Tamiya Team Suzuki ECSTAR GSX-RR 20 1:12

The tyres both required removal of a seam around the circumference, which was undertaken with a medium sanding board. This did not take long but is quite messy, so some clean up of the work area is required afterwards to avoid little pieces of rubber getting everywhere.

Once this was done they were fitted to the wheels (which I only satin varnished as the plastic is just the correct shade to my eye), and then the rim decals and tyre decals were applied. The tyre decals were a new thing to me, but following the instructions was relatively easy. Tamiya do provide a couple of spares, one of which I needed to resort to.

The sub-assembly box was starting to look quite impressive by this stage, with various exotic looking items.

Finishing the swing arm assembly was another notable milestone, and it stated to feel like real progress was being made at this point.

Front Suspension & Steering…

Moving on to the front end the fork assemblies were built up, from the Detail Up set. These included several anodised parts that created an effect that would be difficult to fully replicate by painting up the original kit parts (even though these are impressively detailed).

The brake disc assemblies were painted up and added to the front wheel prior to assembly to the fork legs. The brake lines (and various other pipes / cables) are identified with appropriate lengths (in the instructions) and cut from the supplied rubber tube. These and other details such as the Brembo decals for the brake callipers really start to ramp up the detail.

Various Ancillary Items…

Multiple parts were worked in parallel as previously mentioned. These included the exhaust, which is assembled from four separate main items, and also has to be modified to add the PE grills supplied in the Detail Up kit. Another small but important sub-assembly, is that of the headstock, handlebars and switch gear, which when completed is very eye catching.

Chassis…