1/12 Jet Bike & Punk Girl Android Rider

[Hunter Rose]

Well its time for a new project!

 

This is one I've had in mind for a while, I'm an ex biker and love motorbikes so have always wanted to do a sci fi build based around a motorbike model.

The motorbike kit I'm playing about with is a 1/12 Tamiya ducati 888 and I want it to look pretty sleek so I'm going to go with a very glossy race bike finish.

 

Plan is to keep it looking pretty much how it does, obviously its going to have no front wheel/forks and no swingarm on the back, I dont want to muck about with the fairing much to make it easier to get it all smooth and nice for high gloss finish. So where the swingarm was there will be an engine sticking out and at the back on the parts where the exhausts attach I'll put some small fins on.

 

For the rider she is going to be mostly sculpted, but I'm going for an android so it will be along the lines of her face will be a panel on her head with a lot of metal at the back. Want to use plenty of tubing and spring tubes so she'll be leaning a bit more towards the robot side of things, and she'll be a punk so bright pink mohawk and an attitude!

 

The pose I'm going for is to help aid the jet bike bike look by not giving it any support, it will be held up by her leg to give the impression of hovering. I was going to have her sitting on it with one leg down, but thats no fun, so instead she will be in the middle of a hard 180 turn with one foot on the ground as it skids round. To help with the sense of motion there will be a puddle on the floor with a small bow wave coming from her foot to look as though she has slid through it.

Also as she looks back as the bike turns she will also have one arm up firing a gun behind her because I basically want it to seem as though she is being chased but has turned the tables on the people chasing.

 

Its all a bit hard to explain but it will all become clear as I go (hopefully!)

so without further a do the first think I'm tackling is the jet bike so I pulled out the kit and started cutting out the fairing, frame and engine bits to get them together and tidy

 

IMG_20221006_132327390 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221006_132432654 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221006_135200870 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

Your really not going to see much of the engine at all, especially as the open end where I'll be putting engines of some description, so I got it all together to paint in one piece for speed, oh and only mod to the frame so far is I've cut off the two small exhaust brackets from the end as they're not needed, exhausts are being left off too.

 

IMG_20221007_141617964 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

So got those bits primed

 

IMG_20221007_142327200 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

Sprayed the engine with alclad airframe aluminium as a base coat and used some tamiya acrylic white on the frame bits.

 

IMG_20221008_161100012 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221008_161112170 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

Whilst that was drying I turned to the fairing to start getting that together and filled.

 

IMG_20221008_161918357 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221008_162426157 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221009_154652644 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221011_155035375 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

This was primed and then of course more sanding!

 

IMG_20221014_163209549 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

Switched back to the engine and used some enamels to get some detail on it.

 

IMG_20221017_191129379 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

Got the frame together and realised I missed a bit, the rear suspension is not needed as there's no swingarm but I do want the top part that holds the spring in place, just because its another detail to have in there and it also helps connect/stabilise the two frame halves, which suits me fine because as you can see below I really wasn't happy with how the white looked so it would have needed more painting anyway.

 

IMG_20221017_193444434 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

And speaking of paint just want to take a second to explain how I'm approaching the paint work. Now I'm not a glossy finish guy, I'm a matt paint heavy weathering guy, so this is all a bit new to me; so I looked up how car modellers approach a nice realistic glossy finish on cars.

So what I'll be doing is after priming I'll give it a rub down with a 4000 grit micromesh pad to get it smooth, and I have also switched to Mr Color laquer paints to get a smooth glossy finish (and more vibrant colours)  which will then be given a couple of clear coats and finally will be polished to a high sheen with tamiyas polishing compounds.

 

Oh and for the colour scheme I'm going for a light blue with yellow striping, so I'll spray the whole thing yellow so I can mask off the stripes then spray it a light blue.

 

The rear fairing and petrol tank are molded in one piece, and this had some fine mould marks so I rubbed it all over with a 3600 micromesh pad then hit it with primer which as I stated above was rubbed down with a 4000 grit pad.

 

IMG_20221017_194151823 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221017_194657370 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

The below has had 2 coats of the yellow gloss Mr Color paint.

 

IMG_20221019_195311014 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

I have to say, I am completely in love with Mr Color paints. They go down like a dream, the colour is so bright and wow over the rubbed down primer it has already achieved a crazy smooth finish.

 

So I primed and did the same thing for the main fairing part.

 

IMG_20221019_195304642 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221019_195854672 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

Then I reprimed the frame, and sprayed it this time with Mr Color white and man it came out so much stronger white in just one spray session.

 

IMG_20221019_195902546 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221020_200436636 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

And whilst I was spraying white I decided I want a white detail at the bottom of the fairing so I masked off and sprayed that too,

 

IMG_20221020_194645033 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221020_200445464 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

And now its completely up to date with where I am.

 

Next Up I'll remove the masking tape when dry and start to plan out how I want my stripe details to look so I can mask it off and spray the blue.

 

Thanks for looking, more soon

 

[Richard E]

 Mind if I pull up a front row seat to enjoy the show ......

[Hunter Rose]

5 minutes ago, Richard E said:

 Mind if I pull up a front row seat to enjoy the show ......

 

The more the merrier Richard! I'll put the kettle on

[Yg Models]

although i not a biker, i enjoy motorbike and F1 model kits too. I like the sponsor logos on racing bike / F1, and enjoy to apply extra large water decals on model kit. hence, never think to build it in scifi way. back to the future? 

 

 

 

 

i built a red scifi bike before. it came from video game: death stranding 

 

 

 

 

btw, i prefer AK's Real Colors (lacquer based paints). 

https://ak-interactive.com/product-category/ak-real-colors/?orderby=sku-asc

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by Yg Models

[Hunter Rose]

2 hours ago, Yg Models said:

I like the sponsor logos on racing bike / F1, and enjoy to apply extra large water decals on model kit.

 

Yeah I like that too, I'm going to search through my water decals to find some good ones for the bike. I might even make some custom ones but we'll see. 

 

And that is a cool motorbike! Never played Death Stranding, Hideo Kojimas gone a bit too bizarre and weird with his games these days! Although I'm a big fan of Metal Gear V, that was great fun! 

[Pete in Lincs]

7 hours ago, Hunter Rose said:

Its all a bit hard to explain but it will all become clear as I go

I've pretty much got it locked down in my minds eye. It's a fantastic plan.

My vision has the androids head shaped as a teardrop though, with the Mohawk trailing down to the point.

Those colours do have a great shine. Impressive stuff. I look forward to more. Meantime I'll be at the door, selling tickets to this one!

[Hunter Rose]

 Cheers Pete! 

 

I'm really excited about this project so I'm hoping to keep the speed up

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Im in count me in the room of people watching along. 

[Yg Models]

12 hours ago, Hunter Rose said:

Never played Death Stranding, Hideo Kojimas gone a bit too bizarre and weird with his games these days!

 

yes, i feel his try too hard to get away from MGS series, and created a strange FedEx game which has cool story but no replay value as per MGS series...

 

 

you enjoy MGSV, should buy and build its model kit 

 

 

 

 

for sci-fi bike, you could make reference to the bikes in another video game: Cyberpunk 2077. 

Edited October 22, 2022 by Yg Models

[Hunter Rose]

6 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Im in count me in the room of people watching along. 

 

Cool glad to have you aboard

 

4 hours ago, Yg Models said:

you enjoy MGSV, should buy and build its model kit 

 

 

for sci-fi bike, you could make reference to the bikes in another video game: Cyberpunk 2077. 

 

Wow that sahelanthropus model does look nice! Funny you mention Cyberpunk because I was looking at character models from there to get inspiration for the android rider

[Yg Models]

6 minutes ago, Hunter Rose said:

Wow that sahelanthropus model does look nice!

 

check this OOB report from korea blog.

 

http://www.dalong.net/reviews/kotobukiya/mgs/mgs_p.htm

 

wish you could get it in reasonable price.

[voozet]

A great start. In addition, you paint it yellow, which significantly increases my attention

[Hunter Rose]

Thanks voozet!

 

I have been working on this, weathers slowed me down a little but I've been sorting out the masking on the main fairing.

 

Tjis is what the white looks like now I've taken off the tape

 

IMG_20221021_161449284 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

And I decided I wanted this little detail at the bottom to have a retro vibe so I what a swish stripe of white followed by orange and then the yellow.

 

So I masked and painted the orange

 

IMG_20221022_201048535 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221022_202238763 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221022_202252494 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

I've masked off the section that will remain yellow when I spray the light blue, I'm now in the process of masking off some yellow stripes and sections

 

IMG_20221024_165127542 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

So I'm just carrying on with that and then I'll mask out some bits on the tank and rear fairing so I can get it all just sprayed over in the light blue in one paint session

 

Thanks for looking, more soon

[Hunter Rose]

Time for another update! I finished the masking and sprayed down my light blue

 

IMG_20221025_194459866 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221025_201143453 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221025_201452641 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221026_194900642 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

And before the Mr color paint had even fully dried I just couldn't wait and carefully peeled off the masking tape!

 

IMG_20221026_203536933 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221026_203603415 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

Really pumped about how the colours look together and thankfully all the masking worked out with no overspray or anything, plus it was a swine to copy the details from one side to the other but it looks a close enough match to me.

 

The only minor issue was a little bit of paint came away on the yellow front stripe

 

IMG_20221026_203614900 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

But thats no big deal I'll just mask the stripe off and spray more yellow.

 

I also got the engine screwed in to the frame, a lot of the pipework cant go in till its in place so I can get that sorted now. Also I want it together to help me sort out how I'm doing the engine, I'd like to be able to sort out the added engine bits with it all together and have them be removable so I can then paint and then glue it in place.

 

IMG_20221026_201544676 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

And speaking of the engine, I had a couple of parts in mind for the jet bits at the back, so I dug an old 1/60 freedom gundam I made yeeeeears ago out of his spares box coffin.

 

IMG_20221026_201202632 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

The parts I want to use are his shoulder boosters

 

IMG_20221026_201210120 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

After a bit of careful surgery (which was simple as I'd just rattle canned the paint on the sprue and then just push fitted it all with no glue) I have the engines out.

 

IMG_20221026_201714267 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

Next up I'll take a look at how I can get them in place and I'll mask out the rear tank and fairing and also sort out the chip on the yellow stripe

 

Thanks for looking, more soon

[Col.]

Loving how this project is going Nick and your concept sounds a cool one.

The fairing paintwork is rather smart and has a great 80s retro vibe to the colour-scheme  if anything I'd leave the chipped part on the front as it looks quite natural.

Edited October 27, 2022 by Col.

[Uncle Monty]

I love this colour scheme, I'll be watching with interest. The engine is already looking very cool.

[Hunter Rose]

1 hour ago, Col. said:

Loving how this project is going Nick and your concept sounds a cool one.

The fairing paintwork is rather smart and has a great 80s retro vibe to the colour-scheme  if anything I'd leave the chipped part on the front as it looks quite natural.

 

Thanks Col.! Yeah I really want that 80's view of the future kind of look, and oh man I'd love to just leave it but its all I see when I look at it now and if I dont I'm pretty sure my brain will explode!

 

42 minutes ago, Uncle Monty said:

I love this colour scheme, I'll be watching with interest. The engine is already looking very cool.

 

Thanks Monty, yeah I'm really liking how it came out too, I wanted to go for different colours to what I usually go for.

[voozet]

Disassembling your gundam is a nice source of parts for the future. As a definite non-fan of this style, I think that it is a pretty good use of the model

(I apologize to the fans in advance, I would not like to offend anyone).

[Hunter Rose]

1 hour ago, voozet said:

Disassembling your gundam is a nice source of parts for the future. As a definite non-fan of this style, I think that it is a pretty good use of the model

(I apologize to the fans in advance, I would not like to offend anyone).

Yeah I never throw old or broken kits, especially the big guy, tons of interesting bits on him! 

[Hockeyboy76]

A great project, and a great start. The colours look spot on. 

[Hunter Rose]

10 hours ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

A great project, and a great start. The colours look spot on. 

 

Thanks Hockeyboy! 

[Hunter Rose]

Had some shed time over the weekend, so started by sorting out the paint chip at the front.

 

Masked it out and then gave it 2 more coats of yellow

 

IMG_20221027_193655613 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221029_161138919 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

You can still see it a bit but its way better than it was so I'm fine with it

 

So I was free to start masking out the rear fairing and tank. I want the stripes to continue across the fairing parts so I started by holding the fairing parts on the frame so I can line up the masking tape properly, then got the rest of it done.

 

IMG_20221030_114215451 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221030_123654326 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

IMG_20221030_123703642 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

Then with that done I can spray down the light blue

 

IMG_20221030_161228594 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

Once it was dry I whipped off the masking tape

 

IMG_20221030_184952285 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

And then I dry fitted the parts on the frame again to check how it looks

 

IMG_20221030_185128708 by Nick Frost, on Flickr

 

Really happy with how that came out, I wanted the design to spread across the whole bike like you get on race bike fairing.

 

Next up I'm going to start getting the other frame details sorted, still have some pipes and bits to add and before I carry on with the fairing.

 

Thanks for looking, more soon

[Pete in Lincs]

Yep. I think you nailed it.

[Hunter Rose]

11 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Yep. I think you nailed it.

 

Cheers Pete 

[Toftdale]

1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Yep. I think you nailed it.

That's an understatement!   Already looked forward to see what you're going to do next - Andy