Here is my latest build, Tamiya 1/12 Yamaha XV1000.

The chrome stripped and rechromed with Alclad chrome. If some of you have never done this, or have not seen this done, I highly recommend it, as it gives a more realistic chrome finish. Its a little more work, with the stripping of the chrome, having to do a gloss black primer coat, and then painting on the chrome, but the end result is very much worth it.

Over all, a really nice kit, my first motorcycle kit (won't be my last though!!).

And is actually a late Xmas gift for one of my best friends.

Have a look at the pictures on my Fotki site...sorry but its only a free account and won't allow me to hotlink the pictures.

Enjoy!!!!!


Yamaha XV 1000

Very nice looking bike and the chrome does look very good. How do you strip the kit's chrome plating without hurting the plastic?

I have allways heard that you can do that with oven cleaner

My question is: how did you achieve the leather look on the saddle ?

It's a very droolable subject

Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated.

The easiest way I have found to take the kit chrome off, is to soak the parts in straight ammonia. Watch out though, as the stuff can be hard on the nose and lungs if breathed in.

I never really noticed a leather look on the saddle, if it looks that way, it is complelty by accident. All it is, is Humbrol Gloss Black, airbrushed on.

Again thanks for the comments.

Scott all I can say is 'dude that is one hell of a bike' Simply stunning, clean and super detailed right down to the burnt exhaust. I wish I was your best friend right now. What color of green did you use. This is my favorite photo, showing most of the detail.



I to like stripping the chrome of when I'm doing racecars. I like to use Simple Green or Castrol's Super Clean. It strips the chrome of in the matter of minutes and it works very well in stripping of all sorts of paints. Great job Scott, your buddy going to love it.

Hey there, and thanks for the kind comments Mother.

The green is MM British Green Metallic, actually picked it up as old stock about 3 years ago at a hobby shop that was going out of business, no idea how long it had been there, but got it for a buck...figured I would use it some day....the paint is still as good as new.

Acutally this is the first gloss paint I have sprayed on in about 5 years....as I have only built tanks and planes since....not much call for a gloss coat there...so I had no idea how it was going to come out.

Fortunatly, it came out pretty nice, really good shine on it. It probably could have used to be polished with the sanding blocks....but I didn't want to screw it up...so all it got was a coat of modelling wax to protect the paint.


If you are doing a gloss coat on something, the easiest way I have found to get good results is....the first couple of layers, even up to 4 layers, is at about 20lbs of pressure, and are basically just dust coats. These will dry relativly quickly in between coats...once you have your 4th dust coat on, the color is there, but its very dull, and will almost look like a flat coat. For your final gloss coat, you thin your paint just slightly more than normal, say maybe 5% more at most, turn your pressure down to below 10lbs, and in slow sweeping motions over the whole length of the subject you spray the paint on....not only can you see the paint go on really smoothly, but you will almost immediatly see the shine come out on the paint.

Once the final color coat is finished, leave to dry for at least 3 days for the paint to harden(if you are using enamels) and viola...nice paint job. From there you can use the automotive sanding pads which start at like 2000grit and go all the way up to 12000grit. But you have to be careful not to sand through the paint, otherwise you are back to square one.

This paint job was just on a small fuel tank, and a couple of side pieces...I have a '69 Mustang here awaiting a paint job, but as its a bigger surface....more to screw up on....lol...maybe I will go back to finishing a tank first before I tackle another gloss job!!!