Step 1: painting the bodyparts. I used Tamiya TS-17 Gloss Aluminium, which I oversprayed with Tamiya TS-74 Clear Red. Finally I sprayed the black parts with Tamiya TS-14 Gloss Black. Next I fixed the decals and finally I applied 3 clear coats.
Step 2: assembly of the frame. The instructions suggest to assemble the engine first, and then fix it between the frame halves. I decided to assemble the frame first (and spray it black), to fix the engine afterwards with real bolts (green arrows).
This part is not present in the kit, so it was scratchbuilt. The coils will be hidden under the gas tank, so I didn't spent too much time detailing them, but still I tried to make it look realistic.
Lets' zoom in on these parts: they are all pre-assembled, painted and weathered because it will be hard to reach them once they are in place. The plastic chromed push-rods will not be used, I replaced them by metal parts.
And of course the rear shocks can't be left away either. I replaced the funny looking chromed plastic parts by scratched shocks following the reference pics as a guide.
Once that is all cleared, we have a firm base on which we can continue the build. Now I fix all the wiring and tubing which will be visible once the bike is finished. Note that the fuel lines are still attached to each other; they will be cut later on.
At the front I installed the radiator which is not present on all standard BMW R100S bikes, but since it was available in the kit I might as well use it.
The rear end of the bike was finished. I tried to simulate the taillight's interior with BMF which I pushed into the housing with a cotton swab. I think it turned out well.
At the front I still had to fix the horns. I drilled them out en reshaped them to give them a realistic look since the kit parts were flat at the front.
Then I concentrated on the handle bars. The large plastic cover unfortunately hides a lot of the detail, but there are still some switches and the dials to be looked at. I fixed some real meters over the dial decals and covered them up with epoxy glue.
Rear view. Also still to do is to correct the numerous spots where the paint is chipped because of the handling the bike while fixing parts... I'll do that once the bike is completed.