Heritage Softail Classic

1/6 Heritage Softail Classic


Modeling Descriptions and Photos

This is an interesting motor cycle kit. It is an old Revell SnapTite kit which builds into an enormous 1/6th scale Harley-Davidson Softail. I say it is an interesting kit because the 1/6th scale SnapTite (a.k.a. Snap-Logic, Snap-Tile, Snap-Lock) isn't something we find everyday. To be honest, I am not really big a fan of SnapTite kits because they often lack details I wanted to see in a given kit.

In theory, all the parts should snap together without a glue, making the assembly simple and painless. In reality, kit manufacturers must design the kits in a way that the parts fit together without applying a glue, the SanpTite kits tend to have simplified over-sized parts.


Matching the Color of Harley-Davidson

I am building this kit for a friend of mine who actually owns this bike. I plan to paint the bike exactly same as his bike. I think it will turn out to be a very cool model. The kit has about 70 parts in total molded in black, silver, and chrome. Since I am planning to paint the bike in two tones of light green (eh, I forgot the color name...) and cream white, I began the building process by matching the color.

My initial choice of paint was Tamiya's Coral Blue and it looked okay to apply as it is. Unfortunately, it had a wrong shade of blue, I ended up mixing my own paint to make the color of this bike. I came up with nine different colors and I think I have found a close match. I used green, white, and transparent blue in ratio of 4:3:3. I still think that I can mix colors to find a better match, but I decided not to spend too much time matching paints when the colors are actually good enough to start the model.



Building the chassis and wheels

Nothing special here. I sanded out the cages to remove plastic molding spills and built two wheels with an ease. The quality of the wheels aren't actually as bad as I thought. The wire spokes are quite thin and defined nicely. I have seen some of the older Revell kits have horrible wire wheels with molding spills connecting several wires.

I noticed that these tires are directional, I made sure that I inserted the wheels in the correct direction as well.



The Model Master's Metalizer - Aluminum

Whenever I needed a metal finish on parts, I use the Model Master's Metalizer. First I prime the parts and spray the metalizer in two coats. After 10 minutes or so, I would polish the surface with a cotton cloth. The more I rub, more the shine I get and that is how I control how much shine I want to have. The result is very satisfying to me.



Bringing Out the Metal Finish

The left-above photo shows an engine part coated with the metalizer and the above right photo shows the result after bit of polishing.



Preparing for a Wash

The polishing parts came out very nicely, but I felt that these parts are lacking panel details. I prepared my black wash by mixing an acrylic of semi-gloss black and a rubbing alcohol (you can use your normal Windex fluid as well) in ratio of 1:4.



Making dirty = good modeling?

Basically, I am making things dirty by giving a black wash. The above left photo shows the cylinder block treated with a wash. Before the wash dries, I would wipe off any excessive fluid to clean things up. The above right photo shows the comparison between the non-washed part and the washed cylinder block.



Taking Care of the Engine Assembly

The engine components are painted and then assembled into the bike chassis. The Chrome moldings look bit toy-ish because they are way too shiny. I also gave a black wash wherever I needed to bring out the panel detail. Even the kit is designed to be SnapTite, I ended up using CA glue to mount the engine block because it was kept falling off.



Disk Rotors Received Metal Coat as Well


I Can Almost See How the Bike Will Look!

I am half way there. The assembly is so far so good. I noticed that the foot rest has the chrome wrapped around the black. I will use Tamiya's Chrome Silver to paint these. Once I finish adding the exhaust pipes, I think the bike will start to look aggressive.



Adding the Spark Plugs



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