Tamiya model number: 14094 
After market:SMS Carbon fibre
In progress through: 2004-07-01 - 2006-10-27

     
 

Nice as always from Tamiya. I have kept away from the Teléfonica bikes too long due to the seemingly difficult decal work. Started the kit together with the Camel RC211V ´03 and the Pramac RC211V ´03.  This one is lagging behind due to some painting trouble..

Parts and decals of the kit seems up to Tamiya standard and there isn't much to do when it comes to cleaning up the parts.


Modifications to the kit are as follows: 
  • Stripped the chrome plating of the frames and swing arms and painted them Alclad II Higly polished alu.
  • Scratch built front fork sensor and axle pin.
  • Scratch built right side exhaust pipe heat shielding.
  • Painted rear chain sprocket cover, clutch cover, rear mud guard and right exhaust pipe heat shielding with XF-56 through mesh over X-18 to get CF effect.
  • Covered left heel guard, muffler fastener and the scratch built right heat shielding with Scale Motorsport CF decal. Also made muffler ribbons out of the same material.
  • Detailed the chain and brake callipers
  • Replaced Tamiya tubing with fishing line. .6 mm for clutch and brake lines and .4 mm for throttle.
  • Did some over all weathering and did some cuts in the foot pegs.
  • Black Chrome Bare metal foil on the sliding parts of the front fork.

On the rcv:s from 2003 and forward there is a heat shield on the right side wich is not supplied by Tamiya. I copied the part from a trans kit from Mies Laboratory that I will use on another build. I painted the plasticard black and added Scale Motorsport carbon fibre.

Painting was a section of its own... Got too heavy coats of the TS-51 "Racing Blue" (as Tamiya calls it, before it was called Teléfonica blue...) and it turned out too dark. Had to strip and repaint. I tried to do a base coat with TS-17 to get some more depth and shine to the paint.



This was a nightmare... I had really big problems with the yellow checkered areas as I probably put them on in wrong order. The decals weren't up to Tamiya standards as they were very fragile and didn't respond too well to decal solutions. I think this could have been a bad set and I also think I have to invest in new bottles of MicroSet and MicroSol. The ones I've got could be out of date.
I always tend to have problems with decals that shall cover larger areas and that will bend around edges to meet up with another decal. All in all that issue is what I fight most when it comes to modelling. I don't like it at all.

In the foremost part of the lower cowl I used scrap pieces of yellow decal from another set to cover up the blue areas that I didn't manage to cover with the original decals.

All decals was covered with Modelers' Super clear and polished using Tamiya polish.



TS-51 Racing blue is what Tamiya always calls for when it comes to Teléfonica bikes and most builders agree on that it is too dark. Lacking a better option I went ahead and used it anyway but on top of some silver paint. Much better.
Decals was a real pain on this build. Doesn't look good at all up close.. .