Completed MotoGP Ducati Desmosedici No.65 Loris Capirossi (big pic warning)

Hi everyone,

I finally completed Tamiya's kit last night after about 3 months work.

This is the first time I made a non-Rossi racing bike, and I thought its good to give respect to Loris Capirossi, an (33yrs.) older Italian GP rider with GP125 & GP250 titles to his name. Too bad accidents through no fault of his own, in this year's championship dimmed his chances for achieving a MotoGP title.

Anyway, back to the kit, it's a Tamiya 1/12 with the fork and Ohlins rear shock upgrades, PE stand, Tabu Marlboro decals, some misc. CM and S27 PE, SMS, Modelers and S27 CF decals. A lot of modelers have done this kit to death, but I thought what the hey, and decided to add mine anyway. This is the first time I tried CF decaling all bodywork under-paneling. Thank God for decal softeners! I'm pretty happy with the results. It's hard to see, and it may be pointless but the underside of the front fender along with the rear cowl is CF'd too. If you're looking for CF decals with this scale and finish, I still have some stock remaining in my shop. I was lazy on other points though. I didn't end up doing fine wiring work as I originally envisioned. I'll save that effort for the RC211V's thats currently WIP.

Here's the pics. Hope it didn't take forever to load up on your screen.

http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_001.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_002.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_003.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_004.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_005.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_006.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_007.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_008.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_009.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_010.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_011.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/vwu/vwu_motogp_ducati_desmo_012.jpg

Awesome reference pics, now where's the model?!

The CF is amazing! I like the handgrips, I haven't thought to pay too much attention to those before. Also, the rear wheel stand/lift looks really cool. Was that part of the kit or scratch-built?

Impressive work :)

What a great job you did on this. Very clean and skillful work, not to mention the good job with the photos too. The lift/stand is amazing, by far the best I have ever seen. Very nice.

Thanks to everyone for the good comments. Its very encouraging and highly motivating words.

The rear stand is made as an aftermarket item by Tamiya. It also comes with decals to upgrade your bike to the 2005 bike running Bridgestones. The problem is, there are a number of changes to the 2005 bike that Tamiya does not address along with the decal upgrade.

The handgrips were tricky to mask off, but I managed to do a decent job of it. What I really hated to do though, was the rear cowl, getting the seams all smoothed out, along with the tight angles to work with when decaling off on the underside, took many tries.

Gorgeous work!

Simply stunning!!! Outstanding carbon work,superb paint finish,fantastic neat finish.A real masterpiece!! Look forward to seeing more of your models.

Looks excellent Vincent. Love the photo-etched stand and the CF. What are the little rivets holding the windscreen on? What scale is the CF?

Mike.

great stuff! :D

Awsome build! It looks great!

Excellent model! Very clean. The only thing giving it away is the large screw heads on the body, frame, and axle.

Hi,

yes, there are other Ducs in the forum, nevertheless, you did a great job on this one, well executed

Just beautiful work...... well done.

Adam.

Very nice and clean work!

Terrific job :bigthumb:

Beautiful model - Beautiful photos. Both are a credit to you.

Taking the photos were mostly a trial and error shoot. I'm still trying to learn how to compose my photos as a number of my friends say i'm pretty bad at it still. For those 12 pics I posted up, there are probably a hundred that I didn't use.

Anyway, thanks to all for the motivation to continue improving!

Taking the photos were mostly a trial and error shoot. I'm still trying to learn how to compose my photos as a number of my friends say i'm pretty bad at it still. For those 12 pics I posted up, there are probably a hundred that I didn't use.

Anyway, thanks to all for the motivation to continue improving!
Improving - MAN YOU ARE THERE!!! I dont want to finish mine now that I have seen what it should look like.
Cheers
Tony

I take my hat off Vincent. You've done a great work on this great looking bike. CF work is perfect as you seem to have used different kinds of cf on the different parts of the bike. I also like your attention to detail when it comes to rivets and fasteners. Can I ask what type of rivets you used on the top cowl, the ones with the hole in the middle, and what type of cowl fasteners you've been using. They both look great. Only thing I think it lacks are some gentle weathering of the exhausts. They seem a tad too clean.

best regards
Joel

Wow thats a stunning model and photography, I could have sworn that they were actual studio pictures of the real bike.I Love it! well done.

Hi guys!

The rivets, i'm actually embarrassed to say, but they're miscellaneous nuts/bolts/rivets from other 1:12 bike PE sets, i.e. YZR-M1 and RC211V from Studio27. I actually believe that the bolts were intended for other purposes on the engine or gearing, but checking out several motoGP books, I think it should be OK.

Yep, the exhaust needs more staining. I gotta agree on this.