Scale-Master

Yes, 1/43rd. I just noticed the info I thought I posted with the photos isn't there. This is an IMSA car most people have forgotten about, if they ever knew of it. 1/43rd scale resin and PE kit from 1992. Built 31 years ago, photographed last weekend.

The rear wing is built up from brass PE.

Starter 1/43rd resin kit with brass parts. After the basic clean-up of the body I bent and attached the brass front spoilers. The mold was worn so a lot of work was required to clean out little chunks of resin from the recesses and all the panel lines needed to be scribed in. As it turns out, the body is very thin around the cockpit area so that is probably why the panel lines were so light. I went all the way through in several places and had to patch them up.

1/43rd scale resin kit by Starter. Despite the challenges the decals presented, I enjoyed building it. And even though I could have created a new set of decals I'm glad I worked through the issues and used what the kit provided. WIP Thread:

I think the windows are supposed to be installed as one piece, but the left side windows didn't line up with the openings of the body. So I cut them apart. They still don't fit that well, but they fit a lot better. Finally applied the last decal!

You know Andy, you make a great point. (Pleasure meeting you last month.) Now it's getting back on track… The clear should stabilize things. The hand painted red parts are significantly thicker than decals, and the clear does a good job of hiding that even a couple days after shooting, so I haven't decided if I will deal with that or not. Depends on how the clear cures.

I finally got all the decals applied except the windshield banner. Putting a little Bilstein decal on that becomes three smaller pieces is supposed to be fun…?

I was able to get more of the decals applied, but even with two coats of clear they are breaking apart so it's like applying a jigsaw puzzle for each one.

The interior is done. There was no shifter in the kit; sometimes there is, other times there isn't. I added the two roll bar supports too. They are shown on the instructions but are not included. I guess it's still "out of the box"… The gauge decals are a nice inclusion.

One of the tire decals fell apart and since I didn't have an extra I had to make four new ones myself. The rims are a combination of metal outers with resin centers and PE rings.

The other single color decals are just as brittle so I had to paint them in too.

I probably should have started with a smaller decal… The first one cracked into many pieces and fell apart when I tried to apply it. I mixed a bright red with Tamiya acrylics and hand painted that one in. I clear coated the rest of the decals, but they are still very fragile. The black is two decals but needs a good amount of touching up still. I figured I'd start painting the window trim too...

After the first base coat of yellow I pre-shaded the panel lines with black. The second and final coat of TS-47 Chrome Yellow.

1/43rd scale resin kit by Starter.I typically bring something to tinker on or clean up while I'm relaxing at the GSL. This is what I picked for the last one, but I didn't get much done on it; maybe an hour of pre-paint prep in the hotel room.The body casting was pretty clean with only a few medium pinholes to fill, but the window trim was a little on the soft side. A couple light coats of white primer and it looks OK.First coat of the body color, and the instructions…

All done. It was actually finished about a week ago, but poor weather prevented me from getting decent photos. It does stand on its own on both the center stand and kickstand, but it's been so windy it was unsafe to not use the clear stand. Built straight out of the box but I added decal details for the controls on the handlebars. WIP Thread: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/179920-honda-crf1000l-africa-twin/

The seat…

I wasn't going to cut and buff the clear after looking at the photos of the real thing, but then I decided it would look better if I did. After polishing I added the warning decal.

Thanks Wolf! I agree, they should have been included, especially for how prominent that part of the bike is visually. Handlebars ready for installation.

Fork assembly… ready for installation.

I also applied the kit decals to a handful of other small parts and then decided (thanks to Wolf for drawing my attention to this omission in the kit) to make the decals for the switches and controls on the handlebars. I made over a dozen decals for these two parts.

This is the main assembly so far. It's gaining mass at this point.

I figured I should apply all the decals to the fairings so I could shoot clear on them together.

The exhaust system is ready to be installed. Since the rest of the build is closer to showroom stock I decided not to heat stain the pipes.

The kit provided masks for the tank work well. They aren't die cut; they have to be hand cut by the builder. I airbrushed the LP equivalent of the TS Pearl Blue called out in the instructions. The tank decals fit fine, but be prepared to spend a good 30 minutes applying each one of these two.