The Tamiya 2001 "Factory" kit (Marlboro livery without tobacco advertising) was one of the first kits I ever bought. I got the Ragged Edge Design logos from Rod at an early stage too. But then the kit went further and further down the pile, until I found the Studio 27, late 2001 season, decals with the markings celebrating Max's 30'th birthday. Off to Ebay to buy a second kit... These two were built together with the ´99 and ´00 Marlboro bikes as a Marlboro mania!

The paint job is Zero paint racing white and bright red. The lower cowl was first painted white then masked and painted red. I love working with this range of paints as they lay down easily leaving a flat base wich is then clear coated.

The early season kit has the logo on the sides while the late season bike featured Marlboro in writing. As mentioned above, the late season bike represented here have "Happy 30th birthday" written on the top cowl to celebrate Max's 30th birthday. A similar thing was done in 2003 when he raced with a smaller 2 beside his #3 to celebrate his 32nd birthday, that bike can be seen in my gallery section. Bellow are some pictures from the decalling work. First a shot of the cleared Zero Bright red paint.