Tamiya's little RC166 GP motorcycle.

[Sharkmouth]

OK, I slapped my forehead and fell off my seat! If Aber or PART (both Polish PE masochists) ever release a 35th scale set like this... reserve a room for me at the sanitarium (the American connotation which is a crazy house and not the European spa definition).

Regards,

 

[kryptosdaddy]

Krypto
Its not a cheap build with the extras, the wheel kit is another $75 and the forks are $25 and the kit itself is $65 + rivet set at $10........I bought it all for half that on ebay from Hong Kong when i still had a job

http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/14113rc166/index.htm

Whoe- that is really a work of love. I cant wait to see this finished with all that icing.

 

[paddy]

Only thing missing is a little chain lube!

Eh.......... actually it comes with its own little tube of chain lube :laugh:

 

[Iron Mike]

:yipee

 

[jknaus]

Fantastic
James

 

[randy_ditton]

Hi Paddy, This is going to be so cool!!!! Thanks for the SBS on the chain, Look forward to all the upgrades


Randy

 

[Sherman 18]

COOL!

 

[paddy]

ENGINE

Despite being a 6 cylinder this engine is very compact. Remember this is just 40cc a cylinder so its basically 6 chain saw engines and even in 1/12 its still small.

This obviously presented problems for Tamiya with moulds and thickness/scale so items like the cylinder head are made up of lots of pieces to accurately depict the cooling fins to scale/thicknes

Another bag of nice things here. These are separate PE clutch plates for the multi plate dry clutch complete with a S/S basket the other parts are the front fork legs which i will come to later

The engine , despite its size is made up of nearly 100 pieces and goes together very well. this has had a light wash using black water colours.

One surprising thing that Tamiya always do with this scale is supply 1mm dia rubber tube for pipes and brake lines. This equates to 12mm dia when scaled up which is about 1/2". Way to big for throttle cables that would be half that dia. Having gone to such great lengths with things like S/S spokes for the wheels in order to get strength in scale dia it seems odd they get basic cables so wrong. the picture above shows the 1mm tube for plug leads which will hardly be seen but i stretched the other tubes ( the two at the back ) for the throttle cables to reduce their dia by 50% which looks a bit better.

 

[Sharkmouth]

Even then it is amazing how much detail they put into these parts...

Regards,

 

[moon puppy]

 

[paddy]

A few technical hiccups involving exploding camera's and lenses, falling tripods ...concrete floors and a spru of unpaintable plastic has slowed this build down a little but i think i am getting on top of it again now.
The frame spent the night in a bath of rubbing alcohol and was re primed. I tried Semi gloss because i simply couldn't get gloss black to dry smoothly, it just went into a crackle finish.. the semi gloss was better and dried absolutely Flat black but with a good rub with a duster cloth its come up semi gloss again which in truth is better in this scale than out right gloss. Up dates now will be via the camera in my phone hmy: unless i get the all clear from my insurance company to repalase the Nikon very quickly. Very quickly and insurance company are not words i have used together in the same sentence before.. :laugh:

 

[moon puppy]

Very quickly and insurance company are not words i have used together in the same sentence before.. :laugh:

Somethings are universal.

 

[randy_ditton]

Sorry to hear about the camera, Paddy, but the motor pics look great


Randy

 

[panzerace007]

PADDY ,

WoW ! Yes indeed !! That Chain is a test in Patience & is ... Off-th-Chain !! ( as We say over here , which means Bad Azz )

That engine is equally Awesome !! WoW .... that's all I can say !!

I can't wait to see th rest of th build !

:drinks :drinks

:erik

 

[paddy]

OK. I bought a new camera ...and a new lens to add to the many

Next step is the wheels. the kit comes with the normal rather thick spoked chrome plastic wheels but i have the upgrade here.

Basically we have a plastic jig ( top right) for holding the rim and hub while the wheel is laced using the Alloy rim and polished S/S spokes. what could be easier :laugh:

The wheel is laced in the 1:1 scale way with spokes and tubular spoke nuts but the nuts are not threaded so need a small dab of glue.

 

[moon puppy]

Oh my! You have to run the spokes?!

Still intrigued...

 

[jknaus]

Wowsers. This will be interesting.
James

 

[kryptosdaddy]

What!??? Even in my days riding bicycles I couldnt figure the three cross lace to build a wheel, though I could true- this is insanity- good building, and good luck- hope you have some extra spokes! :woohoo:

 

[paddy]

well even the brains at Tamiya couldn't figure out an easy way to lace a wheel

It took me nearly 3 hours to get half the spokes in but i guess it might be easier to get the second half fitted now.. Unsurprisingly you lace up half the spokes and one half of the wheel hub first and then add the second half of the hub and the remaining spokes. i have to say i really thought i was beaten with this after an hour. You need to forget the instructions, the pictures are essential but the words are not helpful. They suggest you fit all the spokes in place before fitting the nipples and show the spokes all nicely in position just poking through the rim......Well i found the spokes are not long enough to do that and its not going to happen unless you can lock the hub in position in relation to the rim so that neither can move indipendantly. Even the double sided tape they supply will not stop movement between the two and a few .001" is enough for all the spokes to fall out of the rim...ITS INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING :laugh:
Any way. Get the rim and the hub lined up and fit each spoke indervidually....it worked for me in the end.

You need to remember that half the spokes go through the hub from the top and half from underneath for both half's of the hub and also once splayed as this picture, which spokes lay over the others ie: which ones are on to of the others Hub shown here on a paint brush to allow access to both sides. all spokes are balanced in position so great care is needed to now move this from the brush to the jig....

Spokes balanced in place ready to move to jig. You will need to do this at least 10 times before you get everything where you want it :laugh:

Wheel in the jig as its sits while you work on it

A complete rim, half the spokes and half a hub.....half way

 

[moon puppy]

Amazing....