Hello again! Here's another work in progress of Tamiya's fairly recent 1199 kit. It's in the standard 1.12 scale and all reviews on the kit have absolutely raved about it. I have purchased some decals from Hobby Design to upgrade the bike to the Tricolore with the full Termignoni exhaust system. I also have the after-market fork set currently somewhere in the post.

As a bike enthusiast myself, the Panigale caused quite a storm in the real world on it's release. It boasts a 1200cc (near enough) engine and apparently is quite a handful for most riders. Standard for Ducati, It doesn't quite match the likes of the new R1 or S1000rr around a track, but is literally only a couple of seconds off.
It does however have the stylish luxury that the Italian bikes are famous for. I would go as far as to say that it is the sexiest sports motorcycle ever built! If your in to that sort of thing anyway!

Here's a couple of pics of the Ducati's from the Birmingham bike show last November. The one in Red is the new 1299 bike for 2015.

The engine block is starting to take shape. Once the decals have set on the exhaust cans I can give them a quick coat of clear and finish the assembly.

Thanks Simon. It has been a joy to build so far, a really good kit!

No bother Bernd, glad you could make it! Cheers.

One notable difference with this kit in comparison to the other Tamiya bikes that I have built is the amount of screws. A lot of the sub-assemblies screw together without any need for gluing. I decanted them into a little container to keep the carpet monster off them.

Note the size of the back tyre! You need a fair bit of surface area in contact with the ground though to put the power down on this thing. The V twin engine produces 195 horses with 98.1 ft lbs of torque giving it a huge amount of power in the lower revs.

The exhaust cans then screw on to the engine, as does the air box and radiator.

With most motorcycle builds, it is going to be a shame putting the fairings on and cover some of this detail. They do unscrew however as with the other Tamiya kit's I have built. It is one of the great benefits of doing a work in progress on these builds. I can have a look at the engine detail on the computer, rather than getting the screw driver out and risk knocking bits off the finished model.

Thanks for looking in.

Cheers George, thanks very much. It does seem like a good kit so far, very detailed. The cool thing with these road bike kits is the possibility to customise them into a racing machine. I'm keeping this one road legal though!

They are a fantastic bike in the real world though. I was thinking of buying one a few months back, but they are a lot of money to spend on what is essentially just a summer use only vehicle, and the weather isn't getting any better up Newcastle! I think if I was to get another one it would have to be an upright or a sports tourer. I have the missus on the back these days!

Here's a pic of one in action anyway.

Next was the long drawn out affair of hand drilling the back break disc.

Still got two more to do. I spent a good few hours on it last night getting through some of the sub assemblies.

Richard, a fine looking build. The detail is remarkable.

Sweet Richard.
Sure goes together well.

That looks quite compact Richard.
Quite good to I may add.