Everybody's got something to hide, except for me and my teeny tiny little Monkey!

[GooneyBird 959]

*sound of John Lennon rolling in his grave.

A while back I told you guys I was looking for something else, a new challenge. And with this whole corona-thing I couldn't really go to any track anyway (something about being labeled a Essential Worker in healthcare, even though all I do is make computers go beep-boop) I decided to do something I hadn't done in years, while still staying true to Tamiya. 

I bought a plastic model kit!

Yes, the venerable Honda Monkey! I've ridden one in real-life, and fell in love with it. They're a bit expensive still, being quite new, but once they drop in value a bit on the second-hand market I'd love to get one as a town runabout. Mount a giant basket to the rear and go grocery shopping with it. It'd probably fit down the aisles!

Anyway, I haven't taken many pictures during the build, as I was doing things out of order to make painting a little easier, but here's a couple.

That moment when your model is in that post-modern art phase. 

And after about a month of building a couple of hours on the evenings...

... we have a Banana Yellow Honda Monkey!

It was nice building a plastic model kit again. The fumes, the teeny tiny parts, the perfect fit and finish Tamiya gives their kits. 

Tamiya has moved on to giving clear parts a clip-in construction. As you might know plastic model glue fogs clear plastic, and this way it's not needed for the head and taillight, making sure they're crystal clear. The turn indicators are still glued on, but glueing them with wood glue makes sure they stay clear.

The rear spring is an actual metal spring. I primed it using regular metal primer, and painted it yellow along with the rest of the frame and tank-parts. Regardless it's a slightly different hue from the rest. Ah well.. 

It was very nice of Tamiya to include rubber tubing (it looks like tiny shrink wrap?) to simulate brake hoses and throttle cables. As on the real bike it all sorta packs together under the tank. Getting the tank to sit straight was.... a challenge. I can imagine the real bike being a little easier in that regard. 

So how small is it? Well, this is Link, our 6 month-old kitten. He's not very large. (And rather fuzzy) My Monkey is considerably smaller than him. And no worries, 0 destruction happened after I took this picture. He's (mostly) a well-behaved cat. 

[Wetman 417]

A Monkey Bike. Had my first ever fall off one of those!! The model looks fantastic as well

[Aerobert 2326]

Nice build.👍Have though about this model as well, maybe I think about again.

[Frog Jumper 3844]

Is that a Tamiya model cat next to it???  Looks so realistic!!!

[Frog Jumper 3844]

Static models is how I found Tamiya and how I found RC...

[Juggular 5088]

Motorcycle isn't something I build, so I only built 2-3 of them.  But that monkey has been on my list since I heard about it last year. 

Thank you for the review. I'll have to get one myself one of these days. 

 

 

 

[78Triumph 2611]

That came out great!!  Love the Beatles lyric reference too!

[Fuijo 938]

You've made a lovely job of that. It looks fantastic.

I can't wait to see you on a real one. Your knees will be up around your ears. Heh heh!

[Re-Bugged 11582]

Great bike in a great colour choice, it really suits 👍🏻
 

Feel free to park a photo in the Static Kit Thread 😉

 

[GooneyBird 959]

On 10/5/2020 at 11:39 PM, Juggular said:

Motorcycle isn't something I build, so I only built 2-3 of them.  But that monkey has been on my list since I heard about it last year. 

Thank you for the review. I'll have to get one myself one of these days. 

 

 

 

Oh, it's great. It's my first motorcycle I've built, and the first model kit in at leat 5 years, so if I can build it to a reasonable standard so can you. 

On 10/6/2020 at 5:24 AM, Fuijo said:

You've made a lovely job of that. It looks fantastic.

I can't wait to see you on a real one. Your knees will be up around your ears. Heh heh!

The new 125cc Monkeys are surprisingly roomy! The seating position on them isn't that much different from, say, my wife's CBF. They're tiny bikes, but surprisingly roomy for what they are. 

[Fuijo 938]

You can't fool me with your 1/10th scale midgets.

 

[Busdriver 6432]

I love the big tamiya bikes. Years ago I did the Yamaha 1200 gold I think it was called.  Like everything scale tamiya it was a joy to build. Waiting for a really wet day, my Sheridan being my current wet day project, is this