Tamiya Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR

[Hecky]

A bit of progress on the back end last night and this morning.

[Hecky]

I had half an hour while the dinner was cooking so I quickly got the front mudguard decals on and lacquered.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Those decals look like they may have been a bit of challenge. They look great.

[Hecky]

They were actually ok. The carbon decal sheets I got seem to be quite stretchy when you put them on. By pulling it tight around the mudguard then I got it done in a single piece. Much easier than the Tamiya decals

[Hecky]

It's nice still weather today so I got the green bits done. The spray paints are far too toxic to use in the house. I've used the mica green from zero paints. It works well straight out of the bottle so there's no need to faff around with thinners.

I'll need to try and get decals and lacquer on today if I can. I don't want to leave these bits lying around collecting dust for too long

[Nicko]

Loving the green....

Nick

[Jim R]

I've never built a large scale motor bike kit but they do make eyecatching models. This is looking great. Exhaust looks fine and the carbon fibre decals seem to have gone on nicely.

[Hecky]

I like the detail in these kits. I find the decals really difficult though. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong. I'm using micro set and micro sol, heating with the hair drier. They're still a nightmare!

[Hecky]

That was a trial. There's some bits where the black doesn't meet up so I'll have to brush paint a few little bits of black. I might even get some lacquer on tonight after tea.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Lovely work George, looking awesome.

[Hecky]

Thanks Steve, I'm getting better at them. I'm getting the hang of painting but the decals are still my nemesis

[Hecky]

I got the lacquer on but it was still rough over some of the decals so I flattened it back with some 600 grit emery and did another coat. The finish is ok but I might go for it with some T-cut later to get a better finish.

[Hecky]

The body panels are more or less there. The pile of bits in the box is getting smaller.

There's just the small fiddly bits left now.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

I got the lacquer on but it was still rough over some of the decals so I flattened it back with some 600 grit

Brave move George and the result is excellent. I wish I had the balls to do this on my recent BAE Hawk build but I was bothered that I would damage the decals. Well done mate.

[Hecky]

As long as you go easy it should be fine. Just sand it back until the whole surface goes completely flat and you can't see any orange peel. Then one more coat of lacquer to gloss it up. I was using a can of PMA clear gloss from the local motor factors.

[Hecky]

I've managed to lose the cap nut for the steering stem again. This happened on my last model. It goes on here to cover the screw:

I've fashioned this out of a bit of sprue to cover the hole. Hopefully it's not too obvious.

[Hecky]

That purple clear coat turned up. I think it worked quite well on the exhausts. It's lacquer based though so it does have a bit of fumes with it

[Hecky]

Terrible photos. I'll take better ones in the morning. I think it just needs it's clothes on and it's finished

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Very nice George. Good work on that nut, I would never have known it wasn't the original.

[Hecky]

Thanks Steve, it's fairly obvious when you zoom right in on the photos but you can't really notice it with the naked eye. I nearly bought a packet of stainless M1.2 flange nuts just to get the one I needed but decided that was a step too far

[Hecky]

Some better photos:

[Hecky]

Loads of mistakes, but I am getting better at them.