Steampunk Harley - Tamiya 1/6 HD FLH Classic 'extreme' kit bash (Very Photo Heavy)

Kats....Simply amazing work....I am loving watching this develop into a real museum piece.

Really looking good. Standing on two wheels, it looks stunning.

Kats: I am so glad to see you carried this build over from the other website! Thanks for letting us follow this journey with you.

Amazing. So glad I got to watch it come to life. Can't wait to hear it run....

Great work Kats, enjoy the jigsaw.

"not have to think about whether or not it would actually work so long as it looks 'cool.' "
Imaginering, my friend ! The laws of physics go out the window in this realm !
Loving the build, as usual !!

Geezerman wrote:"not have to think about whether or not it would actually work so long as it looks 'cool.'  "
Imaginering, my friend ! The laws of physics go out the window in this realm !
Loving the build, as usual !!

I agree completely....if it looks cool its fine...besides your inventing it after all. Awesome work..!

Great work continuing. I'm awed beyond description. Keep it up.

I like the phrase "further detailing" Kats. Great work.

I'm quite pleased with the result. wrote:

I should think so too Kats.

Marvellous stuff.

Utterly, gloriously. fantastically, super COOL !!!!

Thank you for your very kind comments and encouragement, guys  

Bit of a longer gap between posts again but things have still been progressing, albeit slowly.  Here's further work on the boiler/burner starting with decorative 'dots' to fill some gaps - purpose unknown, lol.


More detail added to the top - I'm calling this the 'steam cap' and basing its existence on similar portions of locomotive boilers.


The steam engines that had 'superheating' systems ran their incoming water and the final steam outflow through the firebox/burner to add that extra oomph.  With that in mind I decided to add something that could look a bit like such a system partially exposed.




Working up panels for the upper portion.  I cut rings out of sheet styrene using a drafting compass, cut those rings in half and glued them to very thin sheet styrene cut to shape in advance.  Fill in with lengths of styrene and the blanks are ready for further detailing.


The 'rear' panel which will be mostly obscured so I'm not going too crazy on the added detail - some 1 mm half round gives it a nice look.


While pondering the front panel I was inspired to cut it in half and leave a gap for ... something.  To be determined, let's say.  At the bottom you can see where I added some more to the 'exposed plumbing' sides.


Ideas sometimes queue up in the wrong order, in this case the inspiration for inset bolts in the rear panel came a couple of steps too late but I figured out how to make it happen anyway, lol.


Not cleaned up but a good idea of what's going to happen.  The hex nuts are cut from 1mm rod and the screwdriver slot was cut in with a combo of X-Acto blade and Zona saw - tedious but worth it I hope.


The add on to the shifter mechanism for the tranny gets added onto - this part is going slow because I'm still trying to visualize a potential gear/lever shift mechanism and I don't want to commit to anything until I have that part sussed out a bit more.


And the steam return condenser, or at least half of it, starts to take rough form.  I'm approaching this part with the same aesthetic as the boiler - functionality takes a back seat to form.  Plus with all the upcoming plumbing I'm going to have to figure out I thought it would be good to make this part capable of handling lots of connections from all over ... just in case.


I wish I had more to show but a lot of my recent work has been cleaning up parts and adding nut/bolt details where I've been putting them off. There is a lot of fiddly work on the frame mods already in place and still a pile of little details waiting in line. And I'm still working on how to make stabilizer mounts for the cylinder ... egads ...

Just keep swimming ...

NICE Kats.....

Can't wait for this to come together. But I am going to miss all this great building and engineering.

Those slotted hex nuts are fantastic Kats, brilliant work as usual and very enjoyable.

As you know Kats, I ran out of superlative for this build ages ago, so I'm just going to say that I am officially dumbstruck now!!

Mega pleasant surprise this morning to find another progress update !!

It's taken me ages to read through this thread but I gotta say it's the best thing I've read all week.

Eye wateringly brilliant work, keep it up...

Thank you for the kind comments and encouragement, gents  

Trying my best to get back my previous weekly posting routine, we'll see how that goes, lol.

So ... while reviewing my previous update I noticed that a couple of the holes I drilled through the rear plate for the boiler top were 'off,' something that I missed in real life but the camera (and Photoshop cropping) brought it to my attention.  Time for some re-do's, starting with fill-in's of the misaligned holes.


And after the re-do with the plate and the nuts affixed to the boiler.


I've mentioned in previous posts that a lot of my time is taken up with detail and accessory work that doesn't necessarily merit photos being taken.  But this week I was whipping up enough of a batch that I felt it was worth documenting.  This is the result of a 'day' at the work bench in terms of production - also involved was drilling holes in the frame parts where required and stuff like cleaning up and sanding the little nuts, which is where a lot of time goes.


Follow up with where those little bits go - I forgot to take a photo of the other side but you get the idea.  Oh, and some of the details in this pic were already in place ... and there's probably still more to come, lol.


More hex nuts in place on the shifter part.  I'm still dithering with this piece in terms of advancing ... can't seem to nail down a clear idea of what's going to be involved but I'm thinking gears, linkages and posts at this time.


The last of the hex nuts wind up on the boiler.  Here I cut a couple of strips to act as a 'flange' instead of my original idea of in-setting the nuts within the steam cap plate.  


And so it goes.  I also started using Tamiya White Putty recently, not a conscious decision but rather one of availability at the LHS, and I have to say it is remarkable for fine detail work though I'd hate to have to use it in large amounts.  It comes in a tube like the regular grey putty but is more 'flowy' though not like other white putty's which are close to liquid.  Anyone looking for a really fine grained filler for small bits should check this stuff out ... but I repeat that this stuff would not suit if you needed to fill bigger gaps.

Just keep swimming ...

Thanks for the update Kats. We are all watching!

Thanks for the kind comments and encouragement, fellas  

It seems that I have one of those never ending, up and down cold/flu things and this past week has definitely been a down time.  But I did manage to get in a little bit of work in between blowing my nose, sneezing and all the other fun stuff.  

Working up the details on the boiler led me to think that I wanted to use the 'hole' though the body which I had covered with panels but only on the rear side so I cut away the panel as a start.


An example of re-use of cut offs and bits ... here I rummaged through the bits and pieces and found a bunch of stuff which would suit.  At this point I've added some half-circles to the bottom of the plate and am test fitting some rings and circles.


After the expected fiddly shaping and adjusting and stuff I wound up with these two parts.  The nuts were cut from 0.8 mm hex rod.


And the pieces in place.  


From here there will be some 'framing' and the addition of stuff like rivets and pressure reinforcing plates and stuff - all of which will help inform the further detailing of the front of the boiler which will be more visible.  And with any luck I will be able to get more done as the need to keep tissues to honker recedes ...

Just keep swimming ...

Sterling work Kats.