Here is my build of Aoshima’s 1/12 scale Kawasaki Zephyr. The Zephyr series were introduced in the early 1990s and Kawasaki were pretty much the first manufacturer to start selling what are now generally called ‘Retro style’ bikes. Indeed, the general architecture of these bikes was very much born in the 1970s and the engines could trace their origins back there too. In the UK we got a 550 and 750cc initially and they were joined by an 1100cc model a year or two later.
The kit subject is a Japanese home market 400cc version, but it shares the same frame and style as the UK 550 and as is usual for Aoshima there are a fair selection of alternative parts in the box. What I did was select the appropriate looking items to build as close to a UK spec 550 as possible. The required parts mainly entailing the wheels, brakes, instruments, seat and exhaust. I was given this kit secondhand by a work colleague several years ago and the engine had been assembled and painted badly. This is the fourth motorcycle kit I’ve built since getting back into this again and as such and with a lot of other bikes in the stash, I have treated it as a test bed for trying to improve the level of finish I can achieve and, where possible, disguise some of the limitations that result from producing a small version.
I started by stripping the paint off the engine and luckily enough, the outer covers also fell off at the same time which made painting easier. I stripped all the plating off the ‘chrome’ sprue and filled the voids in the back of the fork legs and swing arm. There then followed a lengthy period of painting and finishing parts with very little assembly taking place. Once I did start on the assembly, it was very much a case of taking things very slowly and adding only one or two parts at a time whilst adhesives set etc. Along the way, I added some punched discs and hex’s in various places to replicate where fasteners should be and also to cover the heads of assembly screws. The vinyl tube included for cables and hoses was replaced with something a little more in scale. Panels were finished with Zero Dark British Racing Green to replicate a colour that was available in later production models – the alternatives being a rather boring navy blue or dark maroon. Other paints used were a mixture of Tamiya, SMS, A.Stand and Vallejo and I learnt my lesson from previous builds by actually writing down what colour I used on each part so that I knew what I was doing if any re-finishing was required. Achieving subtle differences in black and metallic finishes really makes a bike build I think.
I’ve completed this over the course of a couple of months and as is usual with bike builds, the end result feels rather fragile, but I’m quite pleased with how she’s turned out. Here are the pics, hope you like them and sorry for rambling on for so long…..
And of course a 'for scale' shot......
Thanks as always for looking in.
Nick
The kit subject is a Japanese home market 400cc version, but it shares the same frame and style as the UK 550 and as is usual for Aoshima there are a fair selection of alternative parts in the box. What I did was select the appropriate looking items to build as close to a UK spec 550 as possible. The required parts mainly entailing the wheels, brakes, instruments, seat and exhaust. I was given this kit secondhand by a work colleague several years ago and the engine had been assembled and painted badly. This is the fourth motorcycle kit I’ve built since getting back into this again and as such and with a lot of other bikes in the stash, I have treated it as a test bed for trying to improve the level of finish I can achieve and, where possible, disguise some of the limitations that result from producing a small version.
I started by stripping the paint off the engine and luckily enough, the outer covers also fell off at the same time which made painting easier. I stripped all the plating off the ‘chrome’ sprue and filled the voids in the back of the fork legs and swing arm. There then followed a lengthy period of painting and finishing parts with very little assembly taking place. Once I did start on the assembly, it was very much a case of taking things very slowly and adding only one or two parts at a time whilst adhesives set etc. Along the way, I added some punched discs and hex’s in various places to replicate where fasteners should be and also to cover the heads of assembly screws. The vinyl tube included for cables and hoses was replaced with something a little more in scale. Panels were finished with Zero Dark British Racing Green to replicate a colour that was available in later production models – the alternatives being a rather boring navy blue or dark maroon. Other paints used were a mixture of Tamiya, SMS, A.Stand and Vallejo and I learnt my lesson from previous builds by actually writing down what colour I used on each part so that I knew what I was doing if any re-finishing was required. Achieving subtle differences in black and metallic finishes really makes a bike build I think.
I’ve completed this over the course of a couple of months and as is usual with bike builds, the end result feels rather fragile, but I’m quite pleased with how she’s turned out. Here are the pics, hope you like them and sorry for rambling on for so long…..
And of course a 'for scale' shot......
Thanks as always for looking in.
Nick
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