There's ALOT of flash on many of the pieces. Looks like sanding will have to be done on almost every piece!

First thing I do before I start is to check the Internet and get some reference photo's of the subject and see if there's any reviews on this particular model.

Since this model has been out for awhile, and it was a vehicle, I shot over to Starship Modeler to see if they had anything covering this.

Instantly found John Lester's review and gave it a good read over.

Then I called up Alta Vista and did a search on 'Speeder Bike' and saved various images of the bike itself and a couple of good Scout's in the standing position inorder to see the belt detail better.

Now that link to John's review is up there for a reason!  1) everything he points out about this model is right on so far, and 2) I don't want to repeat everything John notes in his review.

So go read it already!

John noted that he built the Scout figure last. But the more I read about his alignment problems with the foot pedals & handlebars, I wondered if putting the figure together first was the way to go?

So I emailed him and asked...he replied that it's better to build the bike, and once you got to the figure, it was easier to test fit the handlebars and foot pedals.

So with that in mind, let's go to the ...

Finished steps 1 through 5, 6 through 9 (w/ the exception of the pipes), and 10 through 12.

On step 12, I glued the gun (#70) to it's base (#59), but did not glue it onto the front fork.

I now have 3 separate pieces; the bike portion, the gun mount and the front forks, which I put aside for priming later on.

Lesson Learned: At this point, take the side vents off the sprue (#71/72), place them on either side of the bike and taking the plastic disc, test fit and make sure the bike fits.

If you do this before any priming and painting, it will not ruin your nice paint job when you get to this part later on. If it doesn't fit, page down to the Disc portion of the review for what I did.

Step 13 is a dilemma!  The elusive Foot Pedals!!!   I glued the two bars (#34 & #39) together, & the stick things to each foot pedal ...but, should I glue the foot pedals to the bar...Or wait until the figure is done and figure out their placement then?

I decide to wait.

Steps 14 & 15 prove how purely illustrated instructions can be very confusing. The hole on #43/44, for part #47/48 seems pretty large, so I didn't glue them yet.

Again I'll wait for the figure to be done, before I see how these line up.

Skipped Step 16 & 17 for now, and put a nice Primer coat on the bike body and the front fork.

Went on to Step 18, while that dried...

Like John, I also wanted to have the figures head turned instead of looking straight ahead. So I asked John if he cut the head off AFTER he glued the 2 halves together, or before.  He said cut the head off after putting the halves together.  (Hey! There's no such thing as a stupid question...especially when it comes to model kits!)

So...snip the body & arms off the sprues, sand off the flash & test fit. The two body halves snap together pretty snuggly. I checked the seams and glued where they weren't tight.

Let sit over on the side as you glue the two arms together.

Now I go back to the body and with my trusty little hack saw, I start cutting off his head.

Small cuts at first to get it started, front, back, the sides, then I go slowly deeper, rounding out the corners of the cuts as I go around the head and 'plop', off it comes.

Sand down the cuts on both pieces and I now have a headless biker!! Man, I haven't done this in ages!! Feels great!!

I position the head in the angle I want, to check if more sanding is needed. Once satisfied with the fit, I glue the head in the new position. I see if sanding the seams will make them disappear.  Used putty to fill in around the neck area. When you reattach the head, there'll be some gaps. Same with the 2 arms (which I haven't attached yet).

Reprimed the Scout and seams in areas are still prevalent. So I'm presently back at the sanding stage.

Don't forget, white paint is a very unforgiving color and will show up faults quite easily.

Okay, sanding is all done...reprimed the figure and satisfied with the final look of the Scout!

Pick up the instructions and go back to Step 16. We can go ahead and glue #43 & #44 to the bike body, since those are rigid. The seat goes on, as well.

Now comes the tricky part! Aligning the handlebars.

The arms of the Scout are not glued on yet, so I take a trusty rubber band, insert the arms into his body and double wrap the rubber band around his shoulders.

Place the Scout on the seat and see where his arms extend to. You quickly discover that he won't be able to sit 'back' against the seat! In fact, you have to move him pretty far forward to get anywhere near the forward struts!

Now it would REALLY be nice if you had four arms for this next step...but it can be done, abet extremely hairy at times!!

Holding the figure on the bike, as well as holding the bike OFF the ground (since his legs are long)...with the other hand you position the hand grip part (#45/48) against the forward strut (#44) and gently move the Scouts arm lower or higher to rest neatly on the hand grip!

This is where you realize that the 'wire tubing' that comes off the hand grip is not positioned just right to fit into the hole near the nose of the bike! (Ain't model building relaxing!?!?!!!)

I note the angle of the hand grip (#48) in relation to the strut (#44). Put everything back down and break the glue hold between the hand grip and the wire (#45 & 49). Checking positioning again with just the hand grip, I realign the wire and reglue them back together.

Then glue the hand grip assembly to the strut. Pick up the bike and Scout and happy to say it lined up nicely! Now do the same thing for the other hand grip.

As it's drying, put the Scout on his seat again and just make sure everything lined up nice and neat!

Now wasn't that a great 45 minutes of Emotional Anxiety!?!! The ol' heart beat really raced there for a time, didn't it!!?!

Have a cup of coffee and a smoke! You deserve it!!

Nice and relaxed once again? Good...cuz now we tackle the footpedals!!

Okay, pick up the bike, place the Scout gently on the seat with his hands gently resting on the hand grips. Now take just the Foot Bar (#34/39)... hopefully you didn't glue the foot pedals to the bar yet, right?!... and position it on the tab underneath the bike.

You notice the problem now? The feet are alot more forward than the bar, aren't they?? No...no!! Don't throw it!!!! This is easily corrected! Trust me!!

Bring the bar forward by two (2) uh...ridges! Now put the Scout back on the bike and check it now. Take your TIME here, because you want to make sure that;

• the foot bar is angled down enough so that when you put the actual foot pedal on it, there's enough room between the bar and his foot, but that the foot rests firmly on the pedal as well.

• that the toe bar on the footpedal is in front of the Scouts foot.

• and MOST important...that the Scout doesn't ride UP off the seat!!

It's unfortunate that the foot pedal doesn't snap into the grove on the bar...would make this a WHOLE lot easier!!

In the final analysis, you'll glue the bar on, push it up some, unglue it, reglue, check position...finally glue the dang foot pedals to the bar, check position, pull the bar down, push it back up, reinforce the glue job and still won't be completely satisfied with the alignment.

You'll notice that the instructions tell you NOT to glue the figure to the bike...but I'm really tempted to glue the foot pedals to his feet nonetheless!!

I'll decide after everything's painted.

For now, I reprime the bike because the handlebars and footbar haven't been primed yet and cover up places underneath where I sanded the primer away to attach the footbar.

While I'm waiting for my heart rate to slow a tad, let's look at the instructions and see where we go from here.

Step 12: Still need to glue the gun mount to the front fork, but that can wait til after we spray paint the fork first.

Not sure about the side vents (#71/72) yet. Might prime & paint these unattached, then spray paint the bike and put these on after. Easier to paint under the engine block this way.

Step 17: The blanket roll can be a last thing. Prime & paint separately, then attach.

The assorted pipes go on last as well.

By the way...I looked at that circle in the upper left corner of Step 17 for days trying to figure out what it was telling me!!

I thought it was a zoom-in of a model part and it was driving me nuts! It turns out to be the Plastic disk...and they're telling you to take the paper off first! Well, duh?!?!!

In my search for reference pictures, ran across alot of different color schemes for the bike itself.

I liked this rusty brown the best and decided to mimic this color for my bike.

In mixing up different paints to get the colors you want, (because you're too cheap to go out and BUY a 2 oz. bottle of that color), Brown has always been the hardest for me to achieve!

I've got color wheels out the butt, but brown still gives me the shivers whenever I have to mix up a batch! I just can't seem to get the variation I desire!

So I got off my butt, and went to Wal-Mart and bought Apple Barrel Brown Oxide and Burnt Umber.

For the underside of the bike, I checked Goggle for reference photos...
so I'll go for a weathered black look there.

I use KRYLON Flat White in the spray bottle on the Scout and let dry. Once dry, I notice where the paint didn't go, or where it didn't cover up the primer completely (used KRYLON Sandable dark gray primer). Touch it up, let dry again.

Two parts Apple Barrel Burnt Umber to one part Isopropyl rubbing alcohol, poured into a jar, mixed with a coffee stir stick and attached to my air brush and I spray the gun mount piece, the two side vents & the front fork.

KRYLON's Flat Black I use on the underside of the bike, and the two handle bars.

Once the bike's dry...I use Aluminium Foil to mask off the underside, and thinning out my Burnt Umber once again, spray the top portion of the bike.

Using Palmer Prism RAVEN Black, paint black portions of the two arms and on the figures body.

Although I sprayed the fork Burnt Umber, I go over it with RAVEN Black except for the four fins at the end, which I leave burnt umber.

Paint the gun RAVEN Black as well and touch up the handle bars. Also paint the top of the four knobs (#10) black.

Sitting the figure upon the bike once again, align the arms to the handlebars and glue the arms onto the figure. Once dry, I touch up any overpainting and spray the figure with a nice layer of TESTOR's Dullcoat and let dry.

I spray the fork, the bike, the (2) back flaps, the (2) side vents, and the gun mount with Dullcoat as well.

As they dry, I sand down all the small pipes that will hang off the engine and paint black.

Noting John's review, I test fit the two side vents (#71/72) onto the bike and check the fit on the display disc. Like John's, mine doesn't fit either, so I start sanding down the vents some.

Note that nicely done paint job on the bike's rear section starts to get trashed as you attempt to FORCE the bike into the open slot on the disc!! This portion was a huge pain in the butt!!

Not only is it difficult to get it in there, but the instructions don't really help in telling you just how far up the bike you should go. I assumed, at first, that the two cut out slots on the vents were suppose to snap over or into the disc. I also used the two 'grills' on top of the rear of the bike and part (#41) as a guide to where the disc slid on. Until I realized that the blanket roll (#76) goes on top of those 2 grills.

So I glued the blanket roll onto the bike, and once dry, judging from where the blanket roll ends, there isn't much room left for the disc on the bike itself. In fact, the disc only goes over the very back portion of the two vents.

So break out the rubber bands and double wrap it around the vents, one more pass over with the glue and let sit as the plastic welds together some more.

If you're reading this before you've started building the model, I'd test fit the two vents onto the bike and into the disc, before you prime the bike, to see if you need to sand down a portion of the vents.

Taking it back out of the disc, I glue on the side pipes, the front fork, and the gun mount.

Using Apple Barrel's Brown Oxide mixed with White, I 'dry brush' areas of the bike that I felt would get banged up over a period of heavy use. The front fork fins, around the nose of the bike and along the sides, and on the rear section (because you know he backed it up once or twice into SOMETHING?!!!)

I let the Dullcoat on the Scout dry for a week, then with a brush, painted on three coats of FUTURE Floor Polish to the armour portions and his goggles.

For now, I've left the paper on the disc, inserted the bike and placed the Scout on the bike. Have not glued the two flaps to the back of the bike yet. I'm thinking of making a better base for the model, and want to be able to remove the bike later if I need to.

Besides the disc portions, and the rather poor alignment with the arms and feet with the handlebars and foot pedals, this is a fun kit. Especially in the painting stages. Can have alot of fun with dry brushing and weathering!

With every model I've built in the last two months, hindsight can be a wonderful thing! Knowing ahead of time what the problem areas could be, certainly can save one alot of frustration and heartache!

As with all reviews found throughout the Internet...if there's any questions you have that we don't cover don't be afraid to ask! Also take advantage of the many modeling groups out there, be it Gremlins, Aurora, the bulletin boards or other web sites.

This is Brian Cullen's review. This one is based on the earlier release of AMT's Speeder Bike. Might be the same model without the plastic disc and base.

Finished PHOTOs of the Bike here!

Happy Modeling! - Buc