Honda VFR800 build notes When I finished the Fujimi VFR800 model in 2012, I vowed to never try and build this model kit every again. Well, here I am, building the same model. The reason is that this model is a commission build for a man in Texas who once owned the real motorcycle. There is a lot of work in converting the police version (the only version the kit has ever been released) and there are many corrections that need to be done to the engineering and details of the kit. Fujimi has released some other very good motorcycle models – the Honda VFR800 is not one of them. These build notes were prepared throughout the construction, to explain how to overcome the shortcomings of the kit and to convert it from the police version to the street motorcycle version. The basic kit is a curbside (no engine and little chassis detail) with plastic (yes, plastic) tires integrated into the wheels. 1) Basic Construction The design of the kit would have you sandwich the central plate between two halves of the gas tank/frame pieces. This leaves it almost impossible to paint pieces in the proper sequence, or even get paint to certain areas. To remedy this, the cylindrical mounting tabs are trimmed to be semi-circular. This allows the central plate to be slide inside the painted bodywork during final assembly. The following photos show what was done.

Photo 1 - central plate - before

Photo 2 - central plate - after 2) Front Bodywork One of the glaring things about this kit is that there are three openings in the front fairing and one underneath the gas tank that are completely filled in. On the real motorcycle these are open and either some engine parts can be seen through the opening (underneath the gas tank) or there is a mesh screen. In addition, there are a number blind holes for mounting some of the police accessories and these need to filled in.

Photo 3 - front fairing pieces, red need to be opened up and green need to be filled in

Photo 4 - right side fairing with mounting holes filled in and three areas opened up

Photo 5 - assembled fairing 3) and rear shock The rear brake and swingarm are molded as one piece and the backside of the swingarm is hollow. This is quite noticeable on the finished model.

Photo 6 - backside of swingarm

Photo 7 - backside of swingarm filled in In addition, the rear shock spring is badly molded and the shock itself is off-center and not vertical (as viewed from behind). It’s unlikely that this is the way the real motorcycle is designed. The shock was removed the swingarm ground out to accept a larger version. A new upper mounting plate made of sheet styrene. The spring itself is an extra one that come in the Tamiya detail fork set made for the Honda RC211V ’06 model. The shock body was made of machined styrene and the rod from polished aluminum. Although you might not see it very well on the finished model I just couldn’t let it go the way it was.

Photo 8 - rear shock not central to rest of motorcycle and not vertical

Photo 9 - rear shock mockup

Honda VFR800 build notes – part 2

4) Exhaust The exhaust consists of three main pieces - The pipes from the engine to the collector box The pipes from the rear two cylinders run down the right side of the bike to the collector box under the engine. The two pipes are molded as a single piece, with very little definition to them. I drilled out the end holes and replace with 2 mm diameter solder. There will be some additional lining up of the pipes during final assembly.

Photo 10 – Kit exhaust piece

Photo 11 - Exhaust pipes made of 2 mm solder - The collector box The collector box is under the engine and is attached to the extension of the front fairing. It’s not very accurate or detailed, but is pretty well hidden under everything else. The weird thing is that the center stand, the way the kit is designed, cannot possibly move past this piece. This is not a big deal as the bike will be displayed on its center stand.

- The final exhaust pipe and muffler Since the muffler is a high mounted piece, the pipe and muffler need to be modified and/or scratchbuilt and this will be done later

5) Rear sprocket and chainguard The chain is being replaced with a photoetch version. The Hobby Design Kawasaki Ninja ZX- 12R chainset is the perfect match for the diameter of the rear sprocket. The one option was to use the chainset as is, but this would not have the same sprocket detail as the real bike.

Photo 12 - Kit piece of chain and sprocket In order to do this properly, the sprocket was separated from the chainguard. The center part of the sprocket was saved and will be added to a machined sprocket teeth. The scratchbuild sprocket is made from 0.5 mm sheet styrene.

The machining was done by: o Cutting two triangular pieces of sheet styrene, one 0.5 mm (0.020”) thick and one 3.1 mm (1/8”) thick, They were then joined together with forced fit styrene rods and thick Tamiya cement just on the corners. o The piece was then mounted on the dividing head of my milling machine and the 45 holes for the teeth and the 18 other holes were drilled. The holes for the teeth did not all drill at the right spot, possibly due to the 0.8 mm diameter drill bit wandering a bit. Well over half the teeth will be hidden once the photoetch chain and lower chainguard is added, so the mistake won’t be visible.

Photo 13 - First layout of chain and sprocket

Photo 14 - Sprocket being machined.

Photo 15 - Modified center portion, machined sprocket teeth and photoetch chain

In order to get things together at the end, the chainguard needed major work to match the real bike, and to make sure that the chain will fit inside. The backside of the chainguard was thinned using a rotary tool. Sheet styrene as used to widen the chainguard and then add a back piece.

Photo 16 - Chainguard before modification

Photo 17 - Chainguard after modification

6) Paint The other good news is that I stopped in at D&W Auto Body Supplies on Michener Road (north of Highway 7) and explained to the guy behind the counter what I was doing. I gave him the paint code and he found it with no problem. It is a 3 part system – yellow basecoat, pearl and clearcoat. He mixed up a few ounces of the basecoat, with reducer and it came to only $20. I did not take the pearl because it would look out of scale for the model. I tried the basecoat on bare plastic and it did not react. I will have to do some more experimenting doing it over primer and then see how the Tamiya clear pearl and clear react. If things don’t work out, I can still mix Tamiya yellow lacquer to match the correct yellow.

Honda VFR800 build notes – part 3

7) Photoetch chain I didn’t set a lot of goals this week and just as well, as I only was able to build the photoetch chain. Below is the technique I use and some additional tips I have learned doing these Hobby Design chain sets. I have a little jig that I use to hold the photoetch inner plate. It has two styrene strips glued to a base. The inner plate is then held down using double sided tape. This helps raise the plate a little so that the pins can go all the way through. I also usually build the chain inside a model box lid, which helps contain all the little parts from going flying, never to be seen again. The plates are separated from the backing and then the plates and pins are placed in a separate containers.

Photo 18 - Set up for building chain There are 3 main steps to building the chain: One – add the pins to inner plate Two – Add sprockets and sandwich between second inside plate Three – Add all the separate outer links

Photo 19 - First step, partially done One - I usually put three pins in a row, add CA glue using our super thin applicator, add a drop of accelerator, then repeat at different section while those three pins dry. The whole thing is then removed from the jig and the missing pins added. Two – Place the sprockets in the partially built chain and the add the other inner plate. There will be some jiggling of the pins to get them to line up with the holes. CA glue is then flowed down the pins, followed by accelerator.

Photo 20 - Second inner plate attached and test fitted to model Three – The individual links are then added and CA glued in place. I usually do two links at a time, glue them and then move to another section of the chain while that dries.

Photo 21 - Outer links added and test fitted to model Tips for building these chains:

o The most difficult thing about building these chains is picking up and placing the pins and links without jostling things so that the ones already place don’t dislodge. I have tried a few different tweezers and have settled mostly on a pair with a bent end. o Use non magnetic tweezers, or you will never get the pins to stay in the holes because they will stick to the tweezers. I got a great set of non-magnetic tweezers from KW Surplus. o Every once in a while, a pin will have a burr on it and won’t go through the hole. The pin can be filed down, the hole opened up, or the pin can be discarded. The newer chain sets include some additional pins, so throwing out a few won’t leave you short. In addition, you will probably have extras because you don’t need all the pins for sections of the chain that are not visible, like behind chain guards are engine case (for the drive sprocket). o The plates on the newer sets of Hobby Design chains are not attached to a fret, which means they don’t need to be held and filed to clean up the fret attachment point. The links are held between two layers of plastic sheet. However, one of the sheets seems to leave a glue residue so that one side of the plate is shiny and the other has some ‘stains’ on them. I have always just used the shiny side when building, but maybe the stained side would add some contrast. I have also read that you can use lacquer thinner to remove the stains, but I haven’t tried that. o Be careful handling the large inner plates, they can get bent very easily and are tricky to straighten. You will need to hold them to file off the fret attachment points. o The inner plates have one smooth side and one side with indentations between the links. I have always oriented the plates with the indentations facing in as it should represent the inner links. However, it is really difficult to see these indentations once the chain has been built. o Make sure that when you start attaching the outer links that you start by straddling the inner plate orientation, just like a real chain. Again, this may be difficult to see when finished. o I sometimes will brush paint a thin coat of clear flat over the links. This will dull the reflection off the links and tone down the fact that some plates will be skewed and not line up with adjacent plates.

Honda VFR800 build notes – part 4 8) Rear Bodywork The police model kit has a big utility box behind the seat. On the street model, there is a detachable cover piece that can be replaced with a passenger seat. I couldn’t remember how I did the modifications on the earlier model, but I’m pretty sure it was not how I did it this time. You can see the platform that the kit has. Also notice that I have marked out the pads on the gas tank that need to be filed and sanded off.

Photo 22 - Rear bodywork platform Three 3.1 mm (1/8”) sheet styrene pieces were cut out to form the structure under the seat cover. A 0.5 mm (0.020”) styrene sheet was cut to the shape of the cover. I then machined three styrene pins to help hold the sheet in place. Some additional styrene strips were added to help keep the bottom of the sheet at the right location.

Photo 23 - Styrene shapes for the seat cover

Photo 24 - Structure ready for the main piece. One side of the sheet was glued and left to dry overnight. The following day the other side was glued and clamped.

Photo 25 - One side glued and left to dry overnight

Photo 26 - Sheet glued in place After drying, the pins were sanded off then some additional sheet styrene used to fill in the gap. Hopefully, this will eliminate the seam sink mark that I had in the other model.

Photo 27 - Finished rear bodywork

9) Center stand and side stand. The side stand was scratchbuilt to be more realistic, and the center stand had some modifications on the feet.

Photo 28 - Scrathbuilt side stand compared with kit part

Photo 29 - Center stand with modified feet Honda VFR800 build notes – part 5 10) Handlebars The handlebars on the kit are high rise bars, whereas the street bike has clip-on like versions. The first step was to fill the holes and reduce the size of the upper triple tree.

Photo 30 - Before and after pictures of the upper triple tree. The next thing to do was to find some suitable handlebar replacements. I found a set in my parts box that I believe came from a Suzuki RG250 street bike. Some styrene was added, shaped using a sanding stick and then a slot cut into it. Some styrene rod was machined for the new mounting for the handle controls A pair of Meng bolt heads had holes drilled through the center, a styrene rod added and then central slot cut into the top.

Photo 31 - Starting parts for handlebars

Photo 32 - Modified handlebars finished

11) Rear brake disk The rear brake disk was molded as a nondescript circular piece. Although it is not prominent on the finished bike because it is located between the chain sprocket and the wheel (it’s a one sided swing arm), I just could not leave it the way is was. After machining the faces to give it some wear marks, I mounted it in my dividing head. The 48 holes are located at 5 different diameters on the disk, spaced at specific locations. In order to make sure I didn’t screw up during the hole drilling, I stuck a 0.5 mm pencil lead in the drill chuck and then marked each hole on the disk. This made sure I had spaced the holes correctly and would serve as a final check just before each hole was drilled. The new #74 drill bit I used was not very sharp and kind of pushed the plastic out of the way. After removing from the machine, another new drill bit from the same package was used, with similar results. I ended up using some other drills to finish the holes.

Photo 33 - Rear brake disk marked for holes

Photo 34 - Rear brake disk finished

12) Engine rear cylinders Since the holes under the seat have been opened up, the space needs to show the rear tilted cylinder heads. These were cast from a mold I made when I did the original bike. The parts are from the Tamiya Honda NR and are pretty close to the VFR800 cylinder heads. These will be mounted on 2 mm styrene blocks in the central ‘spine’ of the kit.

Photo 35 - Top of rear engine cylinders

13) Foot controls The brake pedal was not supplied in the kit and the gear shift lever was molded with the footpeg plate, when it needs to be separately mounted to the engine. Both were heavily modified to be more accurate. Both were cleaned up after these photos were taken.

Photo 36 - Brake Pedal before and after

Photo 37 - Gear Shifter before and after 14) Muffler The muffler was replaced with a machined aluminum cylinder and the pipe is large diameter wire. A bracket will be added later on.

Photo 38 - Machined aluminum muffler

Photo 39 - Muffler and pipe

15) Front brakes Recently, I was working on another motorcycle model, the Honda CBR1100XX, from Tamiya. I realized that the brake pedal, hand controls, upper triple tree, front fork and front brake were all better replacement for the VFR800 parts. This makes sense as both motorcycles were produced around the same time (1999-2001). Since all the work on the pedals and hand controls were done, I decided that I would use the front forks and brakes only.

Photo 40 - CBR1100XX fork on left, kit fork on right

16) Rear fender The rear fender was shortened quite a lot.

Photo 41 - Rear fender shortened

17) Front Brakes and Suspension After looking more at the Honda CBR1100XX front forks, I decided to use these pieces for the VFR800. It was just a matter of cutting off the old forks, below the lower triple tree, and then making a pin to locate the pieces together. In the process, a piece of sheet styrene was used to fill in the back of the calipers.

Photo 42 - Lower front forks and brakes from CBR1100XX

18) Instrument panel The instrument panel was scratchbuilt from sheet styrene and shaped to look like the one on the one on the real bike. Photos of the tachometer and small screen from the internet were reduced to fit behind the panel. The speedometer from the CBR1100XX will be used. The fairing needed a sheet styrene piece to fill in the gap above the instrument panel.

Photo 43 - Instrument panel mock-up

Photo 44 - Fairing modifications 19) Oil filler The oil filler on the engine case was much too small and poorly molded. A new one was scratchbuilt and a new mount added to the engine case.

Photo 45 - Original oil filler

Photo 46 - New oil filler

20) Kickstand springs Kickstand springs were made with small diameter craft wire and attached to mounts on the center stand and side stand.

Photo 47 - Kickstand springs

21) Rear brake lines The bike has two rear brake lines, I believe that it has something to do with the traction control/anti-skid system on the bike. The lines run across the top of the chain guard. Two grooves were made in a piece of sheet styrene, and then glued to the chainguard.

Photo 48 - Brake line channels The lines then run down between the chainguard and the wheel, through a wire guide to the brake caliper,

Photo 49 - Brake lines

Photo 50 - Brake lines run through a wire guide

22) Final mock-up All the major pieces were assembled to check for clearances. In the process, I replaced the main exhaust pipe with a piece of 4 mm diameter aluminum wire used for bonsai trees. This wire comes in sizes of 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5 and 4 mm diameters. It bends quite easily and retains its shape much better than solder wire. I have the three largest sizes, but will be getting all the various diameters to be used in exhaust pipes, coolant lines, maybe suspension pieces and other applications.

Lots of double-sided tape at this point and there are a few pieces that were not fitted (collector exhaust pipes and hand controls). At this point, a few minor details remain and then it will be time to disassemble, clean the parts and start on the painting.

Photo 51 - Mock-up, right side

Photo 52 - Mock-up, left side

23) Final Assembly Body work was primed with Tamiya white primer directly from the can, absolutely essential under a colour like yellow. This was followed by: - automotive base coat yellow, airbrushed - Tamiya clear pearl, decanted and airbrushed (the wheels did not have pearl paint) - four coats of Tamiya clear, directly from the can After curing for four weeks, the bodywork was polished and then waxed, all with Tamiya products. The wheels were then masked and Tamiya acrylic Nato Black airbrushed for the tires. Final assembly was then done with the following additions: - Top Studio throttle cables and fittings - Top Studio rivets (type A, chamfered wit a hole) for body panel fasteners - scratchbuilt hold down pegs on rear bodywork - bare metal foil behind turn signals and brake light

Photo 53 - Bodywork drying

Photo 54 - Subassemblies and parts awaiting final assembly