Tamiya 14077 Repsol Honda '99 NSR 500

This project started October 2000, completed early ecember 2000.
Tamiya has two special TS spray cans for this bike, and I ordered both of them from HLJ. I chose to fully complete the bodywork before starting on the chassis, and I started by assembling the rear cowling, front fender and tank. Instead of using the supplied decals for the white areas on the rear cowling, I painted those with white Enamel. The next color was the brilliant orange before I finished off with deep metallic blue. Next I applied the decals and finished off the bodywork with a coat of Humbrol Gloss Cote. All paint was applied with my airbrush.

The frame was assembled and along with the rear swing airbrushed with Model Master Non buffing alu metalizer.. The engine and air intake are molded together, so some masking is required here. The air intake was airbrushed with Tamiya X-18, and then some subtle "carbon" texture was applied with dark gray paint sprayed on through a mesh. (the mesh comes with the Tamiya Super Blackbird kits) 
The airintake was masked off and then the engine block was sprayed with Alclad II magnesium.
The exhaust pipes got a coating of Alclad II highly polished alu. The weld seams was sprayed with Model Master burnt metal.Heat discoloration was then applied to the exhausts using clear blue (X-23) and clear orange (X-26) .

On the brake discs I used Tamiya X-10 enamel mixed with some flat base wich I mixed up too thick in the airbrush and "splattered" on, it gave sort of a carbon look. Next came the forks, I chromed them with Alclad II before i misted a coat of Alclad II copper over the upper part. The sliding part was painted with X-24 clear yellow, the lower part with X-10 and the brake caliper with X-32.

Extra added detail: Gear change linkage replaced with thin wire on the middle. Brake wire replaced with Modeler's brake wire (has metal core ans is slightly thinner) Wiring from gas handle replaced with metal wire as I also did on the Antena3 bike.

I took the pics before I applied the tire decals, I simply forgot about them! Sorry about the blue tack on the front tire, forgot to remove it.....

This page was last updated on 12/07/00.