Bits and pieces

[alang]

Fool is a word that could never be used in the same sentence with you. I am happy you look in now and then Alan. Been working on anything?

(in another thread)

A few odds and ends with which I have been keeping myself occupied over the last few months...



Lednice Minaret (Betexa), Maria Laach (Schreiber) and St.Mary's, Warwick (Rupert Chicken).



Kingfisher, Firecrest and Wren (Johan Scherft).



Simson SR50, Jawa Dandy 50 and Cechie-Böhmerland (ABC Magazine).



Gasgas (Toni Mauricio), Harley-Davidson Model 6 (own design, minor modification of Model 7A), BMW R16 (Schreiber) and in-progress Kawasaki 750-RS (Kozin).

If anything is of interest, let me know, and I'll be happy to explain more fully and post more photographs.

Alan

 

[Andy Nase]

Hello Alan,

I am interested in this red yellow bike. Where do you get it? I have never seen it before. And I like to see and read more about it.

Thank you

Regards Andy

 

[zathros]

Just these three, the Simson SR50, Jawa Dandy 50 and Cechie-Böhmerland (ABC Magazine), and also the BMW R16 (Schreiber) and in-progress Kawasaki 750-RS. We covered your beautiful Harley Davidson, but more pictures of it won't hurt anything.

 

[alang]

I am interested in this red yellow bike. Where do you get it?

Hi Andy

Thank you for your interest.

The Cechie-Böhmerland Touren was an extraordinary machine made in the 1920s and 30s in Krásná Lípa in Bohemia. (Incidentally, the "C" should have a caron accent, but I haven't fathomed out how to get that into Zealot.) Its main claim to fame was its enormous size - well over 3 metres long. Intended for family touring, it could seat three people on the main bike, and two more in an optional sidecar. There was an even longer "Langtouren" model seating four and intended for military use, but that doesn't seem to have been very successful(!)

The model was designed by Milan Novobilský for ABC magazine in the Czech Republic, and published by them in 2005. I was lucky to be able to obtain a copy of that issue, along with several other models extracted from other numbers from between 2000 and 2007. Construction was quite a challenge, not least because no parts were provided for the tubular parts of the frame, exhaust, handlebars and front suspension assembly. The constructor was expected to fabricate these from wooden skewers, plastic rod, wire, or paper rolls, using full-size diagrams (which turned out to be not entirely accurate or consistent).



A comparison with the Yamaha VMAX built to (nominally) the same scale - this machine is huge.



If you would like more gory details, I described the construction on papermodels.com. (I believe that this forum is relaxed about links to others, but if I have contravened current policy, please remove the link and accept my apologies.)

Best wishes,
Alan

 

[alang]

Just these three, the Simson SR50, Jawa Dandy 50 and Cechie-Böhmerland (ABC Magazine), and also the BMW R16 (Schreiber) and in-progress Kawasaki 750-RS. We covered your beautiful Harley Davidson, but more pictures of it won't hurt anything.

So you didn't like the Gasgas, then...? :grin:

Firstly the other two ABC models, which I bought at the same time as the Cechie. They both represent 50cc mopeds, one from (East) Germany and one from Czechoslovakia, as it then was. As with a lot of ABC models, these are somewhat cartoonish in style, with bold printing and rather thick cut and fold lines. The draughting is also a tad approximate in places, so I had to redraw several parts of each to achieve acceptable fit and symmetry. Still, the results are quite jolly, and make a nice change from all those 750 (and larger) superbikes.

Simson:



Jawa:



More anon.

Alan

 

[zathros]

If you would like more gory details, I described the construction on papermodels.com. (I believe that this forum is relaxed about links to others, but if I have contravened current policy, please remove the link and accept my apologies.)

No, you haven't contravened anything. Many members here are members there. There is a small group over there that seem to revel in any perceived problem we have there, but the vast majority of people there are really decent, prolific modelers, who are interested in the hobby. Depending on how the pictures are uploaded, you may have to join to see them.

I too am interested in the Čechie Böhmerland Touren, I find it fascinating. It is all over the internet in scanned form. I have mixed feelings about models like this that were never available in the U.S. and no longer are available anywhere. IMHO grabbing a scan of that bike and building it would not be piracy because it is no longer available, never was available here, it is abandoned. So, again, in my personal opinion, it's fair game. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, nothing ventured, nothing lost.

As always Alan, you take what seems to be an average model and bring out something wonderful. We most certainly would enjoy build threads, even copy and paste from other forums. It is far easier to upload pictures here now, 5 per individual post.

 

[zathros]

To type "Č",
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Character Map.
To select a character in the Character Map, click the character, click Select, click the right mouse button in your document where you want the character, and then click Paste.

This contains all the letters in all alphabets, don't forget to scroll down for what you don't see.

 

[alang]

To type "Č", ...

Thank you, but this was not in fact my problem - I have used Character Map extensively in the past, and now use a customised keyboard layout (based on the UK Extended layout) which gives me access to most European accented letters with just two key strokes.

The problem was that when I previewed my post, the character didn't come out correctly, so I tried HTML escape codes and they didn't work either, so I gave up. I have had this problem before with another forum, so I didn't worry too much about it. Now that you have prompted me, I find that it in fact works perfectly (Čechie-Böhmerland, měřítko 1:14 ...), so I must have made a silly mistake in my first attempt, and wasted my and your time as a result. Sorry!

In response to your other point, copyright law is a mess and badly needs liberalising, but I'm happy that I was able to obtain a genuine original and thereby sidestep any legal or moral hurdles.

All the best,
Alan

 

[alang]

So on to the BMW. This is the well-known Schreiber reprint of an old (1930s?) model, and is predictably a bit crude. It needed a good deal of adjustment to get a reasonable fit, especially around the front end, where the multiple layers of paper forming the front forks varied quite a lot in shape. Otherwise, I made two major changes - I omitted the sidecar and constructed more plausible wheels by my usual method.




Altogether not a wholly satisfying model, but it has taught me a lot about the special character of these BMW twins and given me some ideas for the future.

There's not a lot I can say or show about the Kawasaki at the moment. Like all Kozin's recent models, it comes as just a Pepakura file, with many of the more complex parts developed in a way which I find quite unmakeable. I am doing a lot of editing of the 2D parts, breaking up the complicated, reentrant ones into multiple simpler components, and generally fitting them better to my skills (or lack thereof). As an example, the following photo shows the engine base which originally was a single very complicated part. I have split it into 7 simple, mostly convex, pieces to make it buildable and stable when complete.



As a result of this work the build is rather slow, and I haven't been taking many photos as I go. I'll show you the result when it is eventually finished (provided it turns out to be something I want people to see).

Alan

 

[zathros]

The Schreiber BMW with your touch is quite nice. I do like the "Trials Bike", I overlooked mentioning that one. All the models you have show here are quite wonderful to be honest.

 

[alang]

Finally the Harley-Davidson. After I released my model of the 1911 Model 7A I decided I needed a new explanation of wheel construction, and made a couple of new wheels so that I could take photos. They sat on my shelf for a while looking lonely, and eventually I decided to give them a present of a new motorbike. When I started on the Model 7, I had found it hard to decide whether to do that or the Model 6 from 1910. I could now do the Model 6 as well.

The two versions differ in three main respects:

• the frame geometry is different. The front tube is curved on the older version and straight on the later. This change dictated a lengthened wheelbase to maintain clearance, which in turn required a change to the head bracket and repositioning of the pedals,
• the cylinder head cooling fins on the older engine were horizontal, like the cylinder fins, whereas on the later engine they were vertical radial fins, and
• the painting of the tank, fenders and underseat box changed from having double thin red lining to a broad gold/blue/red.

As a further difference, I decided to make a Model 6 rather than 6A, with sparks provided by a battery and induction coil instead of a magneto.

So here it is:



and the two together:



Alan