Dántin Pramac Ducati GP4 ´05 Test+Race

[joelwideqvist]

I know all about the issue but I'd thought I'll give you a small update anyhow. Got a shipment from Mediamix Hobby today with CF and a Crazy Modeller PE-sheet for the Desmosedici. As I mentioned above I want to see how much the front fork set adds to the appearance of the bike and if it is value for money so to speak. Then I thought why not do the same with a PE-set? I haven't worked with Crazy Modeller stuff before but I've seen pictures of the M1 set wich looked promising enough. So far I'm not disapointed with the Desmosedici set and the parts included. I've started the chain and the front disc rotors. Now it's just to figure out wich kit will get the PE treatment...race or test, race or test...

Engine block is painted Alclad II Aluminum and I will have another go at the detail parts today. Most of the cowls had to get another sanding session as there was a lot of errors to correct after the putty job.
/Joel

[robrex]

Joel,
Put the detail sets on the test bike please???
actually either bike would look great with them on! Am I starting to see a LOT more detailing from you? Next you will be buying a lathe?

[joelwideqvist]

It's growing on me. Earlier I found that bike PE sets didn't contain much that was interesting enough. Studio 27 has always put the brake discs in even though they are not steel anymore. Radiator fronts and that sort of things doesn't really apply to me either. But Crazy Modeler has some nice stuff out, the Desmo sheet is sheap and has a few really nice details.
I agree with you about the detail parts going on the test machine. I think it will be the best.
I think my wife would go crazy if I bought a Lathe...

Hope to show you some pics later today.
/Joel

[joelwideqvist]

Hi again. Promised some pictures, but due to some painting mistakes and photobucket not being available I can't show you as much as I would have liked.

What I can show you are some cf work I did yesterday. The airboxes has been covered in SMS high definition CF and I'll tell you, this stuff is great. I haven't had this much success with any CF I've ever used before. Went on like a dream. Image is taken before clearcoating.







I also tried another SMS CF decal on the rear mud guard. I taped the part up and sliced the tape up into 6 parts. This is taken before clearcoating and you can easily spot the decal edges. Hopefully these will be less visible after some clear treatment. I was going to use laquer paint so that I could cover the decals with laquer clear but I forgot and used regular acrylic paint. Will have to take out the old X-22.





best regards
Joel

[ace91]

wow, very nice work on the cf.

where do you people get the pics of the test bikes?

adrian

[joelwideqvist]

www.motogp.com and www.crash.net often reports from the winter tests. If you check those sites out in the beginning of the year you will find loads. Now it's harder to find them but search on those sites or on google.
/Joel

[joelwideqvist]

Went down to the basement where I have my modeling room and had a look at the cowls. I've painted the TS-49 parts on the race cowls and TS-14 Black on the test ones and on the rims and swing arms. Look damn good actually. TS-49 flows like a dream and actually made a shining surface without both rubbing and clear. Some of the black cowls have to be rubbed out before I apply the decals. I also have to figure out how I will do the black section of the side cowls on the race version. Either I just mask it off or I could put the separating decal on first, put on a few coats of clear and then mask off and paint black...
/Joel

[Lutz-Bikes]

Hi Joel;
Nice CF work you´ve done ..looks well so far .

Watching for next update.
Cheers Lutz

[joelwideqvist]

Today my front fork set arrived and I promised you all a review of the content and that I would compare the parts with the standard kit ones. I will do my best to finish the standard fork set and for each step I'll give you my opinions and some pics for you to judge for yourself. Tamiya has set the retail price for the front fork set to 29 USD although I got it for 15 including shipping on E-bay. I'll try to give you some words on how I think this is value for money.

First out is a pic of the parts included in the detail set.



Joel

[joelwideqvist]

Ok up for some new progress, are you?

Here's some input on the Tamiya fork set.
As you saw in the last post the fork set includes the fork leg in some sort of metal, sliding parts and reservoir in brass and a fork bottom in plastic. I was actually hoping for a metal bottom as well but now I'm left with some painting on this as well. Here are the steps for the standard forks wich includes these pieces in plastic:



With these I had to:
Paint the bottoms with Tamiya X-32 Titanium silver.
Paint the fork legs with TS-14 Black.
Paint the sliding parts and the reservoir with Alclad II Pale gold. I have to do something to the reservoir as it has to get a more orange look.
Install the reservoir

Four steps resulting in this:



With the Fork set parts I had to do this:
Paint the bottom with X-32 Titanium silver.
Install the sliding part on the bottom part.
Slide those two parts into the fork leg.
Install the reservoir.

Four steps resulting in this:



Conclusion: The actual fork legs of the Fork set from Tamiya has a nice touch to them. You don't have to go through a lot of masking and the time consuming period of time between painting sessions. The metal parts also has a shine that is hard to come by using paints. I'm a bit surprised that the bottom parts weren't metal as well. Plastic that had to be painted.

Although the really nice appearance I must say I'm a bit disapointed as I feel like I'm cheating... This is in a way just too easy. Value for money? Yes, if you wan't that really clean, spot on look on your bike and if you are having a hard time masking off the areas to be painted on the standard kit. Brass parts looks excellent. No if you like to do stuff by yourself. With these parts it is actually only the brass parts that adds to the kit. You have to paint the fork bottoms and TS-14 gives at least the same shine to the fork legs as the ones given in the Fork set kit.

Skipping fork legs and fork bottoms would have cut the price on this detail kit. All in all this part gets out of 5.
/Joel

[joelwideqvist]

I've painted the cowling parts of both bikes.

Race bike first got painted with Tamiya TS-49 Bright Red (except for the lower cowl that is totally black and was painted TS-14 black), I then masked the side cowls off with Tamiya tape







and sprayed the lower parts TS-14ending up like this.





Here are the whole set



Black parts for test bike was painted TS-14 Black. I chose to do it this way to get a nice shiny base for the decals. I will use a satin clear coat later on to dull the cowls down.



/Joel

[rrutherford]

nice work Joel, a very journalistic touch. The trouble with any work on the forks are that most of any nice metal parts are hidden once completed.
Rod.

[joelwideqvist]

I've started working on the wheels as well and I have a question for you. The test bike has black rims on most of my reference pictures. On a few you can see that they also tested with a rear tyre that had the red circle on the outer part of the rimb. I think that the flat black would do great with a pair of wheels that have red circles but as I don't have ref pics showing the use of both front and rear tyre with red circles I don't know if I shall go down that road. The rivet counting part of me sais no, but the other slightly smaller part of me keep thinking that they must have tested the bike with a black/red front wheel as well at some stage of the test, mustn't they???
/Joel

[joelwideqvist]

Waiting for your comments (hint, hint, wink, wink) I'll pot by and tell you that these decals goes on like a dream. Renaissance as well as Tamiya. I've heard something about the Renaissance decals being hard to lay down but using a towel dipped in VERY hot water makes it easy to press the decals down. Hope to show you some pics this afternoon.
/Joel

[robrex]

Do the wheels with the red line Joel! It would look much better!