous in the wet outside ordinary considerations of smooth riding and braking in the wet or performance as was of bias ply tyre profiles with their harder rubber compounds and less advanced often almost directionally linear siping of the era.

He didn't own/have it for long. I saw him fall off it several times as a consequence of its braking and handling idiosyncrasies prior to him eventually writing it off t-boning a car entering into his right of way.