This page is dedicated to share scale modeling and other hobbies to all other enthusiasts who also love these stuffs. Hope you enjoy and please feel free to give me some comments no matter good or bad. Joey

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Lexus IS200 x Toyota Altezza (4)

These are some close up pictures about the cranking decals. It looks fine after the protection clear coat and I will be giving silver refinish to it.




And I also put decals for the street version as well. Anyway, it is the way it goes with silver rides. The silver emblems never show up properly.... LOL

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Full Scratch-build Roadbike - Completed

Here are the completed pics. Thanks for reading.






Full Scratch-build Roadbike (3)

After finalizing all the parts at fittings, I have broken them down back into pieces again and got them ready for painting.


This is a carbon frame though, the carbon pattern needs to be prepared, so as the Keo Blade pedals too!~

The rest of the parts are mostly black in color. And the brake calipers are in Bright red.

This is getting into the fun part as I started to hand paint the Wilier livery for crankset and brakes, the Fizik Arione Champion version, and pedals and the details around the handle bar includeing the Garmin Edge 500 computer.

The second run of the fun falls into the frame livery itself. I admit I wasn't able to recreate the logos in great details, but I do like the way it present as it is so handcrafted~ LOL
Oh, I also haven't forget the Zipp components and their logos.



Finally, I wired it up with thin wire and now the bike it ready to go~~!


I really surprised myself as I didn't really expect I am able to complete the bike at this level.
I just tried things here and there from each scratch building task. Adding all these together is really great fun and I have had a big time spending days during this Lunar New Year vacation.

Lexus IS200 x Toyota Altezza (3)

I started to work on the body work for both kits this week. I was trying to lay the decals for the race machine but my Lord the decal has aged! It is a 10-year-old decal sheet anyway and the decal started to fall into pieces even on slight motions.... I spent almost an hour to lay the decal on the roof and the hood. I guessed I will need much repainting work on it and the rest of the silver areas will be taken up with spraying work as well... I decided to work this out as hard as I can as I like this livery so much that I still want to finish it after this 10 years. (I have built one 10 years before)

The street version will be in silver color as I like it a traditional export version rather than the Japanese Altezza version. I used Gunze SM01 for the silver.

I applied a very light clear coat on both as of now so I can move on with the rest of the decal/ repainting.


Monday, February 18, 2013

Full Scratch-build Roadbike (2)

The other day, I have the crankset drafted and fitted on the bike. I seemed a bit too rough but I guessed it was a very good trial anyhow. On the other hand, I was not very satisfied with the first cooper bended handlebar, and I had another piece worked out and if you would also feel the same, the later one fit much better in scale.



The next items I worked on were the pedals. I have been using the Look Keo Blade pedals and that is naturally the object for replication. It took a bit of craftsmanship to get to this shape and I found this really fun to work on!



And there it came the brake calipers, also took a bit of crafting and I could use my handy cutter for most of the draft and shaping.



Then I worked on the cassette and chain. I did some delicate work to shape it in one piece, hoping the chain was thin enough for scale but also thick enough to hold the piece together, consider there would also be certain fitting and moving around the piece... after a few trial, I had a piece that is fitting onto the bike well.


I tested the scale for the bike overall and it was scaled quite well as if I un-mounted the front wheel of the real bike. The model stood almost exactly the same as the real thing with the crank still lifted.


I guess it has come to the last piece of items I would be building which are the shifters. I also added the front derailleur. The derailleur was made of aluminium can and I just cut and bent it into the right shape.


Finally, before any paint job, I added the Garmin Edge 500 computer and mounted on the handlebar with the edge mount as well. I wrapped the drop bar with masking tape as the bar tape. I took awhile for me as if  I was wrapping the real bar tape... XD


Lexus IS200 x Toyota Altezza (2)

Tonight I've got a chance to pick up the air brush to work on some spraying. So I have both of these body parts painted. I will be getting a gloss coat on it the other day before I work on any decal works with them...


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Full Scratch-build Roadbike

This is going to be a very interesting build as I am trying to replicate my own bike into 1:24 scale!
I am trying to reference to my Wilier bike as a base to scratch build a roadbike. I am using whatever materials which are handy on my desk, basically some difference sizes of plastic rods and tubes, some metal strings and some copper rods.

Here is the start. I am using a compass cutter to edge a pair of rims (together with the tyres). Then the frame and front forks are recreated with plastic rods and tubes. I was testing the flexible rod for the handlebar, but it turns out not turning sharp enough and is too thick(2mm). I ended up replacing it with a 1.5mm copper rod.



I recreated the hub of the front wheel with a pair of 8-hole circles, fixed with thin metal rods and formed the replicate Racing Zero front wheel.


Adding some more details with the seatpost which is slightly setback just like my new Zipp Service Course SL; and a replication of the Fizik Arione CX saddle. The stem and handlebar are also rebuilt to form a better scale and details.



I then completed the rear wheel with a more complicated spokes pattern, this time a 7 holes circle for each side, but 14 spokes on the side with the cassette and just 7 spokes on the other side.
With both the wheels set, the base of the bike is formed.



Another look of the spoke patterns of my 1:24 Racing Zeros


Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Lexus IS200 x Toyota Altezza

Here I am starting a new project. This is a twin build for these 2 "classic"s in the early 2000.
One will be a one-made racing livery and the other is a street salon.
Again this is going to be a straight forward build and I don't really have the intention to add a lot of scratch building stuffs here. Hope I can complete both of these within Q2 2013~~
LOL


 
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