Tamiya modell number: 14077 After market: Museum Collection MCTK008 In progress through: 2005-10-01 - 2006-02-10     Lovely livery on this bike. I also like the italian red color together with the white portion of the seat cowl. Masking this section off is what's kept me from building it earlier. The bike was ridden by Shin Itchi Itho as a wild card in the GP of Japan 1999. Stripped the chrome plating and painted the parts Alclad II Polished aluminum. All parts that was supposed to be painted X-11 got the same treatment. Decal sheet comes with replacement parts for the sliding section of the front fork. I cut the forks apart and drilled holes for the machined parts to fit. A synergy effect of this was that the other parts of the forks was much easier to paint. Great! Here's a picture with the sliding parts installed. You can also see the fittings for the brake lines I had to make out of solder and hex rod to replace the existing ones that I broke... Painting the seat cowl has bothered me with this kit as I had to mask off a white portion of the seat while painting red. I started off by painting the whole seat white. I then made a piece of masking tape with the same arch as the decal that will go at the rearmost point of the seat. I followed up with a thin pice of tape to get a nice conform bend around the seat bulb. After that I covered the whole bulb with masking tape and sprayed a few mists of TS-13 Clear over the sape to seal it and keep paint from bleeding benieth the tape. Here's a picture showing the result of the "mesh technique". I paint the part semi gloss black, then cover it tightly with a mesh and spray metallic grey at low air preassure with the airbrush. Remove the mesh without destroying the pattern and then coat the part with clear smoke! I tried to wire the bike suing the electronic control box on the right side. I used som electronic connectors from Antares Models and the Tamiya tubing. The right hand electronic box got some multi colored fishing line installed and then I inserted the other ends to various positions. I wheathered the exhaust system using Alclad II Aluminum as a base. I maked off the weldings and then used some various Model Master Metalizers and Tamiya Clear blue to heat stain it. Lovely decals. Hopefully they are better than the previous Museum Collection ones that has been a bit fragile. I tryed a new technique and put CF-decal on the airbox. I used masking tape and made templates of smaller area of the box and then transferred them onto the masking tape. With setting solution and a hairdryer it turned out really well. I finished off with a few coats of Tamiya Smoke and Clear to seal the decals and give some shine. Really nothing to do with the decals but when removing the masking tape off the white portion of the seat cowling a bit of the white paint lifted. With some rubbing and clear paint I was able to save it to some degree but at close range it is really visible... Olala! Lovely bike, lovely decals, lovely result. If it weren't for the mishap with the lift off on the white sections this would have been my best build so far! Don't get me wrong, I love the appearance anyhow but it will not be a competition winner.