Tamiya 1/6 Harley-Davidson FLH Classic

[imatanker]

Clear? CLEAR? Did I hear clear? Oh sweet. Lemmie see. Please,please, please

[Mence]

Chaps, thank you for your continued support.

Clear coat is on some of the parts, I'm doing them on a strictly as needed basis so front and rear fenders are first up, followed by the panniers.

I'm probably leaving the clear coat too long to cure but I would rather be safe than sorry.

In the meantime I will try to do something with the forks, it's juniors Birthday today so no update until well into next week.

Cheers.

[imatanker]

No problem Mence,  Daughter's B-Day is today also, so I know what you're saying

[Deleted]

Happy Birthday to Junior 


more great progress too BTW 

[Keith Christie]

I leave my clear coat at least 72 hours before going near it.

Best Regards

Keith.

[`Boots`]

Abserferkinlutely Prof...........she is a thing of beauty , that could grace my bench any day mucka, freakin` bootiful

Happy birthday to junior as well mucka


Dicky..........LMFAO

[robbo]

Stunning building Mence

[Mence]

Chaps, thank you.

Junior had a great Birthday, myself and Tara (Mrs Prof) are exhausted!

Right, having said no update for a while here's an update.

Front end well underway now, forks, like the rear end are sprung and workable. Handlebars are metal and attached very much like the real thing.

Needs some tidying up and some additional detail painting but you can get a flavour of where it's going...

[Mence]

Thanks Boo, you forget how damn long these things take, because of the larger scale you have to try that much harder to make it all look right.

Need to do some work up the other end soon, really need to try and get some wheels on this!

[Deleted]

Those bars look real! Are you sure this isn't a build of the real thing from its shipping carton? 
great stuff Prof 

[thug626]

Sept 16, 2013 14:43:50 GMT -5 @dickyf said:

Needs some tidying up

Needs some tidying up? What? Where? When? Am I lookin' at something different? Ferk me Prof, this is definitely as good as it gets fella, that's some flawless modelling and no mistake - Awesome

Glad Junior had a great day

Tidying as in....what?.......attaching it to the steering head? That paint is gorgeous! Well chosen indeed.

Dave

[bullardino]

Stunning update, Prof. The colour is a typical Harley one, I've seen so many of them in that shade.

[wbill76]

Very nice! Agree with the others, the orange is really going to make this one pop.

[imatanker]

Nice, nice, nice Prof. The color choice is turning out to be outstanding

[Deleted]

Man that's beautiful!

[Mence]

Hello chaps, wow, you're very kind, once again, thank you all!

Might be a small update later depending on how my day goes.

[Mence]

Chaps.

Small update.

Instruments are pretty much there now but not without trauma. The decals being I guess the original 80s issue broke up as soon as they got near water.

I have patched them up but it doesn't bode well for the big decs yet to come. Apologies for the pic quality, they look better in the flesh. Once installed, a cotton bud will be used on all chrome to remove greasy paw prints.



Thanks.

[bbd468]

My Goodness Prof......How do you do it? Just beautiful works my man! Nice save on the decs, wouldnt have know had you not said. Well done Mence.

[bullardino]

Fantastic job, Mence. I cannot imagine it more similar to the original one

[wbill76]

Sept 17, 2013 15:08:31 GMT -5 @boo said:

Prof, that looks fab, despite the issues with the decals you've made it look like there was no issue at all.

The big gauge prof, that looks incredibly well defined, but is it mph/kph shortened to two digits ?

Either that or the bike's very slow....

Nice work Mence, instrument cluster is looking gorgeous!

[imatanker]

It's always good to know how fast you're going, how far you've been, what your engine temp is and stuff like that. Not that it's really important or anything, just the wind in your hair and the bugs in your teeth or up your nose should be enough  Nice gaugulation Prof.

[Keith Christie]

Very nice progress Mence,

That front end is classic Harley and the colour is spot on with the clear coat added.
Nice job on the instruments also, the decals have come out well despite your problems.
Do you have some of THIS
I believe you can apply it to old decals to stop them falling apart. It may help you with the bigger decals in your build..

Keep up the good work.

Best Regards

Keith

[Mence]

Hi all, once again my sincere thanks for such kind comments.

Boo, it's calibrated in MPH I guess and just visible is a tiny X-10 so I guess you multiply, 2 is 20, 4 is 40 and so on.

Keith, cheers fella, I didn't know it did that to decals, I have ordered a bottle.

On the subject of decals, I applied the first big one to the front fender today, it broke in two but I got round that ok. Only problem is they look awful! The decal is way too yellow once you get it on the paintwork and it looks really strange. On the backing sheet they appear to be far more cream which is what I planned the paint colour round.
So, decision taken not to apply the big slabs of colour but to apply all the other smaller detail decals. I think with care the paint will look good enough to carry it off ok.

Back soon...

[Deleted]

Hi Prof,
the stuff Keith linked to works really well so you should be fine for the rest 

Bezels look great, you'd never know there had been a problem buddy

[Mence]

Certainly not 200 mate!

Cheers Steve, sorry, missed ya post mate. Decals were a real pain and I guess there's more to come...

[imatanker]

Prof, don't sweat the big decals. Leave 'em off .  There's no such thing as a bone stock HD.

[imatanker]

Top speed was about 105 MPH.

[Mence]

Afternoon chaps, thank you as always, appreciate you staying tuned.

On the subject of speedometers, I have owned dozens of 70s Jap bikes and all of them had incredibly flattering speedos, in reality, the final 50mph on the dial was never achievable unless you strapped the bike to a missile!
One final word on decals, they look really bad against the paint so decision definitely taken to omit them using only the small warning labels etc. etc.

Bit of an update.

In summary, rear wheel and brake assembly dropped in with a metal axle, rear fender fitted, taillight / flasher assembly built and installed, chain guard fitted, torque arm fitted, seat mount fitted, rack and mounts for the panniers fitted as well as the crash bars that surround them. Lots of 6mm screws are used in this so my advice is to open up the holes slightly first to avoid applying too much pressure when trying to wind the screws in.
Now I have reached this stage, the amount of manhandling is reduced so I can now concentrate on further tidying up as well as some detail painting that I have deliberately avoided until now.

Anyway, couple of pics...





Comments, good, bad or indifferent always gratefully received.

[bbd468]

More first class buildifications Mence!   Excellent works my man!

[thug626]

More outstanding work Mence. An excellent save on the decals. Had you not said anything, I would never have known that they detonated.

Dave