Build #9 Tamiya 14016 1:12 scale Honda CX500 Turbo (FINAL STAGES)

[TheSmoo]

- Almost completed, Another of Tamiya's early 80's kits, OOP as far as I am aware.

It was a nice kit build right up until fitting the steering yokes and forks (they wouldnt sit square with the frame headstock) and trying to get the fairings to fit properly and the fettling with the seat to get it to fit, also graphics/decals were apalling (might be due to the age of the kit), this is not the norm for Tamiya and is one of their cheaper earlier 80's kits.

I suspect (due to it's age) that some warping of the plastic parts has occurred and that the decals were past their sell by date, one of the things you just have to deal with when sourcing Out Of Production (OOP) vintage kits I suppose.

Kit was hand painted using Tamiya acrylics and TS-45 Pearl white


Tamiya 14016 1:12 scale Honda CX500Turbo - Box art

All the kit components out of the box, not to many sprues due to this being one of Tamyia's earlier cheaper kits, not as much detail as the newer kits but I wanted to build one as my stepfather had the real thing

As with all my builds I start of with painting all the fiddly bits and assembling them into bigger sub assemblies, quite a few chrome parts in this kit but as usual with Tamiya the chrome was quite good, even on a kit of this age.

Also at the top of my cutting mat are all of the Tamiya acrylics required (as per the instructions) to paint the kit.

this is always the best bit of the build for me - assembling the engine, view shows the turbo at the front, frame is painted and is sitting off to the left of shot drying

left side of the V twin Turbo engine showing some of the engine detailing, I have learnt a new technique for detailing the "Honda" plate (red highlight) since building this from my friend Tony, i should have painted the plate chrome silver then rubbed in some red oil paint rather than trying to detail it by brush as I have done here - still learning you see

and the backside of the engine

I was quite happy with the finish on the frame considering it was hand brushed, I do hate gloss black though for showing up fingerprint marks when handling the kit during assembly.

left side of the rear swingarm assembly showing the shock absorber, wheel and brake caliper

right side of the rear swingarm assembly showing the shaft drive ( no chain on this beasty) again chrome parts are a pain to paint

engine has been mounted in the frame now along with the rear swingarm, front forks off to the left of the picture are painted ready to go and also the exhaust system bottom right

rear brake flexi hose and spark plug ht leads fitted left side

and the vinyl clutch cable fitted to the right side

on with the Zorst attached to the turbo, getting there now.

the turbo is looking quite good in this picture

sorry this image has whited out somewhat but it's supposed to show the radiator fitted

dry fitting of the front fairing which is huge and the rear cowling and seat assembly prior to paint, really ugly beast of a bike the CX500

final test fitting before going off to paint

Ok after painting all the bodywork, fighting with all the decals and building up the front suspension assembly were now at this stage of the build where some of the bodywork has been assembled, decals don't look bad from this angle

but when viewed from the rear the wee niggles I had with the old decals become apparent - luckily they match Tamiya's X-10 gun metal grey, if I had of had an airbrush I would most likely of tried to recreate all the decalling with paint, but I don't so this will have to do, it's a cheap kit anyways

Ok finally got the front end on, rear grab rail, fettled the seat to fit not quite finished though

maybe I'm being too pernickety but I'm still not happy with how the decals have turned out

rear end of bike

right side

can't quite make it out due to the whiteout on this image but the front decal TURBO is mirror image so car drivers can tell there a fast bike behind lol

Just the mirrors to fit and one small decal but I can't find my superglue and it's late o'clock here, to be continued...................

[Merlin]

It looks gorgeous, well worth the effort IMHO.