Our own Peter Wisniewski had the honor to win the Tamiya Master Modeler Award in April 2005 for his stunning 1/8 scale motorcycle. Pete received an week's trip to Japan, all expenses paid by Tamiya. Here is a link to some of the pictures he took while at the Tamiya show and another link to the Tamiya website with some more pictures of Pete's awesome bike.
Tamiya show
Tamiya article
Tamiya show
Tamiya article
Last updated 2009/12/14
Here are some photos of Pete's 1914 Knox Chemical fire engine built from the Micron Art kit. The model is in 1/160 (N) scale.
Here are some details of how I built this kit:
Some of the kit's flat pieces were replaced with a 3-dimensional brass parts turned on a lathe.
I turned the bell, horn and siren from a 1/16" brass rod. I also turned a water nozzle from that same brass rod. Nozzle was attached to the right running board.
Fire extinguishers were turned from from 0.060" styrene rod. I used a 0.010" brass wire (painted black, with a brass tip) for the extinguisher hoses.
Headlights were turned from a styrene rod. Then I glued a tiny slice of rectangular styrene on top of the headlights to simulate vents. Headlights were attached to the brass brackets using 0.006" brass wire. Lenses and reflectors are modified MV lenses. I ground and polished them to have flat faces.
I also drilled through the front side lanterns and then filled the hole with a dab of clear red paint to simulate red lenses.
Running board toolboxes are made from couple of pieces of a 0.060" square styrene stock painted black.
I also replaced the photo etched folded hose with a piece of 0.010" X 0.030" flat brass wire which I folded to make it look like a hose. I also made hose connectors from small slices of thin-wall brass tubing turned using a Dremel tool and a file.
I drilled out the steering wheel hole in the floor to accept a piece of brass tube. That tube provided a solid attachment point for the steering wheel shaft.
I also drilled out three additional holes in the floor for pedals made from flattened 0.008" stainless steel wire.
Kit was assembled by soldering some of the major components and using 5-minute epoxy for the remaining assemblies.
Brass tire halves were soldered together and the inside and outside edges were filed round to look more like real tires. Also the wheels would not properly seat in the tires so I ended up enlarging the tire's inside diameter using a rattail file. They were painted Floquil Antique White as most tires from that period were natural rubber.
Majority of painting was done using Tamiya clear metal primer and Scalecoat II AT&SF red paint. I also used Scalecoat II loco black. Headlights were painted using Alclad II Pale Gold. Extinguishers and chemical tank were painted with Alclad II Chrome over gloss black. Fire hose, benches and ladders were painted with various Floquil and Testors paints.
The pin striping was done using custom waterslide decals. I designed and printed them on an Alps printer which is capable of printing gold. Decals were applied to the subassemblies and clear coated.
This is a very well designed kit which was a pleasure to build. It was built over a period of about 6 months but it was one of several projects I was working on, so it didn't actually take 6 months to build.
Some of the kit's flat pieces were replaced with a 3-dimensional brass parts turned on a lathe.
I turned the bell, horn and siren from a 1/16" brass rod. I also turned a water nozzle from that same brass rod. Nozzle was attached to the right running board.
Fire extinguishers were turned from from 0.060" styrene rod. I used a 0.010" brass wire (painted black, with a brass tip) for the extinguisher hoses.
Headlights were turned from a styrene rod. Then I glued a tiny slice of rectangular styrene on top of the headlights to simulate vents. Headlights were attached to the brass brackets using 0.006" brass wire. Lenses and reflectors are modified MV lenses. I ground and polished them to have flat faces.
I also drilled through the front side lanterns and then filled the hole with a dab of clear red paint to simulate red lenses.
Running board toolboxes are made from couple of pieces of a 0.060" square styrene stock painted black.
I also replaced the photo etched folded hose with a piece of 0.010" X 0.030" flat brass wire which I folded to make it look like a hose. I also made hose connectors from small slices of thin-wall brass tubing turned using a Dremel tool and a file.
I drilled out the steering wheel hole in the floor to accept a piece of brass tube. That tube provided a solid attachment point for the steering wheel shaft.
I also drilled out three additional holes in the floor for pedals made from flattened 0.008" stainless steel wire.
Kit was assembled by soldering some of the major components and using 5-minute epoxy for the remaining assemblies.
Brass tire halves were soldered together and the inside and outside edges were filed round to look more like real tires. Also the wheels would not properly seat in the tires so I ended up enlarging the tire's inside diameter using a rattail file. They were painted Floquil Antique White as most tires from that period were natural rubber.
Majority of painting was done using Tamiya clear metal primer and Scalecoat II AT&SF red paint. I also used Scalecoat II loco black. Headlights were painted using Alclad II Pale Gold. Extinguishers and chemical tank were painted with Alclad II Chrome over gloss black. Fire hose, benches and ladders were painted with various Floquil and Testors paints.
The pin striping was done using custom waterslide decals. I designed and printed them on an Alps printer which is capable of printing gold. Decals were applied to the subassemblies and clear coated.
This is a very well designed kit which was a pleasure to build. It was built over a period of about 6 months but it was one of several projects I was working on, so it didn't actually take 6 months to build.