Thanks Spiros @fiveten, John @johnb, and Rory @rory. How to tackle the front brake discs? I originally planned to use the standard Tamiya mouldings together with their “detail-up” rivets. To do this you have smooth down the moulded rivets, open up the holes slightly, and insert the metal replacements. This went OK, also drilled out the ventilation holes in the discs. I sprayed everything black then used my Nobo chrome pen to represent the actual disc itself. Here’s the result, OK with some cleaning up perhaps, but not really satisfactory.

I had some etched discs which I was keeping for a future project but decided to make a hybrid disc by glueing one etched part to the outsides of the moulded disc. This makes the disc a little too thick but it still fitted in the caliper. I think they look better like this.

As always happy modelling.

The red Brembo transfers will be added later.

The handlebars and headstock are next. Mostly painted semi gloss black, Matt black, and metallic grey. The rest of the Tamiya detail up set are used here in self coloured metal as well. Two differences between this and the road bike are first the end of the handlebars are black and not anodized. Secondly, the racer appears to have a guard over the controls on the RH handlebar. To make this I drilled a hole and inserted some vinyl tube with wire inside and bent it to shape.

Here it is all installed, together with the control panel. Tamiya supply two optional transfers, one with the ignition switched on, and the other switched off. I went for the switched on option. I clear coated the transfer after it had set.

Looking wonderful, my friend @chinesegeorge!

Regarding the brake lights, the subject is somehow tricky. Looks like the brake lights might not always have been present. They seemingly are worn at night races...

Anyway, found this pic from Cycleworld that it seems there is a tail light (cannot download it, so I send you the link, hopefully you can get there...)...

https://www.cycleworld.com/resizer/c7fFDhBm3edLPhudGacRKmvCtes=/1440x0/smart/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/octane/574NPWCEC5C3LB5ACUTU5NFDRY.jpg

Also found this discussion at Quora, though it concerns MotoGP...

Do the MotoGP bikes have a tail or brake light? -

In Qatar, the season opener the race is a night race and it has tail lights. But otherwise, they are usually not present.

Hope you will sort it out...

Hi George, great work and the detail is superb!

Referring to the WSBK. To my knowledge, the bikes have no lights at all. I know a few years back the bikes were obliged to use printed stickers of front headlights to denote the use of road based bikes as the foundation of world superbikes. I am not sure if that makes sense. Motogp bikes have a rain light for wet conditions.

Hi John, without hijacking George's thread, the brake lever protector was implemented to prevent the brakes being activated in the possibility of front on rear contact with another bike. There is also the famous incident a few years ago in moto3 where Italian rider Romano Fenati reached across on a straight and pulled on a competitors brakes. I don't think it caused an accident, but Fenati was thrown out of moto3 immediately by his team.

@rory, thanks for the feedback.

Really nice work, George @chinesegeorge
This little bike looks very realistic already.

Thanks Spiros @fiveten, John @johnb, and Rory @rory for your help and support. Now that most of the oily bits are done it’s time to tackle the fairings and the fuel tank. I’ve primed them in yellow ready for a final coat of Italian Red. The tail fairing seems

OK, but the fuel tank needs a bit of work to get rid of that seam, unfortunately the picture of the fuel tank won’t upload, I see someone else had a problem like this after the migration, I’ll try again later, in the meantime happy modelling.