Tamiya 1/12 Suzuki Katana 1100

therapy

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Joined
Apr 21, 2019
Messages
884
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93
Location
East Anglia
First Name
Nick
Well, this kit holds the title of having spent longest in my stash, that is, not counting the thirty or so really old kits that have travelled with me from the time before all that adult stuff. I bought it on a trip to Preston from the now defunct Transport Models whilst on a trip to visit my daughter at uni in 2015. Whilst the Ladies went shopping, I took myself off on a long stroll to the shop that was in an old mill out of the town centre. After getting it home and looking at the parts, I decided to leave it until I'd got a few other kits under my belt.

Since then I've dabbled with it here and there getting the seams tidied up on the bodywork and exhausts, but mostly it got forgotten about until I had completed my GPZ900 for the TV & Movie group Build. That's when I thought it deserved finishing. And here she is. There are a few things I'm not too happy about and I need to think about an alternative to the generic one-size black piping that loves to kink and is not always true to scale. Built out of the box aside from removing the 'chrome' and fashioning a small piece of scrap plastic to make the oil filler on the clutch cover look a little more realistic.

The main challenge to the latter stages of the project was coming up with different combinations of 'silver' so the finished bike didn't look too monotone. To that end, there are various shades of Vallejo metal colour, but the bodywork was done in A.Stand High Speed Silver which went on very nicely.

Anyway, here are the pics.

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I was offered one of these bikes for £1600 somewhere around the mid-eighties. Decent ones are going for five figure sums these days. I have owned a 650cc version since 1994 that I used for commuting all year. That one is pretty much worthless in its current state. :upside:

Thanks for looking in. All comments and questions welcome.......

Nick
 

tigersteve

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Joined
Jan 29, 2018
Messages
511
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93
First Name
Steve
Reminds me of my first comeback build 4 years ago now, after decades away....... Nice job !
 

simontie

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Joined
Jan 13, 2010
Messages
997
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93
Location
Morayshire Scotland
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simon
Nice when i first left school i wanted 1 of these just loved it, i had worked out that if i save £15 quid a week from my YTS payments I would still never be able to afford one now i have 2. Ok to be fair a 1/12 & 1/6 th scale but 2 none the less great build fantastic finish
( also I haven't quite got the big kit but santa is bringing me one)
simon
 
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