Tamiya 1/12 Ducati 900

[paddy]

This is an interesting Kit ! the Ducati 900SS came in Black and Gold or silver and Blue. The B/G only came with a duel seat, this kit has a single seat..and the B/S only had spoked wheels..and this kit has cast wheels…so you can’t build an accurate model of either....Good start :laugh:

I tried to build this kit last year and gave up because I sprayed it with cellulose paint and melted the plastic by mistake. It’s now out of production again. Tamiya revolve their production of their 1.12 bike kits and some like this can often go up to 10 years out of production. Beware of paying the extortionate prices charged after a few years out of production. I bought one a a couple of years ago for £45 only to find it reissued a few weeks later for £20 ! I managed to buy a couple from Hong Kong last week and they were the last 2 available on Ebay at the time but I see a few more are on there this week.
Any way..i am rabbiting on so I will get down to what I plan to do..I am going to build this one as a Black and Gold while I look into ways of building some spoked wheels for the other kit I got and building a Blue/Silver at a later date...
It’s interesting to note the difference between this kit and the last motorcycle kit I built with its separate steel spokes and individual chain links…This one is 30 years old and these bikes were state of the art in showrooms when Tamiya first issued this model .

Compare the seat of a real bike to the Tamiya model on the box top

This is Tamiya's idea of a Blue silver version with cast wheels and silver fairing

And this is the real thing with spoked wheels and proper blue fairing

I have made a start on the forks. Tamiya spray the whole thing chrome. the stanchions should be chrome, the legs flat black and the brakes and seals semi gloss. I decided the easiest way was to separate the brakes from the legs.

then strip the chrome from the legs with oven cleaner so the black paint will stick

well its a start

 

[MrT]

A good start I'd say.

 

[paddy]

Looking more like forks. reassembled.

Matt black legs, semi gloss dust seals, Satin callipers, cooking foil round the dust seals. two dia Brass rod for brake pipes. The Kit callipers have a moulded point to take 1mm rubber tube....That would be 12mm scaled up but in reality would be about 6mm so i will have to find some .5mm something to represent the flexible pipes that will fit on to the brass parts.

 

[Styrene Scientist]

nice work!
always liked Ducs just to bad they sound like tractors lol

 

[paddy]

Bit of an experiment going on here Obviosly these engines are all alloy finish with no paint but it will look pretty bland if i just spray it Matt aluminium.
The main crankcases are sand blasted die cast, the barrels and cylinder heads are just die cast and the outer covers are polished die cast.... roughly speaking.
I have done my crank cases bright silver then a matt coat to give them a sand blast brightness. Barrels and heads are just semi gloss aluminium and outer covers are gloss black and alclad.
The outer covers are chrome in th3 box which is odd.....but some overn cleaner sorted that

Not as pretty but a bit more realistic

Contrast in finish will be more obvious when assembled if my photography is up to scratch....Alclad doesn't like close up does it !!! :laugh:

A few other bits being worked on

Bikes are really a dozen or more finished parts then assembled into one, bit of a different approach to aircraft where you build then paint.

 

[Adam Baker]

Excellent work so far! I absolutely love the Tamiya 1/12 motorcycle kits, they have such fantastic detail on them.

 

[paddy]

Thanks Adam
A few more bits under way, carbs and rear shocks. I cant justify the expense of a PE chain on this TBH

the tank has a join down the middle which needs to be invisable !

I'm going to try something different with this and experiment with removing moulded screw heads and replacing them with alloy rivets. I cant do the who;e thing as i have already finished most of the engine but i will have a play about ready for my next project that will be a "special" 900SS made from three different kits. this one, the MHR replica version of this one and the NCR version of this kit. All three use some basic parts like the frame but have different wheels brakes body work and engines........... the trick bit will be ...I plan to then build the real thing 1/1 !! ( if it looks ok in model form)

 

[moon puppy]

 

[jknaus]

James

 

[paddy]

Plodding alone here
Its quite difficult to get the contrast in engine finishes to show on a photo at this stage but to the naked eye its more obvious

I did an-experiment with alloy rivets for fasteners on the engine cases but they are so small you don't see then (about .75mm head size or .030") especially as they are the same colour as the cases...it might work better on black cases.

Anyway, you have to try these things

 

[moon puppy]

That sort of detail will really pay off Paddy, nice touch. wonder if this is a case of having to overstate the contrast to offset for scale?

 

[paddy]

Hi Bob, the rivets are just an experiment for another job i have planned but i take your point about increasing contrast to allow for scale, i usually go a few shades lighter with interior green in cockpits and that works really well. A dash of grey in the silver for barrels and heads on the engine might work well. It might also tone down the metallic effect which is still 1:1 rather than 1:12
Cheers mate

 

[paddy]

As with anything like this that has a finish, the gloss will make or break it.

The black has gone on ok. Its not brilliant but its good enough for decals

The problem is you tend to get 1:1 scale orange peel in a 1:12 model so it looks 12 x as bad as it really is. the fact is if you scaled down 1:1 orange peel by 12 it would probably look fine. But scale up the orange peel i have here by 12 and it would look almost satin finish rather than gloss.........See where i am coming from.
I puzzled for a long time over why models like this do not look real compared to an aircraft for instance. My thinking is A/Paint finish B/ perspex ( windows etc) C/Again you can scale down the paintwork but not the reflections in it. ( unless you put it in a diorama). D/ Chrome. You are stuck with chrome because even kit chrome is not mirror finish as it would be in life.
Looking at ABCD you are beaten before you start but paint finish should be achievable , especially given the poor paint finish on cars these days with water based paints. BMW should hang their heads in shame at their latest efforts at Black !!!
Decals next then i will start piling on the gloss clear and polish

 

[moon puppy]

The mirror chrome comes from the same techniques as getting that deep glossy shine of black. It ain't easy, for me that is.

You're looking good Paddy

 

[paddy]

Well that didnt work, Gloss dried matt and attacked the decals so i need to rethink this one as a custom finish as i dont have any more decals. Tamiya Gloss on Tamiya paint on Tamiya decals

Room temp 72f can warmed in hot water....dry weather.

 

[SA Dave]

looking really good Paddy

 

[moon puppy]

Can you get any Future in UK anymore? Maybe that will restore?

 

[TomN]

Now that's just flat out (no pun intended) weird...maybe you have some sort of curse or something.

Hmmm...might look kinda cool with a matt finish.

Tom

 

[jknaus]

Looks cool with the flat black even if that wasnt your plan. You could always strap a shotgun or something to the tank and make a zombie apocalypse setting, or something for the Earth 2111 build.
James

 

[paddy]

I chickened out guys...I stripped and went for a different colour. I have no trouble at all with any other colour than Black. This is same Tamiya tin spray, same conditions etc. Totally different result. not sure what to do about decals now......lol