Ducati Desmosedici

[Fenlander]

Scary times folks. My first venture away from a military model and I have chosen a Tamiya 1/12 motorcycle, the classic Ducati Desmosedici 990cc 16 Valve V4.

This beautiful kit turned up on my doorstep this morning safe and well packaged (thanks again John, great service) and I sit here ogling the contents yet no way am I ready to start building it.

This kit is very highly rated in all the reviews I have read and, on opening the box, the shear amount of detailed plastic is stunning. It is so good that I was a little worried about taking it on. There are some really tricky things about cars and bikes that have to be right. There is no room for 'good enough'.

Knowing this was going to be my toughest challenge to date, I was pleased over the weekend to come across a Tamiya 1/12 Honda NSR 500 Factory Colour kit being sold off cheap.

Thinking that this would make a good sacrificial lamb for me to try out a few techniques before committing to the Ducati I bought it thinking it would be very basic.

Compared to the Ducati, it is much simpler and I suspect older kit but on close examination, it looks a really good kit that, I hope, will turn out good enough to display near the Ducati.

My main worries are about getting realistic metal finishes and getting a really good finish on the fairing, tank and seat cowling. It has to be as good as on a car kit or it will spoil the whole build.

For the Honda, I will be trying to get the best effect OOB without the use of factory matched colours or Alclad metallics. As the main difficulty will be reproducing a scale 'chrome' the Honda is a good test bed as the only chrome on it is the small silencer boxes on the end of black pipes. I have been looking at some bikes though and on some, the chrome on the exhaust system looks almost like a 'matt' chrome rather than the mirror finish that we associate as chrome. My motorcycling days are well over but if there are any riders or enthusiasts on here, I would appreciate any feedback on this.

There is also quite a bit of aftermarket stuff for the Ducati including metal forks, photo etch brake disks and chainset. The decision to get these will depend on how good I can get it to look.

So for now, I will be experimenting quite a bit and watching Richy's Aston Martin thread with great interest. Although Richy has bitten the bullet, I am sure he can sympathise with what I am thinking about this build.

As always, hints tips and blank cheques very welcome.

 

[m1ks]

The Honda should make a lovely kit, Tamiya kits are very good and the fit is excellent too.

The Stubby silencers (plus the 2 under the seat fairing) would have been aluminium, the only shiny metal if at all being the stubby pipes coming out of the silencers.

Having had a test of Humbrol metalcote i can say the finish on the aluminium seems good and it polishes quite well too.

 

[john]

Glad to see it arrived safe the Ducati is another one of those kits I have that I wouldn't be disappointed if no one bought it, I really enjoyed doing the YZR 500 they are well engineered kits, look forward to seeing your build, it's worth looking at the Tamiya weathering sets, the look they get from set D looks really good, see this page direct links to movies Muffler Weathering & Chamber Weathering

 

[Fenlander]

Thanks for the info m1ks (will we ever know your name lol) I personally don't think at 1:12 scale, chrome would look like chrome anyway. In my days of motorcycling, all exhaust systems were real chrome and they look terrible when they started to pit and corrode. From what I have seen of modern bikes it does look more polished aluminium than chrome. I have never tried the Humbrol Metalcoat so I will have to include that in the test materials. When you say it polishes well do you mean literally as in paint it, let it dry and buff it up?

John. I just admire you for keeping your hands off it for this long, I would not have been able to I can tell you. The plastic in that box is superb. Better than the Honda, which I would expect but the Honda is nice to. I have the Tamiya weathering sets and will give it a go on the test pieces for the Ducati. There would be no 'blueing' on the Honda boxes that far back.

 

[Richy C]

Well looking forward to these builds Graham , good call starting the Honda first good way to get a taster before going full on with the Ducati I will be watching and learning with interest mate

Richy

 

[Fenlander]

I will be watching and learning with interest mate

Ahhhh, I was hoping to watch and learn from yours lol..........

 

[m1ks]

No problem, My names Mike BTW, (thought I'd put that in my profile?), the names a hangover form a very old AOL mail address Mik S (Mick S) and miks was taken hence m1ks, I needed a short snappy and very easy to remember address as no end of people misspelled Michael, (you just wouldn't believe how few people get the a and e the right way round), there you go, mystery solved.

Just as you typed there, yes, paint, let dry and buff, I did a quick brush paint of Alu on a lollipop stick to try it (bought the Alu, Polished Alu and Steel), then gave it a quick buff with a cloth the following day and I reckon it'd look a treat on a bike alloy frame, (of course the Desmo is carbon fibre but good for the Honda)

There are still a few bikes produced with chromed pipes but the sportier ones tend to use mild steel (standard) with alloy cans or carbon cans, cheaper commuters using painted mild steel and polished or brushed stainless being a popular aftermarket option.

Regarding the exhaust blueing, you could paint the Honda pipes in steel, (a lot of performance 2 stroke tuners made custom tuned stainless pipes) and apply Blueing at the hotspots and a hint of yellow on the entry and exit to the expansion chamber.

Anyhow, i'll get a pic of my lollipop stick to show you the metalcote.

Oh one more thing.

If you are amazed by the detail on the Tamiya kit, (they are good) and enjoy building it you have to try an Aoshima Naked bike series kit, I have a Z900 awaiting (along with numerous others i've gotten as i've seen bargains) and believe me I was blown away by the casting and detail, I have NEVER seen detail as accurate, chrome as realistic and even a decent steel on the engine covers, nothing short of amazing.

 

[Fenlander]

Cheers Mike. If you check your profile, there is a place for first name. If you put it in there then it will show near your post avatar. Thanks again for the exhaust info, great detail and lots to think about.

 

[Richy C]

Yeh right mate its the blind following the blind Graham what little I learn I will pass on and tell you what not to do LOL , sorry about posting a picture on your thread but I`ve got this baby to make at some stage not worried about the build or painting but the carbon fibre decals scare the life out of me

Richy

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[m1ks]

Heres a few pics.

One of the aforementioned lollipop stick, showing from the end, Alu metalcote So theroetically polished Alu will be shinier, Humbrol standard Alu, big difference (and phantom Grey but you can ignore that one, that's for a future project, if it ever arrives)

The other pics are of the shiny bits of the Aoshima Z900 kit, pics aren't great and the bits are still in the sealed bags but hopefully you can get an idea of the kit quality.

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[Gern]

Hi guys,

These kits look fabulous but they're waaaayyyy beyond me at the moment. I'll need lots more practise with my painting before I tackle one of these.

I do have a question though. All this talk about shiny bits reminds me I have a couple of kits with 'chromed' pieces. Looking at the pics of that Aoshima kit also shows there are what look like chromed pieces.

How do you clean up/replace the finish at the sprue attachment points if they're going to be seen on the finished kit?

Gern

 

[m1ks]

That's a tricky one and simple answer is you can't as the parts are actually chrome dipped, just like Plastichrome trim on a full size motorbike or car, kits at the cheaper end, (airfix cars etc) tend to have fairly thick chrome plating which loses detail and the common practise with most is to strip the chrome by sitting it overnight in Brake fluid or degreaser.

All that said, any decent kit will ensure that the sprue fixtures are on areas which either are hidden, (tyre inner rim where the rubber hides it), or where the area is to be glued to another portion of the model (the exhaust to engine and frame mounting point).

I guess if a part is going to have a visible area then possibly masking and spraying a dot of black then alclad chrome? No expert on this stuff, (have yet to try mine), but i'd guess it's the closest you'd get.

 

[Fenlander]

That Kawasaki is the same type of bike I had but mine was the black Honda K series, very similar exhaust system.

Richy, the Nija was going to be the next on my list ya swine lol.... Are the metal forks worth the extra? They do them for the Ducati but I wasn't sure how much better they were than the kit ones. The carbon fibre decals are interesting as the Ducati has what appears to be carbon fibre detail but no mention of it in the destructions. Maybe I will have to get hunting round for some aftermarket stuff, and a new third bike as the Nija is being don.........

I do fancy that big Kawasaki road bike with the graphite grey bodywork, cannot remember the name of it at the mo an it is time to stop enjoying myself and go to work. Catch ya all at playtime.....

 

[Gern]

Thanks Mike.

I guessed that would be the situation so I checked one of my kits to see the extent of the problem. Ooops! EVERY chrome part either has seams/sink holes/ejection marks to be tidied up or the attachment points are in areas which will be visible! Looks like I'm gonna have to spend some time and money learning how to use these chrome type paints. Either that or paint everything rust and stick small pieces of thin foil at random to show the chrome flaking off!

I think I'll stick to my military stuff (no shiny bits!) for a while to improve my skills before I open that can of worms.

Gern

 

[john]

I've just been looking at the Aoshima bike kits and they are very well priced compared to the Tamiya kits, I've added a few to my next order and for the film buffs the Top Gun GPZ900R Ninja

 

[Fenlander]

JOHN STOP IT......... are you trying to bankrupt me??????

 

[Richy C]

Hi Graham , I think the forks and after market stuff are worth it but like yourself I`m gonna make a bargin eBay bike first , why not build the Honda first and if your happy and still got the bike bug then splash out for the extras , the cf decals and pe came in a combo pack , a nice touch is that on the back of the decals is the templates for all the different parts but having never used the stuff its quite daunting seeing you only get one go at it to get it right , the forks look good and worth the expense in my eyes , if you compare the forks to the bits on the kit sprues theres a big difference

Richy

 

[Fenlander]

Thanks for that Richy, I am definitely building the Honda first, in fact it has been slightly started. Looks like I have some more money to spend now...........

 

[Ian M]

Hm looks like my 30year old honda and suzi might be getting a bit of company at this rate. What about a MC group build then?

Joking just a joke relax.

Ian M

 

[Fenlander]

Have to say, photographing silver is a pain.... It picks up every colour cast around. Ended up having to use a box lid to stop any other reflections or light sources affecting it.

Anyway, rant over, here is the alloy frame for the Honda without the swinging arm, which is the same finish, and the main engine block without detail or anything but a semi gloss black spray. The silver on the frame is Citadel Mithril Silver which doesn't look too bad and may be what I use assuming that it till looks OK after a wash to bring out the detail and a coat of Klear. Having said that, I may get some semi gloss varnish for this one as I want to keep the metallics glossy but not overtly so.

Opinions and comments welcome.