Team Honda Pons has been a successful team on the WGP Moto GP scene for a number of years.  Tamiya has chosen to produce this model of the 2003 season bike that Max Biaggi rode to a third place points finish.  Also included are markings for team rider Tohru Ukawa, which is identically painted.  Sporting a V-5 four-stroke engine, the bikes were fit to the individual rider, sort of like a suit of clothes!! I checked out the team web site and found some valuable information regarding the bike, with pictures and complete specs. 

The model is molded in four colors of plastic that include gray, black, white and plated aluminum.  There is also one clear part for the windscreen, totaling 143 parts.  The lay out of parts on their respective sprue is roughly keyed to the final color they will be painted.  The molding of the parts is what we all expect from Tamiya.  Nice and crisp, with very little flash.  Any injector pin marks were small, and nearly flat.  All major subassemblies are held together with screws, making for a very strong model when done.  Vinyl tires, black vinyl tubing for the wiring, and a small Phillips screwdriver round out the kit.  The instruction sheet consists if 19 steps laid out in a logical manner. 

As I built this kit for review, I altered my building techniques, and tried to follow the directions.  This proved to work well, until I got to the stages where the fairings and front fender are built up.  Upon reflection, I would have worked these assemblies up first and painted and decaled them earlier in the build.  They’re called out late in the process, and I would have saved some time waiting for things to dry by doing them sooner.  Other than that one thing, the sequence of assembly is well though out.  The sub assemblies fit together very well

Construction begins with the engine.  There about 32 pieces that make up the V-5.  It was during this point in construction that I noted that most of the parts that were called to be painted semi-gloss black were actually carbon fiber on the real bike.  I rooted around in my decal box and found a small sheet of carbon fiber decal and proceeded to apply it to the engine side covers, rear fender, front fairing wing, oil tank, chain and exhaust guards, and the exhaust bracket.  A quick flat coat after all the carbon fiber decals had been applied really enhanced the overall look of the completed model.  It would have been nice to have a sheet of carbon fiber decal included with the kit.  Precut pieces would have been even better!!

Wheels and tires, then the frame follows this.  The frame is plated aluminum and care must be taken to scrape the plating from the mating surfaces.  However with some care, touch up is reduced to a minimum.  I constructed the stand as soon as I mounted the rear swing arm.  This allowed me to stand the model up during construction so as to not damage any of the previous work.  It should be noted that the stand isn’t the most stable thing in the world.  It works fine for displaying the completed model, but care must be taken if used as a construction stand.  I wound up securing it to a scrap piece of wood for added stability with straps I made from brass strip and small screws. 

Step seven calls for assembly of the front forks.  I tried to hold off installing the front fender until I had all the rest of the fairings painted, but found the fender must be installed before the front tire.  I went ahead and mounted the tire to the forks and removed it later after I had the fairings and fender painted and decaled.  I also saved the front brake calipers for installation until after the tire was mounted to the forks.  I had a little trouble with the tire marking decals.  These are printed in reverse, and use a special rub-on technique for application.  Unfortunately, this was the first time I had used this type of decal and it took some finagling to get them right.  It would have been much easier if they had been supplied as regular water slide decals.

The exhaust system is comprised of 10 parts.  The complex shapes of the tubes are very well represented.  Installing the rear muffler to the pipes was challenging, as the picture is confusing until you figure it out.  The best part was how well they fit when installed on the frame.  I left the exhaust screws loose until everything was lined up correctly.  I had no problem getting the ends to fit the locating holes in the block after they were attached to the frame.  The rest of the assembly went forward with no problems encountered. 

When I went to work on the fairings, I assembled them all, cleaned up the seams by light sanding, and primed everything.  I color coated the fairings and front fender with Tamiya TS-16, which is a yellow in a spray can.  As this is the first model I’ve attempted to paint with a spray can in many years, I had to relearn all those techniques again.  I’ll go so far as to say, it’ll be the last time I mess with a spray can again for a long time!! I’ll be sticking to the airbrush for the foreseeable future!! After I had all the yellow parts yellow I applied the decals.  There are quite a few and with the overlays I completed this phase in three sittings.  The blue on the fairing sides takes four decals to complete the field, and fit very well.  I waited until the adjoining decal was dry before butting anything up to it.  After the decals were completely dry, I over coated everything with Tamiya Clear Gloss.  I applied it in two coats with the second sprayed on till it flowed out.  This minimized final sanding and polishing. 

When painting was complete, I final assembled everything.  Attaching the fairings is all based on the nose fairing being square.  To achieve the proper geometry of the fairing to the frame I put the nose fairing on dry.  I then attached the side fairings with their screws in the proper locations on the frame and the front fairing.  This brought the front fairing into perfect alignment.  I used a bit of Tenax on a brush passed through the handlebars right where the front fairing and frame join.  When this dried completely I attached the lower fairing and the front fairing braces.  This completed the project. 

Overall, I really enjoyed building this kit.  It’s a striking subject when complete, and looks fast just sitting there.  My research shows the Tamiya yellow to be too pale to reproduce the actual yellow on the real bikes.  As this team is sponsored by “tobacco money” there are inconsistencies with the markings supplied with this kit as well.  This may be due to current regulations regarding tobacco advertising around the world.  Construction was straight forward, and posed no great difficulties during any phase of the build.  The completed model is cool to look at, and scales out pretty well when compared to the information on the team web site.  I understand there are after market decals available if one wants to do a similar bike from another team.  Hmm….  maybe another future project!!

My thanks to Tamiya America, the Reviewers Corps, and 1st Vice President John Noack for supplying this sample for review.