Hi Richard, looking at your pictures I thought you already had the fork set as you've assembled the rear shock including the yellow spring which you get in the fork set? Maybe you painted the standard one supplied in the kit...If so, you've got something for the spares box! I'm waiting for the postman to bring me an old Tamiya kit I've ordered, Barry Sheene's black Akai Yamaha, looking forward to that one.

Cheers Simon. The modern super bikes do have quite a short wheelbase. Makes them great for a good wheelie! Some of the modern releases like Aprillia, BMW and the new R1 have anti wheelie and launch control built into their traction control systems. It can be turned off of course but does have it's advantages coming out of the corners.
Cheers as well Bryan, thanks very much for following!
Hi George, the spring is out of the box. It was plain metal and had to be painted. You don't get a spring in the after-market set. You do get a reservoir tank for the back damper but I had already fitted the standard one by the time my fork set arrived. I have a spare one of them for the box now though.
Barry Sheene's number 7 YZR500? The next bike I'm doing is a M1. I have Rossi's 800cc from the 2008 season in the stash, I think you have already built it? Can't promise a start date for that one though. I've already made a start on the Sauber Mercedes. I'll probably do a a work in progress build with that one as well.

He's what you get in the after market front fork set.

You get the back damper reservoir bottle, the front forks, the front brake disc floating pins and the front fork tops, all pre painted metal, apart from the brake calliper attachment pieces of the fork which were plastic.

Thanks Simon, there is still a bit of work to do, I could be called off to work at any time now so I can't promise a date.

Okay, I give in, I've ordered one of these kits! Looking forward to seeing these tri-colour decals applied, Richard. Which red are you going to use on the bodywork (is that the correct term to use?)?

Good stuff, I'm sure you'll enjoy it! It is an impressive model! The engineering of it is great, you don't actually need to glue much of the main assembly, everything screws together.

I used Tamiya TS-8 Italian red, straight from the rattle can. I prefer to airbrush but couldn't find the colour in the standard tamiya pots.

I was thinking about decanting the paint from the rattle can, but envisaged this to be a rather messy process! Any tips for doing that?

Skipping a little bit ahead, I couldn't wait to see the fairings with the tricolore decals myself!

The break discs are done and applied to the wheels. It seemed to take forever to drill the holes! I did a bit of custom work on the stand and gave it a nice mix of Alclad paints.

Looking very nice Richard.
Your time spent drilling the discs etc has paid off. You are right about decanting rattle cans, it can be messy, but there are a few demos on the net you can watch.

I think that is just my dodgy photography George! It was at the Birmingham NEC and it was very bright in there actually, not all the photos came out well.

Cheers Simon and Bernd, I'm hoping to put it on Facebook and convince people I've just bought one. One of my mates thought I had bought an X1 Hayabusa when I posted that!

That's the brake cables all attached and the front fender on. I decided to leave the cover off the exhaust pipe underneath the seat. I'm sure there is a very real and practical reason for it being there, but I think the bike looks better with the exposed pipe. It is something I would probably do if I actually owned one. Till something went wrong anyway!

Not much left now. That's the seat and petrol tank on. I think the back ends of these look a lot better without the number plate and indicators on, but it needs to be road legal this one.

Hey Richard, can I take her for a spin when she is done?
Looking really sweet mate.