Testors

1/6 Harley Davidson FLHRCI Road King Classic

Kit Number: 7222

Reviewed by  Chris Mobley, IPMS# 42891

MSRP: $89.99 Even before opening the box for this hog you can all ready tell it is going to be a hefty build. Not only does the box have size, but weight as well. It is fitting that Testors calls this series "The Big Kits". The kit contains over 150 multi media parts including styrene, die cast, vinyl, leather and rubber. The packaging is well done in two layers with the chrome and black styrene sprues on top mostly with each sprue being in its own bag, which is nice with as much chrome there is in this kit that could get damaged. The lower layer contains the various metal parts including the fuel tank, frame sections and other parts as well as the bag of hardware such as screws and springs.

One of the first tips I can offer is be careful when picking up the bag full of tiny screws. I don't know if it just so happened to be the particular bag in the box I received, but the top had an opening that caused half the bag to dump out, luckily in the box and not on the floor. As much as you will be going into the bag it is easier to transfer all the parts into a larger zip lock bag anyway. The instruction book shows the steps in 42 steps illustrated with photographs of the model in the various stages of construction as well as nine pages of photographs of the parts with corresponding numbers which comes in handy locating a particular part in the big box. One problem with the instructions is some part placements are not real clear on exactly where and how they go because the pictures are dark and the model in each stage has the previous stages painted black which causes it all to blend together. There are a couple of corrections for them as well. Step 10 : Part # 35 needs to be reversed. Step 16 : Part # 37L needs to be attached at this point before mounting the left side of the frame. The part just appears all ready mounted in the step 18 photo. Step 16: The tab that part # 35 attaches to on the right side of the frame in the photo is not on the frame, it is on the other half of the frame. Even though the instructions show the parts different, they will still work after reversing part #35 in step 10. The build itself is pretty straightforward, with little clean up on the parts needed as the sprue attachment points are mostly in places that are not seen on the finished model. The biggest problem I had was with the parts that are to be screwed together. More times than not the screw would not go all the way in so I would have to further drill the holes out a tad bit more. On the front forks I had to just toss the 8mm screws out in step # 27. They are not long enough to properly lock the forks in, so when ever you pick the model up the front wheel assembly comes off. I fixed the problem by cutting off a toothpick in place of the screws which fit snug and holds in the suspension nicely. The frame gave some trouble going together and after a good deal of forcing and extra super glue, finally got it to sit how it was supposed to. Everything else with the build went rather nicely. The prepainted metal parts are nicely done with metallic silver. It should not be too hard to customize with the color of your choosing all though you will lose the Road King lettering on the front fender. The engine comes with a wash already applied as well that looks great once assembled. One thing that really stands out as a plus is that the clear parts are designed in a manner in which they need no glue to attach them to the model. This is great because you don't have to worry about fogging them up or getting glue on them. That plus the fact that the red and amber ones are all ready colored as well. Overall, this is a great kit to build. I originally thought that since a lot of it is die cast and prepainted that it would be a great project to do with my 8 year old son. The kit though proved to be challenging enough though to be a bit over his head with a few exceptions. I built this one out of the box without using paint as the box suggests and still spent about 10 hours to complete it. If you are a Harley fan, this is a great model to have sitting on the shelf. And at over 15 inches long and in excess of 6 pounds in weight, it draws plenty of attention to itself. Not to mention it's a model that will give you a work out just moving it around as you build it! Thanks to Testors for providing the review sample.

About the Reviewer: Chris Mobley is VP of IPMS/ Georgia Mountain Modelers and runs the IPMS SIG The Scale Firehouse (www.scalefirehouse.com) .

Information, images, and all other items placed electronically on this site are the intellectual property of IPMS/USA ®.