BMW HP4 Race Motorbike 1/9 scale

[Vic Balshaw]

Manufacturer: MENG
Model: BMW HP4 Race motorbike with steel brake discs
Scale: 1/9
Added extras: Not that I can see.

This manufacturer is new to me and from looking at the kit parts, they are all well defined with little or no ejector marks in stupid places and sprue attachments carefully thought out. It is also noticeable that some of the important visible parts have been individually moulded rather than being attached to sprue and the plastic is just one simple flesh like colour, i.e. no chrome or silver plastic. The exception though is the seat which is black.

As for the decals, I figure that this will be a placement nightmare with the first placements coming in at step 7 and needing to be done and settled in before any further progress can be made, this well be fun and probably slow the build down while I wait for drying, settling and protecting process to be completed.

Some pics of the kit:

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

This should be fun to watch. Looks like you need to find a tiny link for that broken chain!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

I had the same thought myself Andy, but on checking the chain break is intentional as it passes through and behind the framework of the chain guard.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

On with the build, I've not been idle and I know it looks a bit of a mes, I can assure you it is organised.

All the components have been identified with their colouring, I just need to sort them into the colour piles and head for the spray booth.

One of the marvels of this kit that I was not aware off, Most of the components are snap fit and no glue required. But being old school, I can't resist the dab of glue for my own peace of mind.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice. How do you keep track of the part numbers with them all off the sprue like that?

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Nice. How do you keep track of the part numbers with them all off the sprue like that?

Each one which is either on the end of a ear bud, toothpick, clip or sticky tape and has a small label with its sprue number and the paint colour. So the next job is to sort them into the paint colour before I have a marathon spray session. After that each is checked and any detailing added.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Vic. Lots of prep work that pays off in the end.

 

[pbehn]

I was racing when those floating discs started to appear at club level, the scrutineers at Cadwell Park rejected them as unsafe, resulting in an entertaining 30 minutes of entertaining arguments with lots of ffing and jeffing.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Thanks for checking in folks. I started the painting so here is a little bit of an update.............

With most of my kit builds I do a lot of ground work in preparing a basic colour conversion chart. I have a standard listing that covers my main metallic shades and from this I will review the instructions page by page and convert the kit colours so that in the main they will correspond to what's on my list. If the colour is not listed, then I add it to my list and maybe even have to purchase it.

Having got this sorted I then start working on the kit and where possible, remove the parts from the sprue, clean them up and make them ready for spraying or hand painting. Each part has a little identity tag showing sprue number and paint colour and they are either on a clip, stuck on tape or pierced by an ear bud or toothpick.

Then we paint and below the initial white spray of some of the fairing parts, I used ZeroPaint Racing White ZP 1101, this is just the initial base coat, after I have done a few more layers, I'll apply a brilliant white coat or two. The blue fairing is ZeroPaint Williams FW16 Blue, ZP 1039.

Lastly some of the hand painted components. Here I used Tamiya X13 Metallic Blue, X31 Titanium Gold and X56 Metallic Grey. Other colours were Humbrol 173 Track Matt, 27003 Polished Steel and Vallejo 306 Dark Rubber. The little blueish bits on the right are in a blue-grey metallic mix of my own making.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Well, how organized is that!

 

[Snautzer01]

Well, how organized is that!

Its art. Lets summon Donivanp

 

[Donivanp]

Its art. Lets summon Donivanp

It's a mess, more desk should look like mine. I know where everything is! In the room, somewhere, well, maybe, yeah, yeah in the room, like hand grenade in the room. No that's organized!

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far Vic!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Just a little update, nothing much to report as I've just been spraying all the parts.

Lots of white and metallic paint, the white has been finished off with ZeroPaint ZP-1026 Pure Brilliant White while all the metal parts have been sprayed with the range of Xtreme Metal paints.

All the parts needing to be black received a coat or two of ZeroPaint ZP-1612 Black Metallic, but tomorrow I will over spray with Humbrol 201 Black Metallic which I know has more of a shiny metallic colour.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Nicely done so far Vic!

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking forward to seeing the parts coagulate.