"Big Tank" Crocker OHV motorcycle - 1/9 - Model Factory Hiro

[BlrwestSiR]

Superlative work there Rob.  Sounds like one of those kits where you have to look a couple steps ahead just to make sure you note everything. 

[DocRob]

22 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Quality, precision, care and pride in turning out the best kit possible. I'm sure these factors are part of their design and manufacturing process and a big reason as to why their kits are so brilliant.

Indeed Peter, but they are human after all. Since yesterday, I prepare the mudguards and fuel tank for painting and this includes a lot of prep work. There are blemishes in the cast, which has to be filed and sanded away, then a bit of polishing. These parts are primed now and the tank got a gloss white coat and needs to fully dry now. 

I also drilled the rims, to accept the spokes and cleaned them a bit. There is a small but very visible cast seam from spoke to spoke, which I removed with a sharp blade and smoothed everything with a brass brush on a rotating tool. Initially, I thought about polishing the rims, but that would be very difficult and I will paint them, as were a lot on the original bikes.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

16 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Superlative work there Rob.  Sounds like one of those kits where you have to look a couple steps ahead just to make sure you note everything. 

Absolutely Carl, I rarely have jumped so often from step to step in the manual like with the Crocker. Additionally you always have to identify, where which fitting belongs with the parts list and drill the accepting hole, after measuring the appropriate diameter. 
Until now, the most important tool was the Proxxon mini drill with a stand and even more important the foot pedal for the hundreds of holes to drill.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Lots of prep work done lately. I filed, sanded and near polished fuel tank and mudguards, primed them with Mr. Color grey primer 1200 and sprayed the tank with Tamiya LP-2 gloss white, which came out nice and shiny. Of course, I drilled all the necessary holes beforehand.

The rims needed also a lot of preparation. As you can see on the pic, there are prominent cast seams between the spokes, which I cleaned with a sharp blade and then used a rotating tool to refine the surfaces. I decided against polishing and also primed the rims, after I drilled the holes for the spokes. 
Body color will be black now, where initially thought about dark blue, but I don´t like the look of blue rims.
All other parts, which will be painted black, were drilled, prepared and primed.



Luckily some help arrived today, more drill bits and two DSPIAE hand drills, the left one with a collet, the right one with a chuck. You can´t have enough of these, as you permanent need to drill holes in different diameters.



Cheers Rob

[Bomber_County]

18 hours ago, DocRob said:

Lots of prep work done lately. I filed, sanded and near polished fuel tank and mudguards, primed them with Mr. Color grey primer 1200 and sprayed the tank with Tamiya LP-2 gloss white, which came out nice and shiny. Of course, I drilled all the necessary holes beforehand.

The rims needed also a lot of preparation. As you can see on the pic, there are prominent cast seams between the spokes, which I cleaned with a sharp blade and then used a rotating tool to refine the surfaces. I decided against polishing and also primed the rims, after I drilled the holes for the spokes. 
Body color will be black now, where initially thought about dark blue, but I don´t like the look of blue rims.
All other parts, which will be painted black, were drilled, prepared and primed.



Luckily some help arrived today, more drill bits and two DSPIAE hand drills, the left one with a collet, the right one with a chuck. You can´t have enough of these, as you permanent need to drill holes in different diameters.



Cheers Rob

Stunning work Rob, you will love the Dspiae, I have the collect version and love it, they also do drill caddies with a push catch cover. They will hold all their 3.175 dia tools…….

[Peterpools]

Rob

Amazing work and the gas tank: OMG, the white gloss paint looks fantastic. Thinking about the rims, you absolutely made the right decisions. No question Carl hit it right on the head, this surely is one kit you need to stay two or three steps ahead to see where and how the parts and assembly together. 

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Bomber_County said:

Stunning work Rob, you will love the Dspiae, I have the collect version and love it, they also do drill caddies with a push catch cover. They will hold all their 3.175 dia tools…….

Well that´s better than to have them loose on the workbench, like right now, Phil . The drill bits came in sturdy boxes, no need for extra storage parts, but thanks for recommending.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

50 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

Amazing work and the gas tank: OMG, the white gloss paint looks fantastic. Thinking about the rims, you absolutely made the right decisions. No question Carl hit it right on the head, this surely is one kit you need to stay two or three steps ahead to see where and how the parts and assembly together. 

Thank you Peter, today, I sprayed gloss black onto the rims, mudguards and various other parts. At first glance, it came out super glossy, but let´s wait, until it has fully cured. The fuel tank was not so easy, as the rear part needs to be sprayed black and masking the white at the appropriate area proved difficult. There are overlapping decals, later to be applied, but determining the exact position was tedious. I hope it came out well.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Surely some nice progress and some very delicate and precise work at the.

Fingers crossed but my money is riding on you.🤞

 

[DocRob]

Hmmh, well, mixed success for today. The decals for this MFH kit are extremely well made. They fit perfectly, are robust and have a good color density. I dreaded the golden pinstripes on the mudguards a bit, but they came out great, applied only with water and a drop of detergent, no decal solutions needed. The parts are still not gloss coated.


 

I´m not happy with the fuel tank. As per manual, I airbrushed it gloss white, masked off the front part, and sprayed the rest gloss black. The finish was almost perfect, but there was a tiny parting line between the colors. After applying the decals, the parting line showed even more, but there is also a different hue to the white sprayed part of the tank. I may strip the tank and use other decals as decor. The flame decals generally lay down beautifully and all the wrinkles on the curved contour could be pushed out while curing, but the result is not satisfactory. I watched the MFH promotion pictures of the kit, and the parting line is visible as well, bummer.



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I gave the fuel tank another try and oversprayed the white, after sanding away the visible seam, using a different white color. The result was better but not good enough, so I stripped the tank, something I never did before. I always try to have the perfect plan, the appropriate tools, but this time, no luck.

There are several decals for the fuel tank included in the kit, so my next try will be a polished finish with next to apply pinstripes in flame shape, similar to the black and white design.
I filed and steel wooled the surface, before I polished with Autosol and my Proxxon cotton bit and finally by hand with cotton cloth and again Autosol.

Somehow the sheen is hard to capture, it looks near mirror like in reality and the grey ´smear´ on the lower pic is some kind of reflex , no bad spot.





Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

The tank in the last couple of pictures looks amazing. If you decide to leave it that way. A clear coat would be good so it doesn't tarnish. 

It's unfortunate the white decal didn't work out. The tank looked good in the black and white. Just not opaque enough. 

[Bomber_County]

13 hours ago, DocRob said:

I gave the fuel tank another try and oversprayed the white, after sanding away the visible seam, using a different white color. The result was better but not good enough, so I stripped the tank, something I never did before. I always try to have the perfect plan, the appropriate tools, but this time, no luck.

There are several decals for the fuel tank included in the kit, so my next try will be a polished finish with next to apply pinstripes in flame shape, similar to the black and white design.
I filed and steel wooled the surface, before I polished with Autosol and my Proxxon cotton bit and finally by hand with cotton cloth and again Autosol.

Somehow the sheen is hard to capture, it looks near mirror like in reality and the grey ´smear´ on the lower pic is some kind of reflex , no bad spot.





Cheers Rob

That looks so good just polished, I’d be inclined to leave it in this natural state without decals, just an idea……….

[DocRob]

11 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

The tank in the last couple of pictures looks amazing. If you decide to leave it that way. A clear coat would be good so it doesn't tarnish. 

It's unfortunate the white decal didn't work out. The tank looked good in the black and white. Just not opaque enough. 

If I leave it polished with or without the decals, I will clearcoat the tank. The polished metal looks exactly, like a polished aluminum tank and there are several examples where a Crocker was left without paint. The decal solution is a bit weird, as it needs to pre paint the more curved areas of the tank and then add decals in two layers for more opacity. I may have cut some masks after scanning the decals, but have no cutting plotter and fear my free hand cutting wouldn´t be perfect enough.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

59 minutes ago, Bomber_County said:

That looks so good just polished, I’d be inclined to leave it in this natural state without decals, just an idea………

I may leave it in the polished finish, Phil, albeit with the decals as shown below.

That´s how the Crocker looks with the applied flame contour decals. I added the rear fender loosely to get an idea how everything looks, before I start to clearcoat everything.









there is also another option included, which includes decals the front part of the tank to be pre painted gloss black. Looks attractive too, but somehow, I like the polished finish.



Cheers Rob

[biggtim]

This a really cool kit, and a great build! Incidentally, the only way to get rid of those "edges" around masked colors is to build up successive layers of clear over the top and wet sand/polish out the clear coat only - just like in an automotive base/clear application. However, that is tough to do on a model! It's not easy on a real car....

[Peterpools]

Rob

The Mudguards are brilliant - what a finish and the decal stripes are perfect.

On the tank, I couldn't see the imperfection with the paintwork but after seeing the tank in a NMF with the decals - it's the only way to fly! 🏆

 

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, biggtim said:

This a really cool kit, and a great build! Incidentally, the only way to get rid of those "edges" around masked colors is to build up successive layers of clear over the top and wet sand/polish out the clear coat only - just like in an automotive base/clear application. However, that is tough to do on a model! It's not easy on a real car....

Thank you Tim, I´m relatively new to car and bike modeling, where super glossy finishes are needed. The problem here was not only the "edge" between the colors, it was also impossible to get the white exactly matching the decal. I tried to repair it and it looked better then on the pics, but it was not good enough as a base for gloss coating and polishing out. The problem with models is, if you sand or polish too much, you will wear through edges and protruding parts.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Peterpools said:

The Mudguards are brilliant - what a finish and the decal stripes are perfect.

On the tank, I couldn't see the imperfection with the paintwork but after seeing the tank in a NMF with the decals - it's the only way to fly! 🏆

Oh it was very visible unfortunately, Peter. At least, I had my first strip job, now I´m a real modeler . The polishing came out beautiful after some hours of work and I like the result as well. When do you have the chance in modeling to let metal look like metal. No fake metal / Alclad shine, but the real thing .
It´s all sealed now and tomorrow I will show some pics.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Gloss coating to me is always adventurous and this time was not different. I used Mr. Color GX-100 clear gloss, which really looks perfect, when everything fits, but can be a nightmare to work with. I had cases in the past, where I had an effect like cotton candy, when spraying the GX-100 and thought, it was, because the clear was contaminated during the process.

This time, I picked a new jar of GX-100, opened a new bottle of Mr. Color leveling thinner, poured both liquids directly into the metal cup of my airbrush and stirred with a cleaned metal rod. The airbrush was thoroughly cleaned beforehand. 
Cotton Candy again on my test sprue. As the whole process was clean and uncontaminated, I added more thinner, step by step and finally, it worked. The mix was not too thick at the beginning, but seemed to be the reason for that strange effect.
I would really like to master that stuff on a reliable basis and take the thrill out of this step.

Cheers Rob
 

[Peterpools]

Rob

Clear gloss work is an art by itself and for the few car models I've built, I went to town on them. Always starting with a super smooth paint finish and with the last step before the gloss work being a Tamiya anti-static brush for a final wipe down. My preferred gloss clears these days are Tamiya X22 and Tamiya LP-9. Numerous, thin wet coats do the trick for me but model car guys as my brother, seem to prefer 2K and 1K clears which are way too dangerous for me to consider using. My brother sent me an email the other day, saying AK as a new 1K clear available now and he has watched videos and reviews that it is an awesome product, producing a deep, clear gloss finish. I haven't tried it as I am very conservative in how I paint and what I use as being a cancer survivor. 

The traditional 2K clears are a urethane based and AK 1K is an acrylic based product (not positive). In either case, precautions need to be taken. If I was painting a museum quality MFH, that most likely would be the route I think I would go and of course, wearing an approved respirator and shooting in a spray booth as well. I always use both when air brushing to be on the safe side and then leave plenty of time to air out my hobby room as well. Just my two cents.  

 

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Clear gloss work is an art by itself and for the few car models I've built, I went to town on them. Always starting with a super smooth paint finish and with the last step before the gloss work being a Tamiya anti-static brush for a final wipe down. My preferred gloss clears these days are Tamiya X22 and Tamiya LP-9. Numerous, thin wet coats do the trick for me but model car guys as my brother, seem to prefer 2K and 1K clears which are way too dangerous for me to consider using. My brother sent me an email the other day, saying AK as a new 1K clear available now and he has watched videos and reviews that it is an awesome product, producing a deep, clear gloss finish. I haven't tried it as I am very conservative in how I paint and what I use as being a cancer survivor. 

The traditional 2K clears are a urethane based and AK 1K is an acrylic based product (not positive). In either case, precautions need to be taken. If I was painting a museum quality MFH, that most likely would be the route I think I would go and of course, wearing an approved respirator and shooting in a spray booth as well. I always use both when air brushing to be on the safe side and then leave plenty of time to air out my hobby room as well. Just my two cents.  

Thank you Peter for your thoughts and experiences on clear coating. Over on MSW two resourceful members said, the cotton candy effect is a cause of not enough thinner. They use a 1 part to 3 part mixing ratio or even more thinner. I tend to see it the same way after my experiences yesterday. Clear gloss needs more thinner than other colors. The results look fine now with the Mr. Color GX-100, I may even get away without polishing.
I recently ordered some jars of Zero Paints 1k lacquer gloss clear and I really like to see, how this works out. The AK 1k stuff was promoted in the following video :

I have to say, I was heavily shocked about the terrible result. How could they promote their stuff with this video.

I always wear a good respirator mask and work in my booth, when spraying and tend to vent the room for at least an hour, before continuing to work there.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

OMG, first time I've seen this video and the finish is far from good ... you're so right in it's no way to promote the product. I can't believe this is the best results straight out of the bottle and I'm going to be having breakfast with my brother this morning and ask him about this, as it's 180 degrees opposite of the results I get from my Tamiya go to clears. I'm positive the results shown are the way it was applied, which is so different them mine plus the paint base was no polished at all. 

Going to buy a bottle of the AK 1K and test for myself.

Thanks for doing some additional research that I should have done myself before the first post.

 

[DocRob]

The Crocker starts to look like a bike now, with the rear fender attached. Primarily, I gave the fenders clear coat a polish with Tamiya´s polishing compounds. A bit of dust and fingerprints remain visible for the moment, as these are work in progress pics. To align all the struts, a positioning peg and a screw for mounting the rear fender was a bit fiddly, but in the end, it worked out. I added the rivets and taillight and started with the wheel hubs. Spoking is next . 





Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Coming together just beautifully and the gloss finish is superb. MFH attention to detail is amazing.