1/12 Honda CR110 (Gunze Hi-Tech)

[CrateCruncher]

I recently knocked together one of my Gunze's for a quarterly contest in my local model club: Austin Scale Modelers Society. The theme was automotive and since most of the club is into air and armor I had a bit of an advantage over my competition.

Unfortunately, I squandered a lot of my time on the wheels and had to rush to finish it for the contest. It has a few warts but I like it:








I decided early on to jig-build the wheels rather than in halves as the kit is designed so I could eliminate the ugly buzz-killing seam in the center of the rims. I glued the two rim halves together with a sheet plastic spacer and then marked and drilled my spoke locations. I then covered each rim with kitchen foil in three layers: I did each side, then ran a strip of foil right down the center. Next, I added plastic rod to the brake drums for a ribbed effect. Then I located the hub and rim on a flat board with pins and shims. I used the spoke wire in the kit. It's high quality stuff. I added the little tensioners using strips of bare metal foil rolled onto each wire. 72 times!.... Lotsa fun but time consuming as hell. Best wheels I've done thus far.

The chain tension adjusters on the rear swing arm are made from litho-plate and 00-90 bolts - yeah, the bolts are a bit overscale but I've learned to live with it. The kit included brackets for the racing numbers but no plates so they were also scratched from litho-plate and attached with Grandt rivets. There were no decals so the pinstriping is done by hand - yeah, it's not perfect either but again, I've learned to live with it. The stand was soldered up from brass wire and was inspired by a design I found on the internet holding a real CR110 up.

Overall, this was a fun build that I enjoyed immensely - except for that aforementioned time crunch at the very end. The parts were first rate and the fit was pretty good, especially for a Gunze kit. This is the fifth Hi-Tech and the third Gunze bike I've done. (The Indian and SWB in my sig are Gunze's). I still have about 20 more in my stash so there's no chance of running out any time soon. If you want to do multimedia and don't feel like selling a kidney for a Hiro kit try a Gunze. Though out of production there are a LOT of these on feeBay at any given time.

[Ferrari TR]

Very nice, warts and all. I've still got an HT kit in my collection, i pull it out from time to time and poke through the parts. It always ends up back on the shelf with me wondering 'what where they thinking'.

[dmacb]

Excellent result.

[quadzero]

Amazing build, fantastic subject also. Truely a work of art.

[Greg23]

Keep making stuff like this and you guys will make a bike fan out of me yet.

[endac]

Looks beautiful, its such a simple and elegent looking bike. Great work on the wheels, they look fantastic