Editor's Note: This article is intended to be a chronicle
of the build of a specific model. While the article will should be of help to anybody building the Italeri (or ESCI)
1/9 scale Harley-Davidson WLA45, its primary purpose is to document the highs and lows that so many of us go through when
we build something.
December 30, 2002
Today I am going to embark on a new challenge, writing an
"as I build it" review of this kit. I will literally let you know day by day
what I am doing, my successes and pitfalls and how the kit stands up.
I received this kit for Christmas, and today, December 30,
I am cracking open the box. I was happy to receive this kit since I had already
built the 1/9 scale Zundapp KS750 motorcycle (albeit without figure, to date) and won several awards with it. You can see photos of my completed Zundapp here, as well as reference photos for the Zundapp at Vimy House.
WWII Harleys caught my attention this summer when we visited
the Ferret Club in Oshawa (AKA the Oshawa Military Museum) for their annual swap meet and vehicle drive-in. I saw two wonderfully
restored Harleys and thought that it would be fun to build one some time (fortunately, I did take some reference photos at
the show). Then, lo and behold, the model arrived under the Christmas tree.
This was my first Italeri model (having so far only built
Tamiya and Esci/DML models). Upon looking at the instructions, I noticed the
colour system listed was Modelmaster instead of Tamiya (my preferred brand). I
also quickly realized, upon looking at the sprues, that the parts were not numbered on the sprues themselves, but were only
numbered on the instruction diagrams of the sprues.
Opening the packages, I noticed that Sprue B is modeled in
a brittle grey plastic. This sprue contains the pieces for the engine. Other than the seat, straps and chain (sprue E, molded in a black vinyl), the rest of the model (sprues
A, C and D) is molded in a khaki green plastic.
Like my last motorcycle, I decided to start with step 3 and
put together the engine. What a rough and disappointing start. As I put the first two pieces together I was already having fit issues.
Each piece had flared edges that were awkward and difficult to sand. The
third piece wasn't much better than the other two. So far, I am not impressed,
having been spoiled with Tamiya plastic. This feels like working in the dark
ages. And so I end my modelling for today.
January 5, 2003
Today I decided to dig in and go back to the engine block. I completed the cylinder heads, which went together relatively well, and were able
to put them on. Having completed all of step 3 without major incident, I went on to step 4.
Once again I run into the road block of sink holes. There are major sink
holes which I have filled with Crazy Glue on pieces 38, 20 and 51, which make up the gear cover assembly. There were also punch marks on the edges of pieces 28 and 32 which made for a bad fit. I am working
on filling this too once it has finished drying. Piece 51 is the piece de resistance,
though, having both sink holes and raised punch marks on the same surface! Aargh. It does feel good to
get some pieces together, but it also feels like a long battle ahead.
