Honda RC166 by DocRob - Tamiya - 1/12 - multimedia

[DocRob]

Since a while, I desired to start the build of the famous Honda RC166 from Tamiya, driven by Mike Hailwood, who won the world championship in 1966 and 1967 with this bike. What a change after the big Cobra of the same scale, I finished recently. Instead of the big block, there is a tiny engine build in, but it´s very special. It has a displacement of only 250 ccm but has six cylinders, generating about 60 PS with a max of 18.000 revolutions. The max. speed was 245 km/h.

The Tamiya kit dates back to 2009 and I will add all the available extra sets from Tamiya, which I got for relatively small coin directly in Japan. There is a set of metal parts for the front fork, clutch and air intake funnels, another for the metal spoked wheels, one for the numerous metal rivets and one for building up a PE chain. The latter I won´t use, because I have a 3D printed chain set from Falcon.



Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I started with the engine and I have to say, this kit is absolutely fantastic, even by Tamiya´s standards. I built their big F4-U and the 1/48 P-38, which were excellent kits, but the Honda is even better. 
The engine is very complex, but so well engineered and the parts are fitting perfectly. The cooling ribs are a piece of art and are only possible to be casted in plastic, as there are several thin parts, which get stacked onto each other, genius.
I used Extreme Metal colors for the engine, matte aluminum for the block, titanium for the oil pan and other parts and a mix from titanium and copper for the carburetors. The air funnels are turned aluminum and the clutch consists from PE clutch discs and a pre fabricated metal cage.
I used a brown panel liner for accentuation and painted all the screwheads with silver.











Cheers Rob

 

[shipman]

Thanks for sharing your progress, building this impressive kit of a fabulous motorcycle.

 

I do wish Tamiya would introduce a kit of my favourite, the Phil Read MV Agusta 500-4 from the mid 70's.

In my opinion, that was the apex of the basically 'traditional' 4 stroke racing motorcycle.

[Canute]

Love your color selection. Looks like a working engine.

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, shipman said:

Thanks for sharing your progress, building this impressive kit of a fabulous motorcycle.

 

I do wish Tamiya would introduce a kit of my favourite, the Phil Read MV Agusta 500-4 from the mid 70's.

In my opinion, that was the apex of the basically 'traditional' 4 stroke racing motorcycle.

Thank you shipman, and yes your mentioned MV Agusta would be very welcome, even if I´m not very deeply interested in motorbikes. Fascinating subjects nonetheless. I wish, I could lay my hand on a MFH Ducati 750, as I like twins a lot.
Tamiya is still providing new motorcycle kits, so at least, there is hope, but I guess, the RC166 was somebodies pet project with Tamiya
 

Cheers Rob
 

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, Canute said:

Love your color selection. Looks like a working engine.

Thank you Ken, I tried to match the colors to the reference photos I have. I think, scale wise they look halfway correct.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

The engine got a bad hair day with the tubing. I used the supplied vinyl tube, albeit it may be a bit on the thick side, but I want a relatively quick build and not hassle with preparing all the connectors with tiny brass rods. Not much of it will be visible, anyway. The frame was sprayed with Tamiya LP gloss black, which again was perfect with it´s shiny finish. The light brown "things" might be capacitors, if I´m not wrong, which will be connected with the spark plug wires.
The footrests are made from turned aluminum and are supplied with the original kit, nice touch, Tamiya.


 

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

Following!

Great subject to model! 
I built one and will be entering mine in the IPMS event contest this month.

[CDW]

That Tamiya aftermarket chain was an e3xercise in frustration for me. I'm hoping you will find the key that unlocks the secret of building it.

I would get mine all built, then when I tried to build and connect the last links, it would begin to fall apart for me, most of the time various places all at once. 

I tried over and over again to no avail. In retrospect, I should have bought a Spot models chain set.

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, CDW said:

Following!

Great subject to model! 
I built one and will be entering mine in the IPMS event contest this month.

 

 

49 minutes ago, CDW said:

That Tamiya aftermarket chain was an e3xercise in frustration for me. I'm hoping you will find the key that unlocks the secret of building it.

I would get mine all built, then when I tried to build and connect the last links, it would begin to fall apart for me, most of the time various places all at once. 

I tried over and over again to no avail. In retrospect, I should have bought a Spot models chain set.

Good to have you on the backseat, Craig, but wait, its a one seater. Good that you also built one, you know, when questions arise... .
The Tamiya RC166 seems to be a very popular kit, I haven´t realized before, but there are a lot of builds around, but I really would like to see yours.
I already found the key for the chain set, I ignore it and use the Falcon Models, I bought a little later. Building up of the chain was also the most miserable part of the MFH Crocker build, so if there is a way around, I take it. Like your experience, the main problem was to close the chain. In case of the MFH chain there is a great risk to break the chain somewhere during closing and there is no easy way to repair it.

Cheers Rob

[CDW]

27 minutes ago, DocRob said:

The Tamiya RC166 seems to be a very popular kit, I haven´t realized before, but there are a lot of builds around, but I really would like to see yours.

Cheers Rob

Just in case, here is my thread on it:

 

[DocRob]

9 hours ago, CDW said:

Just in case, here is my thread on it:

I need a brain update, Craig, I didn´t remember your build, but had posted in it . I will re-read it, specially for the wheels, which are next on my schedule.

Cheers Rob