1/12th Harley Custom Chopper

[Viking]

Looks like a kit that has great potential for adding extra detail onto. Little things like brake lines, throttle cables, etc...

[Dr Dave]

You're right Steve, for a very basic kit they do have a lot of potential, with plenty of scope for the builder to be creative. And I'll be adding a few little extra touches here and there to brighten things up considerably.

First, I'll show you what I found in the box when I opened it, and what Jake had done with it, before I start the re-build process.

[Dr Dave]

Here he is air brushing the front fender about 7 years ago (when he was 12).




This is his construction zone.







Applying Chrome Powder to the fuel tank.

[Dr Dave]

His plan was to have the bike all chrome and black. I helped him a little but he did pretty good on his own, so my roll was mainly encouragement and support. I put no pressure on him at all as I didn't want him to feel that he had to do something because that's what I wanted him to do. I wanted him to feel free to do his own thing and enjoy it.

[Dr Dave]

I started the re-build by cleaning up the frame and giving it a fresh coat of primer .






Then I painted it copper. I've decided to use 'Floquil' copper here just because I like the colour. If you haven't heard of 'Floquil' brand paint, it was popular with the model railway crowd, but is no longer produced, so if you find some grab it. I only like and purchased 3 colours, gold, silver, and copper.






After I painted I realized that I should have patched up the joins in the frame first, so I went and fixed them up and put more paint on. It was worth it as there are no join lines now. I used some very thin clear plastic to cover the holes.

[Dr Dave]

Now that the frame is sorted out and fixed up I can move on to the engine. I've pulled it apart and started again by first rubbing the surfaces that had been glued together across some fine sandpaper to eliminate any join lines when they go back together. I've also used a root canal file to clean up between the fins of the cylinders. When all the parts are ready I glue them back together again, and then mask up the cylinders so I can paint the crank case (crank case and cylinders are molded together as one part and chrome plated ). I want to keep the cylinders chrome and paint all the other parts gold.

[Dr Dave]

The engine is coming along nicely now with the crank case, tappet covers and push rods painted brass. The gold that I started to use wasn't quite what I wanted so I've put it away and got out a bottle of Floquil brass. I should have said in an earlier post where I mentioned Floquil gold that it's actually brass, not gold. I've also used this Floquil brass on the transmission, and all other parts that I wanted to be a gold colour.

This is one of the tappet covers done in gold from a spray can.


This is the transmission in the same gold.


Here you can see the difference between the gold and the Floquil brass. This is a much nicer colour to go with the copper frame.
I've also started to add details with the plug leads now installed.

[shadetree]

keep us posted on this build
Marc

[Dr Dave]

keep us posted on this build
Marc

No worries mate, will do.

[Dr Dave]

The drive belt cover and air filter cover I chose to use have flames molded onto them so I brush painted them with the copper and brass I used on the frame and engine.

[Dr Dave]

The seat also has flames molded onto it and I brush painted these too. For this I used flat tan and flat brown. When the paint had dried I rubbed my thumb across my forehead and then rubbed the seat with my thumb. This put a slight shine on the raised parts of the seat and made it look like used leather.

The two photos were taken with two different cameras under different lighting.

[Dr Dave]

After I had fixed up the joins in the frame I realized that the rear wheel is held in place by 2 pins molded to the inside of the frame. The frame will no longer bend out far enough to get the rear wheel in to position so I now have to cut the pins off and drill holes through the frame to put a full axle through the wheel. I've used aluminium tube for this and when it's all finished there will be photo etched nuts on both ends of the axle and you will be able to see through the hollow axle. While doing all this I also decided to fix up the brake caliper, which was lacking any detail at all. I cut up small pieces of styrene sheet to build up a caliper that the disc rotor will fit into. Luckily after all this work I didn't have to paint the frame again, but I did paint the new caliper satin black and added some photo etch detail.

[shadetree]

Great work so far

[Dr Dave]

Thanks Marc.

Some work needed to be done to the pipes to make them look like real pipes because in the kit they are molded with hollow backs and no holes in the ends.
I put pieces of sprue in the holes on the back and then filled with Tamiya putty . When the putty had set I filed and sanded them smooth, then gave them a coat of primer to make sure there were no high spots or low spots. When I was happy with this step I then used a dental bur to hollow out the ends and thin the walls down. When this was done I gave the pipes a very light sanding and another coat of primer . To finish off I gave them a coat of satin black.