"Big Tank" Crocker OHV motorcycle by DocRob - Model Factory Hiro - 1/9

[DocRob]

The Crocker starts to look like a bike now, with the rear fender attached. Primarily, I gave the fenders clear coat a polish with Tamiya´s polishing compounds. A bit of dust and fingerprints remain visible for the moment, as these are work in progress pics. To align all the struts, a positioning peg and a screw for mounting the rear fender was a bit fiddly, but in the end, it worked out. I added the rivets and taillight and started with the wheel hubs. Spoking is next . 





Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

On to the wheels, which proved easier to build than thought, luckily. It took two days to assemble them, but the second went together much faster, which keeps me hopeful for the five wire wheels of my recently purchased Ferrari kit.

Some words of advice, if you plan to build a MHF motorcycle:
- Check the rims and the building jig for perfect flatness. In my case, all were warped a bit, due to sanding and polishing the wheels.
- Drill the holes for the spokes angled, as shown in the manual and indicated through the cast or you will have difficulties to thread in the spoke nipples. 
- Don´t use your best nippers for the spokes. The material is VERY hard and left dents even in my hardened tools.

First spokes, aligned to the vent hole, one from under and one from above. All spokes need to be bent further and cut short on the bent side.





First quarter of spokes is mounted per manual, then the spoke nipples were added from the outside and secured with CA



One side finished, I then cut the protruding spoke ends, flipped the part in the jig and on with the second half. MFH chose to print their manual slightly larger than the real thing, unfortunately.



One wheel ready, except for shortening the protruding ends. You can see, how the nipples fit into the rim´s holes.



The front wheel is done:



And the rear wheel followed "short" after , really not too hard to do, but you should work with concentration to prevent from mistakes:



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today, I assembled more than half of the chain. Again the design by MFH helps a lot, but the work is eye straining and tedious. The last links felt more difficult, a clear sign of fatigue.

Thirty chain white metal chain axles, connected by a cast sprue will be set into a pre drilled jig. Then you add the intersecting PE links, which are luckily only adhesive fixed to the foil and dosen´t need to be cut from the PE fret. When one side is finished, the heads of the bolts are pressed flat with a pair of pliers.



One side done:



The chain will be flipped over in the jig and the second side gets mounted like the first. Here are both sides done.



Then you cut the white metal sprue away with a sharp nipper and you have 30links made. The last pic shows two sets of 30 joined together in the jig.



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I finished the chain, which almost finished me beforehand . It was a challenge and test of patience and I would wish a resin chain for future MFH bike kits.
Building the four strings of chain into the jig proved to be not a big problem, but connecting these strings proved very difficult. In the process of trying, I broke the chain on another place, true nightmare, because it was already flat bolted by that time. After a lot of trying and careful sanding, I glued the link together with CA. After that, I somehow assembled the full length of the chain miraculously, I didn´t had it in me to join the chain without a jig and glued it to the sprocket, as it´s not supposed to turn in any case. The good news, the chain link count in the manual is exactly correct, a thing rarely seen with tank tracks in kits.
The side of the fenders look terribly on the pics, but that must be the lighting.





Cheers Rob

[CDW]

Your patience paid off! Looks great, Rob.

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, CDW said:

Your patience paid off! Looks great, Rob.

Thank you Craig, but this phase of the build was really nerve wrecking. When the chain breaks somewhere, there is no easy fix to that, as it´s already bolted. The chain itself is relatively fragile and I was overly lucky, when I had it mounted without further breakage.

Cheers Rob

Edited June 22 by DocRob

[CDW]

3 hours ago, DocRob said:

Thank you Craig, but this phase of the build was really nerve wrecking. When the chain breaks somewhere, there is no easy fix to that, as it´s already bolted. The chain itself is relatively fragile and I was overly lucky, when I had it mounted without further breakage.

Cheers Rob

I had a very similar experience with the chain for my 1:12 Honda RC166. In the end, I gave up on it. I would get almost finished, then a link or two or three would come loose, then it would go downhill from there. After several episodes like that, I chose not to die on that hill.

[DocRob]

40 minutes ago, CDW said:

I had a very similar experience with the chain for my 1:12 Honda RC166. In the end, I gave up on it. I would get almost finished, then a link or two or three would come loose, then it would go downhill from there. After several episodes like that, I chose not to die on that hill.

That´s why I added the Falcon resin chain set to my RC166 kit, Craig. If I can avoid single link bike chains, I will do so.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The chain haunted me again, when I fitted the polished sprocket housing. This part connects three principal areas of the bike and only the slightest bending  or misalignment leads to not fitting exactly, where it belongs. To correct this, I pried the chain loose from the sprocket and cut away some more links to enhance the wiggle room for the cover and glued it in place finally, hiding the missing chain links.

Next were the exhausts parts, which were also polished before. For this, I used the green side of a sponge first, followed by very fine steel wool and finally a cotton rotating tool on my Proxxon with Autosol polishing paste. The fitting was very good and a relief after the chain.

Finally, I added some more wires leading from the chain guard to the fuel tank, the braking wire with it´s delicate to install return spring and last, the starter with it´s real rubber pads.



Here is another shot, with the fuel tank loosely added:

 

Cheers Rob

[Canute]

Looks great, Rob. The tank and exhaust polished up beautifully. Sorry about the chain issue; white metal just doesn't seem to be the best choice. The stuff is notoriously brittle. Glad you've overcome that issue.

[DocRob]

6 hours ago, Canute said:

Looks great, Rob. The tank and exhaust polished up beautifully. Sorry about the chain issue; white metal just doesn't seem to be the best choice. The stuff is notoriously brittle. Glad you've overcome that issue

Thank you Ken, the white metal is absolutely not brittle. It´s soft and good to work with. The chain is a combination of white metal rods and PE chain links, which are "bolted" in a jig. The nature of the miniature size of the involved parts make it so fragile and you can only hope that nothing breaks after assembling. Luckily, there is a lug casted onto the rear wheel hub, hindering the wheel to spin. That could easily destroy the chain during handling.
I´m happy now this is behind me and the build continues to be what it should a fun experience.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I added more of the crockeristics, beginning with the stands. There is one for the rear end and a side stand, which are both movable. I will see, If the side stand will hold the bike, when ready, as it feels pretty heavy now. It is also becoming difficult to handle, with all those parts added.
For the stands, 1,4 diameter mm screws were used. I drilled 1,2 mm holes into the white metal and used a 1,5 mm drill bit to drill a cone into the opening. With a good fitting screw driver, it´s now possible to screw direct into the relatively soft metal.

The tank, with it´s various fittings was added. The fuel tank caps were made from chrome plated white metal, which didn´t look too good, having marks in the surface, so I polished them. The shifting lever got it´s counterpart below the tank connected with a shifting rod. The mid section with the instruments is only added loosely as a guide for now. Next is some plumbing, connecting all the fuel lines and other wiring, before I will turn to the front fork.







Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Some major steps got done, as I married the ready assembled fork with the rest of the bike. Alignment of the various parts connecting the fork struts was a bit fiddly, as you had to join a dozen tiny pegs into their holes, while adding CA glue all at the same time.
The electric wires for the horn and headlight should be wrapped around tiny bolts, which I couldn´t do. I drilled three millimeter holes into said bolts and glued the wires in, after threading them through. 
The headlight got polished, as is the reflector for a nice and bright appearance. 









Cheers Rob

[CDW]

A stunning bike

[Egilman]

VERY stunning... , could you do a few shots against a bit lighter background so she stands out a bit more?

[DocRob]

18 hours ago, CDW said:

A stunning bike

 

13 hours ago, Egilman said:

VERY stunning... , could you do a few shots against a bit lighter background so she stands out a bit more?

Thank you both, it is indeed a stunning bike. Me not being a great admirer of American two wheeled heavy metal, have to say, the Crocker is a pure beauty, something like the essence of American bike design of it´s time.

@Egilman, I will try to find my white background later or do some outdoor pics in later stages of the build. 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Despite some progress, today was kickback time. In the morning it dawned to me, that I haven´t seen the round clear acetate instrument glazings for a while and after a very long search it was confirmed, they were gone .
After that, I installed various bits and pieces around the handlebar. Among them the very prominent finely engraved and polished large head nut, which seems to pre-tension the fork suspension. When I wanted to glue it in place, I saw a tiny dot of CA, which was left by my fingerprint. Back to polishing, but guess what, the part flew away, never to be seen again . I heard it hit somewhere in my shelf and searched for more than two hours without finding it, browsing through all the tools and boxes there. I´m pretty frustrated now and will reach out to MFH, to ask for spares to purchase and drown my bad mood with some Manhattan´s 

Anyhow, that´s how the Crocker looks now.









Cheers Rob

[king derelict]

you do such beautiful work and describe it so well

Alan

[DocRob]

18 hours ago, king derelict said:

you do such beautiful work and describe it so well

Thank you Alan, I like to follow good build logs a lot, as they helped me multiple times with my own builds. I always try to remember, what would have been my questions or points of interest, when I write down my progress and let some emotions flow in, as it´s a hobby and meant to be fun, which is not always the case unlikely. None the least, I write logs for myself as well, as I have very diverted interests in modeling and try a lot of different techniques through my builds. When I try to replicate a technique earlier used, I have the older logs and gather information and can even improve those techniques.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today, I attached the foot rest, and finished the instrument panel, which is a little kit in itself. The main instrument consist from different PE layers, which receive decals then, to add some depth to it, nice touch, MFH. As the fuel tank is polished, I decided to only brush finish the IP for a bit of contrast. There are also tiny PE hands for the main instrument, but I´m not sure, if I use them.

 

Then, I airbrushed the saddle with semi matte black, after some relatively less thinned black Mr. Surfacer 1000, to achieve a tiny bit of grainy finish to simulate the leather. Afterwards, I inserted tiny rivets around the saddle, which was extremely tedious. With the last rivet, I smeared a tiny dot of CA glue onto the saddle and will have to finish it again. Maybe, I will use the hairspray method for this, airbrushing flat black on top and then rub partly away, for a slight worn finish. The seat is not finally attached in the pics.









I hope, MFH reacts soon and I can purchase the missing parts. Other than that, the Crocker is near ready, but I hope the bad mojo of the last days doesn´t carry over to the next built, as it already spoilt this builds end.

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

Love it. Those gauges look like the real thing, 3 dimensional. Looks like the odometer could roll over at any time to show an additional mile. 

The MFH kits are pricey but not much else can match their good looks when finished by a great modeler like yourself. Their kits sell out quickly despite their high price. I have a local seller who stocks them but not in large quantities. If one sees something they want, have to pounce on it or else it will be gone.

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, CDW said:

Love it. Those gauges look like the real thing, 3 dimensional. Looks like the odometer could roll over at any time to show an additional mile. 

The MFH kits are pricey but not much else can match their good looks when finished by a great modeler like yourself. Their kits sell out quickly despite their high price. I have a local seller who stocks them but not in large quantities. If one sees something they want, have to pounce on it or else it will be gone.

Yup, Craig these gauges are made up beautifully. You can choose between two decals with different mileage, who wood have thought . Placement of the layers is a bit delicate though, as the PE and decals have to match perfectly, not so easy, when using CA. Next time I may use thinned white glue for this task. Today, I paid my replacement parts, so in a week, I may have them. until then, I have to decide, If I install the PE hands, before adding the acetate glazing.
The price of MFH kits is shocking at first sight, but if you want to build a similar detailed 1/12 F1 kit basing on a Tamiya kit with all the Studio 27 galore, the difference is not that big anymore. The only aftermarket item, I used was a bit of tin foil from a wine cap.
You are right about the availability of the kits. I scan their web site frequently and that´s how I found that the Ferrari 512 TRI was re-released and bought it. I guess, the total numbers of production aren´t that high, the way the kits are produced.
A while ago, I found two videos about how they produce their kits and found them very interesting. Here is a link to part one:
 

The price, well, you pay a lot for something really special and you have to decide if it´s worth it. To me, buying directly from MFH proved to be the best and cheapest way, in the end 20% to 30% less than from other online shops.

Cheers Rob

 

[Canute]

You continue to produce outstanding builds, Rob. This one looks like it's factory fresh. Yes, sometimes you have to pay the price for the better looking models. In the hands of a master, it's well worth it for the eye-candy you produce. Thanks for sharing your work.

[yvesvidal]

Very interesting videos. These Japanese manufacturers are perfectionists.

 

YVes

[DocRob]

20 hours ago, Canute said:

You continue to produce outstanding builds, Rob. This one looks like it's factory fresh. Yes, sometimes you have to pay the price for the better looking models. In the hands of a master, it's well worth it for the eye-candy you produce. Thanks for sharing your work.

Thank you Ken, I´m blushing, but lots of your praise should be directed to MFH for engineering this fantastic kit. If you have the basic skillset and patience, everybody can produce a very beautiful result from that base. 
The kit was expensive, but I had two months of pure fun and now I know, I can handle MFH kits, something I was unsure before I began.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Due to my own fault, I lost some parts, like the bezel glasses and the very prominent spring fork adjuster, which flew away during polishing and was never seen again. I emailed MFH and a bit more than a week later, I had spare parts along a hand written note, encouraging me to finish the Crocker, nice touch.

Today, I added the saddle and the cockpit, after polishing said adjuster and can call my first MFH build finished. It was a pure pleasure build of a well constructed kit, with the chain, being the only troublesome area. It was a fantastic variety to work mainly in metal and be able to not paint everything, instead sand and polish or leave a natural metal finish.





















Cheers Rob

[yvesvidal]

Fantastic results. Yes, it is nice to have kits without paints....just the polishing of metals.

Your pictures are incredible and if I did not know better, I would say that this is a real motorcycle.

 

Yves

[Egilman]

Definitely a stunning build well done...

 

Beautiful work....

Edited July 9 by Egilman

[king derelict]

Absolutely spectacular result. The model is beautiful. As always the log is an absorbing read and the photographs are a treat to see

alan

[DocRob]

18 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Fantastic results. Yes, it is nice to have kits without paints....just the polishing of metals.

Your pictures are incredible and if I did not know better, I would say that this is a real motorcycle.

Thank you Yves, it would be great, if the Crocker would be real, as it is the most expensive motorcycle in the world. I really enjoyed working with metal for a change. The kit´s white metal is very pleasant to work with, easy to manipulate, but strong enough. You can alter the surfaces appearances very easily from semi matte finish, which looks like aluminum, to brush or polished finish. The astonishingly high weight of the kit is also a nice break from light plastic kits.
 

Cheers Rob