Suzuki GSX1100S Katana - 1981 - WIP
1November 19, 2014First we will be assembling the engine. I added a little detail at the engine, where I added the clutch control mechanism. Other than that I stuck to the kit parts.
2November 19, 2014This is how the engine looks like, once assembled. Once this sub-assembly has been finished, I gave it a wash with Tamiya Smoke.
3November 19, 2014The thin wiring was used where I suspected the kit wiring to be a little too large in diameter. The spark plug wires are kit parts.
4November 19, 2014Here you can see the clutch control device at the right bottom of the engine block.
5November 19, 2014Next we concentrate on the rear fender and the air cleaner.
6November 19, 2014The rear fender receives a tail light and a licence plate. The air cleaner part, which includes also the battery, receives some detail painting; the instructions indicate to paint everything semigloss black, put I decided to paint the battery white.
7November 19, 2014Stage 3 involves the installation of the engine into the frame.
8November 19, 2014This stage is one of the most complicated and difficult manipulations of the whole build, because of the high number of fixing points.
9November 19, 2014I have considered to fix the frame parts together before the engine and other parts were installed to avoid the clearly visible joints, but since they will be invisible afterwards I abandoned the idea.
10November 19, 2014Some extra wiring was also fixed to the bike in this stage.
11November 19, 2014Still a long way from looking like a real bike...
12November 19, 2014Stage 4 involves simply the assembly of the mufflers. Next I painted them gloss black.
13November 19, 2014Next the mufflers are attached to the engine.
14November 19, 2014Extreme care has to be taken in this stage to avoid glue marks on the glossy exhausts and mufflers.
15November 19, 2014But with some careful manipulation, it all comes together nicely.
16November 19, 2014Also it is important to be careful with the model from now on, because finger prints are clearly visible on the black mufflers.
17November 19, 2014It still doesn't look like a motorcycle though...
18November 19, 2014So it's time to assemble the rear wheel and swing arm.
19November 19, 2014Some careful detail painting gives the rear swing arm construction a realistic look. I also added real adjusting bolts at the rear of the arm for more realism.
20November 19, 2014Once assembled, I also gave the sub-assembly a Tamiya Smoke wash.
21November 19, 2014Next up: the attaching of the swing arm to the frame.
22November 19, 2014I was not very pleased with the way the shock absorbers looked, since they were injected in one piece. So I cut away the middle part (where the spring sits) and I scratched the absorbers with aluminium tube and solder tin (for the springs).
23November 19, 2014At the bottom, I added a small spring to the central motor stand.
24November 19, 2014Now the model finally starts to look like a real bike.
25November 19, 2014Stage 8 involves the assembly of the fuel tank. Since I already prepared the tank before spraying it, there is not much left to do here.
26November 19, 2014So all I had to do was fix the fuel cap and a warning sticker.
27November 19, 2014Next the tank is installed to the bike frame, together with some other parts.
28November 19, 2014The tail light cover was a dark blue semigloss part, so that is how I painted the scaled down cover as well; I also added BMF chrome surroundings to the blinkers for more realism.
29November 19, 2014Front view of the Suzuki so far...
30November 19, 2014In stage 10 we tackle the assembly of the cowling. The instructions suggest to fix the headlight between the cowling parts before fixing them together, but I decided it would be easier to leave it out of there until after painting the cowling.
31November 19, 2014That is why I cut off one of the joining taps of the head light, so it could be fitted into the cowling afterwards. A lot easier than masking the light to spray paint the cowling in my opinion.
32November 19, 2014In stage 11 all the remaining parts of the bike, apart from the front fork, are attached to the frame.
33November 19, 2014Kind of an odd sight, a motorcycle without front wheel...
34November 19, 2014The seat of the bike has to be sprayed in two colours; the blue part is the same colour as the rear cowling. It looks a different shade because the seat is coated with matt varnish instead of semigloss.
35November 19, 2014Interesting to see how a different kind of clearcoat can change the appearance of a colour...
36November 19, 2014Now we can put the sub-assembly aside and concentrate on the front fork.
37November 19, 2014First we assemble the front wheel and the handle bars.
38November 19, 2014Once the brake discs are fixed to the front wheel, we can start assembling the front fork as well. I added some cable holders to the front fender for more realism.
39November 19, 2014Here the front fork is nearly finished. Notice the cable holders at both sides of the front fender. I also used 2 typed of wiring to make a difference between brake lines and speedometer cable.
40November 19, 2014At the right side there is a cable holder as well.
41November 19, 2014The assembled steering stem head looks like this.
42November 19, 2014Stage 14, the last stage before completion, is shown here: attaching the front fork to the main bike, together with some small parts. The final result is visible in the 'finished model pics' album.
Commentaires
2 19 November 2014, 15:52
Guy GolsteynI have been preparing the sub-assemblies of this bike for quite a while now, but I didn't think it was interesting enough to show you pictures of how the parts have been glued and painted before assembly. Now that all the parts are ready to be assembled into a complete motrocycle, I decided to take a lot of pictures to show yoy how this went.
19 November 2014, 15:56
Guy GolsteynI sub-divided the build into different stages, following the Tamiya instructions sheet, both in the way all parts are built up and in the way they have been named. The stages that I will be explaining are therefore exactly the same as the ones that you would find in the instructions.
19 November 2014, 15:59
