Modelmartin Posted December 25, 2009 Share Posted December 25, 2009 When I heard a while back that Tamiya was producing my favorite GP bike, the Honda RC166 250cc 6 cylinder GP bike from 1966, I was very excited. I had planned on building the Protar 1/9 scale kit which is somewhat of an undertaking. I immediately put my Protars on Ebay and pre-ordered the Tamiya from Hobby Link Japan along with all 4 detail sets. HLJ had a nice package deal for the kit and all four sets so I jumped on that. They all arrived on Wednesday, just in time to make a nice little Christmas present for myself. It also came before the end of the decade so I hereby nominate it for best new kit of the Decade! Second the nomination, anyone? This is a first impression review. I haven't had time to go through everything in depth. It is all you would expect from Tamiya. The molding, engraving, and detail are all quite excellent. I have a lot of reference material and it all looks real accurate. One of my first impressions is that is small compared to modern GP bikes and indeed, it is small in real life, too! It has stacking plates for the cylinders so the aircooling fins on the cylinders really will look sharp. It has a beautiful decal sheet with alternative numbers other than the Mike Hailwood Isle of Man winner from 1966 which is the version depicted on the box. They suggest you research the other versions yourself!! The basic kit has a small P/E sheet and some metal transfer rivets for the windscreen to fairing connection. There is a small tree of softer plastic parts including the seat. The wire wheels in the kit look really nice for plastic. The spoke sections are separate from the rims so the rims could plated shiny and the spokes in satin which is accurate. I imagine they will look really good when assembled. I could not resist the wire wheel detail set, though. All in all, the basic kit itself is superb and I am mighty pleased with it. If that wasn't enough, there are 4 detail sets from Tamiya for it. The wirewheel set is GEORGEOUS!!! The rims are machined aluminum and are polished nicely. They look very accurate and have all the little lips, beads and radii on the real one. The wire holes are drilled in and are in alternating rows just like the 1:1. It has pre-cut and bent spokes and best of all really nice looking spoke nipples to hold the spokes in the rim. It comes with an injection molded jig to assemble it in and very nice instructions. The second detail set is the chain. Yes, the chain! It has assembly jigs, P/E parts, machined parts and it all assembles into a functioning perfectly detailed roller chain. It is quite fantastic. I hope my eyesight and patience are sufficient to get 'er done! The third set is the rivet set. These are 4 sets of machined rivet style fasteners to detail the bike with. One of the sets replaces the metal transfers that come in the kit for the fairing. Others are for the seat upholstery snaps, cowling fasteners, and seat fairing screwheads. The fourth set is a fork and clutch set. The clutch is very visible and this set consists of P/E parts for the clutch discs and a stamped and formed sheet metal housing. It looks really good in the bag! The fork set is to convert the kit fork into a working spring loaded fork. As a bonus they give you a set of turned aluminum trumpets for the carbs!! All in all I think Tamiya has hit a new higher level of detail and sophistication with this kit. It doesn't come cheap. The kit itself costs the same, roughly, as the wheelset or the chainset. The rivets and fork and clutch set are quite a bit cheaper and probably would give the less fanatic builder a lot more bang for the buck detail wise. You can not go wrong with just building the basic kit without the extra sets, also. I am looking forward to building this bike and entering it in BOX Stock classes at some contests!! However, I am sure the aftermarket is coming up with even more detail sets for this kit. I am a total sucker for them and am sure I will be loading it up!! Here are the pics.... Compare 1966 GP rubber in front with '90s NSR500 behind! Holy big rubber things, Batman!! There are lots of great images of the parts on the hlj.com website. They have some nice reference pics of the real bike, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbwelda Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 thats looks like a great kit of a great GP subject, i remember when honda was campaigning those multi cylinder tiny bikes. classic looking bike too. so you are going to lace wheels from that detail set? ought to be pretty interesting. the photos on hlj site really make it look good and that metal chain detail set is impressive too. looked to me like the kit and the four part sets added up to close to 200$, what was the deal price? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modelmartin Posted December 26, 2009 Author Share Posted December 26, 2009 thats looks like a great kit of a great GP subject, i remember when honda was campaigning those multi cylinder tiny bikes. classic looking bike too. so you are going to lace wheels from that detail set? ought to be pretty interesting. the photos on hlj site really make it look good and that metal chain detail set is impressive too. looked to me like the kit and the four part sets added up to close to 200$, what was the deal price? Yes , I will be using the wheel detail set, for sure. The combo set came to about $170. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry P. Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 Now that looks like a fun project! Hope you have a good magnifier when you get to building that chain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markamitrasheed Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 thats looks like a great kit of a great GP subject, i remember when honda was campaigning those multi cylinder tiny bikes. classic looking bike too. so you are going to lace wheels from that detail set? ought to be pretty interesting. the photos on hlj site really make it look good and that metal chain detail set is impressive too. looked to me like the kit and the four part sets added up to close to 200$, what was the deal price? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markamitrasheed Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 Now that looks like a fun project! Hope you have a good magnifier when you get to building that chain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger U Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 Wow, thats quite a model, should keep you busy for a while. I don't know if I'd be able to finish one with all that amazing detail. I'm sure you'll do a great job on it, please show us the finished product. Do you know if Tamiya plans on producing any other GP bikes from this era? I have a few old Protar models but would like some other 1960s GP models. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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