Just Completed: A '57 Rikuo RT II (Japanese Harley Davidson under licence)

[traditional]

 

I bought this Gunze Sangyo Rikuo motorcycle 'High-Tech Model' kit as well as their similarly produced Indian motorcycle kit in the late '80s when a local camera/hobby store was going out of business. It had originally been a fairly expensive highly detailed multimedia kit, but it and the Indian kit were being cleared for around $10 each.  Although they were both intimidating kits, I had built the Indian kit a long time ago and it's taken me until now to build the Rikuo motorcycle.  Rikuo was a Japanese manufacturer who until the early '60s was building Harley Davidson cruising motorcycles under licence. This particular Rikuo RT II depicts a 1957 version, and internet searching indicates that most of them were probably done in metallic blue.

This Gunze Sangyo kit is, quite frankly, a somewhat confusing and a very difficult build....the instructions are often ambiguous and out of sequence and they expect you to be able to drill into the ends of 1     millimeter diameter rods and other very fine metal parts.  The drivetrain is mostly cast in relatively heavy soft metal, while the body parts are generally styrene.

Anyhow, after many days of assembling, painting, and lots of head-scratching the model is finally completed and I'm really pleased with the results.

A couple of the pics show the Rikuo alongside  my previously built Indian Motorcycle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2024 by traditional

[Intmd8r]

Both look fantastic. I’m envious of your skills

[Sonorandog]

Great looking build.  Thanks for the history lesson. 

[Street Rod]

Beautiful pair of motorcycles! Excellent paint work and very clean detailing and assembly.

[shoopdog]

Super builds

[atomicholiday]

Those are both beautiful.  Never heard of these kits before.

[peteski]

Very well built models.

I have the Indian - hopefully I'll build it someday.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Absolutely beautiful work. They come off like real bikes.

I want...I want...  

[1959scudetto]

Both are excellent builds - very impressive !

[bbowser]

Beautiful work on both.  I've got the Indian kit but been too intimated to start it.

[slusher]

Beautiful bikes!

[Wolf]

Congratulations on two beautiful builds!
 

I agree with you that Gunze’s Hi-Tech kits are not the easiest to build as I just finished their 1/12th Honda CB72 Clubman kit that I received last Christmas. Lots of work involved in cleaning up the white metal parts and some were replaced with scratch built alternatives as their castings were quite rough.

Nice models when finished if you can persevere through to the finish.

Cheers,    
Wolf (who’ll likely stick to Tamiya’s 1/12th bike kits)