This is my latest motorcycle kit, Tamiya's 1/12 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-12R. The original was introduced to the public at the 1999 Paris motorcycle show, and was reportedly created in the image of a fighter plane, and its aerodynamics were developed with the cooperation of Kawasaki Heavy Industries' Aerospace Division. It has a fuel injected four cyclinder liquid cooled engine of 1,199cc, developing 178 bhp, more than enough to propel to a top speed in excess of 300 kilometres per hour.
Onto the kit,

introduced by Tamiya in 2003, it's up their usual standards, with parts moulded in grey, black, chrome plated and transparent plastic, it also includes some self adhesive chrome sheet for the mirrors and part of the front forks. Unusually the fairings are moulded in semi-transparent green enabling you to see the mechanics underneath, however, I shall be spraying them in Kawasaki's Candy Lime Green, Tamiya ref TS52, to my mind, at least, Ducatis are red and Kawasakis are green.

Here are some pictures of the basic engine assembly, colours used include X18, X11, X32, XF28 and XF16.

Assembly follows on with the frame, sprayed with TS29, here are the ram air box and the rear fender, sprayed with the same colour.
Now these parts are all fitted to the frame, together with the radiator.

That's all for now, thanks for looking, George

1 additional image. Click to enlarge.

Another master piece coming along nicely George.
Will watch with interest.

I love these bikes George. Not the easiest in the corners, and not the fastest on a track, but on a dual carriageway they are ballistic! Interesting colouring on the engine block there. I will certainly be following this project!

Where's the fun if you can't go backwards now & then.

OK George, even the best of us make mistakes, at least yours was easily fixed.
One of the things I have been saying to Rose is check , double check and check again before fixing/ painting etc.
She looks a great build though, look forward to seeing more of this build.

There's not a lot more to add now, just a few bits and pieces and then the main fairings. Here's a couple of pictures of the side fairings temporarily fitted showing the translucent finish that they come with. I'm going to remove them for painting in candy lime green.

. I'll be posting pictures of the finished model in Headlines very soon.

Hi mate, stunning model !
Was the exhaust already in that chrome finish? The R1 kits I've done have had a metal effect finish on the frame's, which was pretty spot on to the real thing. However there was black plastic underneath the metal effect coating which was really visible when cut from the sprues.

The gold chain is a really cool touch! I sometimes think it's a shame to put the fairings on after so much work has been done to the engine. I might do a custom street fighter in the future!

What is the next bike you have planned?

It's Hayabusa if I'm correct, I used to have one. It's Japanese for peregrine falcon, the fastest bird in the sky. I am also led to believe the main food source for the falcon in japan is the common blackbird. The name was very apt as the bike was designed to be the worlds fastest production bike, and also to take the title from the Honda CBR 1100 blackbird, which was the quickest at the time. Is it the standard busa or the X1?

I'm working in the Shetlands now, so I am doing the build work up here, then I have to take them home to the spray booth. I'm away to Malta this Saturday so I think it will be October before anything is finished. I'm in the build stages of three different ones currently.

The AH-64D is pretty much ready to put the cockpit in and seal up ready to spray and weather. I'm also having a go at some armor. I'm building a 1:35 Challenger 1 which is coming along nicely, then the third is the AH-1W. I've got a full Big Ed PE it for that one and aftermarket decals. Then when all that is done I've got the notorious Testors B2 to contend with!

All that should definitely see me into next year!