Updating a Kawasaki KR1000F (Tamiya, 1:12)

[Sticky Fingers]

One of the first motorbike kits I ever build, heck, one of the first kits I ever build, was the Kawasaki Endurance bike from the big T.

Back in the days when not-painting,  not-sanding, fingerprints, glue-smears and crooked decals were the norm* cuz I didn't know any better, I spend all my pocketmoney and bought the kit probably when it came out somewhere in the early 80's. And I really enjoyed that bike. In my young eyes it looked good (and Fast!) from every angle. and it wasn't too hard to build, with not many parts:

But I do remember struggling when you have to sandwich the engine between the framehalves, while adding the battery box and two or three other parts, all at the same time. Over the years of course it jumped from the shelve a couple of times, bits were snapped of and used on other bikes and in the end it just disappeared.

* One thing I've learned over the years is how to cover all that, or at least come up with excuses

Now, 30 years later, I'm building this kit again. and since my skills have sort -of developed, I thought I'd treat this kit to a couple of updates to bring it a bit more into this century. I have got only a few bike parts in the spares box, but I'll try and put them to good use.
First thing I did was scratchbuild some "upside down" forks:


I used aluminium and evergreen stock, some milliput for the T-plate and the underpinnings from a Honda RC30.
Painted up they turned out rather nice, even if I say so myself:


Next up I did some work on the battery box (sorry 'bout the poor quality of the pic):


Updated the carburators:


and detailed the engine a bit:


Then I painted the frame halves:



And this evening I offered the engine to the frame, together with the battery box and a couple of other parts.
Talk about deja vu...

Pic of that will follow, first I have to see how many excuses I have to come up with, or how much covering work I've got to do to make it look presentable

[chrisonord]

I will be watching this one with interest, what other mods are you going to do to it? A moto GP style end can coming out from behind the rear set would look good, painted up in titanium, and the stock disks replaced with some bigger ones perhaps. Are you leaving it as a racer or as a road legal(ish) bike. Looking forward to seeing what you do with it either way for sure 
chris

[Weaver]

Nice one - those upside-downies look really good, and the carbs too! 

[Go4fun]

*Puts a bigger cushion in the chair and gets a fresh drink.*

[RotorheadTX]

1) I LOVE those old-school double-headlight racers!!
Doesn't matter if it was a VF-1000R, early GSXR, Kawi, Yammy, whatever - they just look so hot!

2) Those forks you've made are sweeeeeeet!

3) More, PLEASE!!!

Oh, yeah, and...
4) There has never been a better color for bikes than Kawi's apple-green!

[Sticky Fingers]

Block is in the frame, turned out okay. Some paint to touch up, but I'm happy with that.




Colorwise, of course it will be green , but I'm going with candy lime green, because it's a bit more modern, which is the whole idea with this build.

I'm making this a road legal bike; If I can find the right tires. The ones from the spares-box are a bit dry and the sidewalls look like a dried out lake bed. Exhaust, handlebar, seat unit, cowling etc are all going to be worked upon so there's plenty left to do on this one.

Thanks for the comments, people, very much appreciated!

[Weaver]

Did you make the mesh covers for the carb intakes from sheet mesh, and if so, can I ask how please? I tried doing something similar a while ago for helo intake covers, but it all went wrong.

[Leading Observer]

You have reminded me I have that kit lurking somewhere

[Sticky Fingers]

Hello Weaver,
These covers were shop bought a long time ago to be used on an F1 car, but i've made them myself before out of one of those anti splatter lids:


They cost bugger all not a lot of money and provide you with enough mesh for a lifetime. Well, maybe not a lifetime but you know what I mean.


I cut out  a bit of the mesh, then press it through a hole just about (or slightly wider than) the size I need (bolts are very handy for this: round hole, different sizes, and easy to get a good grip on with a set of pliers) with something that resembles the shape of the end product. Could be a screwhead (used for the example shown above) or if I had made the ones on the kawa myself I would have used something more roundtipped, like the end of a modelling-paintbrush.
Bit of trimming and there you go.

It's a bit of a trial and error effort (in my case: four needed will mean eight made ) but the end result can look very convincing.

While typing this I thought that maybe you can also get the round shape of the kawa's covers by using pliers to press a ballbearing into the mesh/nuthole. I will give that a try, one day.

@ L.O.: Glad to be of service / sorry I just added another project to your list  

[Sticky Fingers]

Swing arm getting close to being finished,
And drilling-therapy commences on the discs, the rear one being done.

[chrisonord]

that swingarm is looking nice where did the carbon wrap come from if you don't mind me asking.
Keep this up as it will look gorgeous when done 
Chris.

[Sticky Fingers]

Thanks for the kind words, Chris. The carbon fiber comes from Scale Motorsports. It's the wrong scale (1:24), but you'd be hard pressed to notice that.

Back on topic: with a nifty masking tape session:


... the wheels are done:


Next up: chain and sprockets.

[beowulf]

awesome work..............nice job on the wheels

[Mossie]

Nice to see something different, I'll enjoy watching this progress.

[NARSES2]

Impressive work, especially that drilling