Something a little different...

[ian ashton]

I saw this kit on eBay a while ago and thought it would be cool to put in the Galazy 38' trailer I plan to build, so for $10 I figured why not. I think its originally from a Monogram kit, but I have no idea. Anyway, I have no idea why, but last night I started google-ing pictures of Trail70's and found one I really liked, and decided I'd start that as a quick side project (waiting for the paint to shrink up a little more before clear on my Satellite.)

I must say, so far this is a lot of fun, nice and easy.

So this is what I am losely modeling after:

The casting is a little shoddy, but its so small that the cleanup was super easy. Glued the 2 halves togather:

Sanding the seams:

http://www.onesevenonetwo.com/ModelCars/Trail70/Reference%20Pics%20(2).jpg

All primed up:

I don't know if I lost a piece or if it just wasn't included, but the outside half of the exhaust is MIA, so I decided to cast the inside real quick and try to use it as a base to replace the missing piece:

I absolutely love that bright green color, and the closest I could find is Testors One Coat Lacquer Citrus Yellow Metallic. I must say, I am suprised with the quality of the paint. It lays down very nicely, and shines! The metallic is very heavy, which I think is cool.

Here you can see a test print of the Honda Trail70 graphics I re-created to make decals from (obviously not the right size, I make the logo large, print to find flaws, then scale down)

Some detail painting done:

[Chuck Most]

I have two of those minibikes, and I have no idea what kit they're from, either!

[ian ashton]

Now, onto my decal process. I have to admit that I love the idea of making my own decals, maybe thats what inspired this project. The graphic design stuff is a nice get away for me, and so far I am having great success (knock on wood) with the Testors decal paper.

Anyway, these are the designs I wanted to re-create:

So, through several steps I lay out the design in Photoshop to re-create the tank stripe logo.

Basically each part is a different layer, which makes it easy to manipulate the image as a whole. I started out with the stripes, then added the HONDA lettering (that was easy, just had to find the Honda font online) From there I pulled the Trail70 shape out of the above image and applied it to my graphic, and changed the color to suit my needs. After that I just added the right outlines and stripes and viola!

And the finished sheet:

Seems like a waste to use the whole sheet for just a few small decals, lol. I also needed a new Satellite logo for that project, so I printed several of each thing I needed.

[mr moto]

  On 11/4/2010 at 8:13 PM, ian ashton said:

Seems like a waste to use the whole sheet for just a few small decals, lol. I also needed a new Satellite logo for that project, so I printed several of each thing I needed.

Maybe this should go in "Tips and Tricks" but this seems like where it's needed at the moment.

You don't need to use up a whole sheet to print a few decals. What you can do is first print on plain paper as a test shot. If it looks okay, cut some small pieces of decal paper a little bigger than the image. Tape them directly over the images that you just printed with removable double sided tape. Now run it back through again and you have individual decals. I'll try to dig up some pictures of the process and post them either here or in the Tips section.

[ian ashton]

So simple, yet so smart! Thanks for the tip!

[ian ashton]

Finished this little project up this afternoon, fun fun.

Some more detail painting on the frame, and adding some "wiring". I used Bare Metal Foil for the fenders, side support things, and engine side cover:

So the casting of the exhaust I tried didn't work out, and I ended up just honing a piece of sprue into a coned shape, I think it looks perfect:

Getting closer:

And the finished product! The decals didn't come out so hot, I think just because they are so darn small!

[cobra98]

Cool looking little bike

I have a couple of these also,mine came from the old AMT ford destroyer monster truck kits.

[Hexagram]

That is too cool I used to have on of these till some one bent the frame jumping it, very nice to see a scale recreation of it nice job.