First WIP: Honda VFR750R

[Beakster]

Hi,

After spending many years browsing modelling forums I've finally decided it's time to give back, so here is my first WIP.



It's Tamiya's 1/12 VFR750R. I originally started it about 6 years ago, only the main engine assembly and frame, and then stopped. In the mean time I lost the instructions and then found them again recently!

Hopefully posting here will encourage me to finish this model, it's been a few years since doing so and I have too many in a half completed state!

My skills are average, I can put together an okay model OOB, but I'm going to spend a bit more time on the clean up than I have done in the past and also add some detailing. I've been working on it over the past few weeks and will post up some more pics later today when I have a bit more time.

[Beakster]

Here is some of the progress I've made so far...

I've added a back to the rear caliper and a few extra bolt heads from stretched sprue.



I 'carefully' drilled and removed all the plastic where the holes are, I can't believe I managed it



This link had some holes to fill and a few bolt heads added.



This discs were drilled.



I added a back to the caliper, a pad retaining pin and bleed nipple (not shown). I also filed the massive void on the inside of each leg (and inadvertently the front mudguard locating holes, which luckily opened up again easily.



I added a scratch built rear brake master cyclinder. It's not fantastic, but better that none, although it may never be seen! I also changed the fitting the master cylinder connects to as I prefer the look of this and it wasn't to much work.



Finally, for the moment, I scratch built a new piggy back for the rear shock as the kit one was a bit basic and I wanted to try a little more detailing. This might not be seen but was fun to make. I've still to add the jubilee clips to it.



Let me know what you think.

[joelwideqvist]

Super start and a super welcome!
/Joel

[stevenoble]

Excellent progress. I remember building this kit many years ago and I made an absolute disaster of the decals.

[Beakster]

Thank you for the comments!

To give you all an idea of where I'm hoping to go, here's a few of the photos I found to inspire me.

First up, the one that really got me thinking about detailing this model. Lots going on here, I'm not sure how busy the finished model will be as I've not attempted anything like this before, but I guess we all need something to aim for.... no laughing at the back if it ends up nothing like this!



That got me looking further and after some time searching with Google I came across a site that had the whole bike split into exploded diagrams. This one is the speedo etc, and got me thinking about adding some extra wiring.



I not sure how I'll approach it yet, or if I have the skill to be happy with the results, but I'll give it a go. There might be a little artistic license if I can't work out where all the wires go, but I'm the kind of modeller that likes it to look right rather than be a 100% perfect scale model.

Wish me luck!

[joelwideqvist]

Those sites are the ones you hope for with every build, I never find them though. Lucky you :-)
/Joel

[cR@Zy!NgLi$h]

A great start! Hopefully in 6 years I'll have the courage to start posting my own work!!!

[joelwideqvist]

Ah, cR@Zy!NgLi$h, come on. You are among friends here. Just post your work!
/Joel

[sportracer02]

Nice start so far, I guess this will be rather detailed

[Beakster]

cR@Zy!NgLi$h, try posting some stuff!

I'm hoping this will be detailed, but I've only ever built out of the box before so I'll see how far I get! I don't plan on using any aftermarket PE or anything like that, so I'm limited by my scratch building skills, and I don't really know how good they are yet.

Now, I have question about primer. I've primed the fuel tank with white auto primer, Halford's own (UK), as it seem to be generally recommended by various modellers. It leaves a very slightly bobbley texture, should I sand this smooth before the colour coat, or will this cover easily like it is.



Also, for the first time I've bothered to prime some of the smaller parts. Do most of you bother, or paint straight on to these.

I was also wondering if it might be worth trying a different primer, something like Alclad using my airbrush, although I like the convenience of a can for covering large areas or lots of parts.

[joelwideqvist]

I don't sand the primer if I have a nice even surface (although a bit bobbly as you say). I know a lot of people do though.

I prime parts that is to be painted with laquer paints and if the plastic part has a color that is much darker than the paint I will use, e.g black plastic to be painted white, red or yellow. Otherwise you get much duller paint.
/Joel

[Beakster]

After a small painting error (painting is the part I dread, but I'll get there one day) I cheered my self up by completing a slightly fiddly task.

I wanted to improve the stock ignition system with some blue wires instead of the over-sized supplied vinyl tubing.





I cut off the part that the tube went over, sanded smooth and then very carefully drilled a small hole to accept the wire. Only one hole went slightly off, but the mistake will hide with paint.

[Seventyseven]

Great work! I love this bike, it is my dream bike, I have two of these kits (one still plastic wrapped-never to be opened!) keep up the great work.

I would sand that primer.

[Twowheelsrule]

It looks like you are doing a fine job on the bike so far!

Mark

[Beakster]

I've improved the radiator today.

I've cut the original hoses out and replaced them with hoses made with heatshrink tubing as these will look realistic being a rubber type material and are a better size. I put a piece of wire in and formed the tubing over it to give it some rigidity to make bending it to the right shape easier.

The part of the radiator it fits to was made by drilling a small hole into the radiator and fixing a small length of plastic rod into it. This will give a more realistic step to the join between the hose and the radiator.

I've also added the mount for a wire that attaches to the radiator (water temp I guess?) and the clip on the side. The clip is a little over-scale, but it's the smallest I could get to work.

I hope you're enjoying the build so far, let me know what you think. (Am I going into to much detail describing what I've done, is it interesting?)