Harley Twin-Cam 88 - A Visible Working Replica of a Classic
Written: Jan 10 '09
Product Rating:
Durability:
Pros: FUN! a Real working visible engine-replice. Fun even AFTER building!
Cons: Some vague verbiage in manual, otherwise little else. A fun model to build!
The Bottom Line: Educational AND Fun - What's not to like?!?! Testors did a great job replicating an American Classic with Style! Just awesome to watch a TwinCam operate!
Even as a grown man, occasionally you have a Christmas where you get to go back and be a kid again.. Conveniently, this Christmas I received a very thoughtful gift from a fellow Harley enthusiast, and I enjoyed it so much thus far that I had to write a review on it! To boot, I had to have some fun with this review because there's an ironic twist to it, which I'll talk about later. Meanwhile, this review is based on a beautiful and unique model kit of Harley Davidson's legendary TwinCam 88 engine - the newest and current itteration of Harley's historical line of V-Twin engines which they currently sell with all late-model Harley Davidson motorcylces.
Back around 2004 I began an amazing project; ressurecting a wreck-out Harley Davidson Road King. I bought the bike as a salvage and just took my time putting it all back together like new. I had a wonderful experience as I took what started as a wrecked 'standard' Road King and transformed it into a beautifully retro Road King Classic, with other tasteful retro goodies. The bike truly turned out to be it's own special breed of time machine, and all my friends and family appreciated the hard work, time and dedication that went into making this thing shine and sparkle like it was brand new. The smile on my face the very first time I got it registered was unforgettable -- After what seemed like eternity working it all back together, I took 'er out for her innaugural spin and when I returned the smile on my face was unforgettable.. It continues to be so, a wonderful black and white picture on my wall taken by my fiancee, as I sauntered up the driveway giddy like a kid. Truly, it was one of my happier life-moments and it makes for speial memories, as I occasionally look through the photo-album of the whle process... I digress...
In light of all the above, one of my best friends and fellow club-riders gave me this awesome little model for Christmas. I haven't built a model in YEARS, and as it happens, when I was a child I built a model of a visible-working V8 engine. Especially because of my love for ALL of my motorcycles, but with a special soft-spot for Harley's for obvious reasons, I had a blast building this kit and I am thrilled with the results, although there are a few drawbacks, so If you do opt to buy one of these for a rainy day (or few) I hope this review will also help you get better results, as the manual leaves a bit to be desired (but we'll talk more about that in a bit).
The kit consists of far better than a hundred parts, most clear, some black and some actually faux-chrome. The kit is literally a scaled-down working model of a TwinCam, and once assembled, a small electric motor built into the base makes the model operate via belt-drive through the base. The base houses a single button, once touched the base also has a built in speaker - you get about a 45 second playback of the wonderful growl of a Big Twin while the motor cranks away and operates the entire machine- rockers, lifters, valves cams etc. For me, ESPECIALLY being a Harley owner, I really appreciated the inner-workings and how brilliantly engineered this awesome engine really is! While this is clearly a complex replica of a complex machine, I'd say this is still suitable for kids in the 9-10+ age group. BUT, because it IS complex and so unique and cool, this model is good for kids of ALL ages.. and Adult-Kids too! I know this adult-kid had a good time with it!
The Harley TwinCam celebrates the life-long heritage of harley V-twins, all the predecessors to the mighty TwinCam, starting with the Knucklehead, Panhead, Shovelhead and ultimately Evolution "Evo" up until 1998... In 1999 Harley anticipated its biggest year ever as it launched it's newest Big Twin dubbed the "TwinCam." The Evo received a THOROUGH make-over, and the new engine had an impressive list of revisions, starting not only with it's revised (and Twin) cams, but a host of other features making the engine even more robust (better able to idle around town during summer in heat!) and most powerful and sweet-sounding than ever. Again, as cheesy as it might sound, there's just something wonderfully "American" about a Harley, and owning a bike that I'm especially so fond of (having rebuilt her!) I just really had a good time putting this kit together and watching it all operate.
Assembly and Quality: Testors is the manufacturer of this model kit. While Testors is probably more popular for their modeling accesories (namely model cement) the kit is very well made, and the plastic parts-moldings are done with good quality and while all parts DO require flange-trimming with a modeling knife, it's more or less minimal. The molds are done very precision, this will become very clear once you begin assembling the gears and internals - everything fits together with precision and make a nice "click" as they mate up perfectly. The instructions recomend not only the aforementioned Testors model cement to assemble it, but they also recommend a CA glue for plastic (try plastic Zap, for one example) and also an acelerator for this CA Glue. I can say with certainty, now having done the kit myself, you DEFINITELY need to CA Glue AND the accelerator! There are just a few larger parts (like the jug halves) which are large and awkward- the modeler needs to able to drop in a quick drop or few of glue, take one free hand and quickly zap with a spritz of accelerator so it just instantaneously freezes those parts together forever, without any drama. Just to be clear, if you've never used accelerator, it comes in a small spritz-head type bottle and you just give a single shot of spray OVER a CA-glue joint. This accelerator causes a reaction with the glue and makes it dry in about 6 seconds for good. DO NOT GLUE YOUR FINGERS TOGETHER! When it comes to CA Glue, LESS IS MORE!!!
Assembly begins with the lower case-halves and rotor/flywheel assembly. The pistons and sleeves lay in next, you then build this onto the engine-pedestal (the same base which houses the button, batteries, motor and speaker) and once the lower is mounted, you literally build up the engine in stages- one part over the other: cam support plates, pushrods, pushrod-covers. Then the heads, rocker assemblies and carbs come togheter and finally the finishing chrome accents (oil filter, air cleaner cover etc and exhaust outlets).
I finished my assembly in just about a good whole day (it was football day and snowing like hell, so it made for fantastic modeling! Once finished I had an awesome little working display of the guts of a TwinCam and was able to see every little nuance and detail abot how it ticks! Educational and VERY cool.
A few shortcomings: Firstly, the instruction booklet included is reasonably thorough and at least contains acceptible english! (I'm not being facetious, I've build some Japanese models where the verbiage is almost non-coherent... trust me, it's a real stretch, but with some brain power, you can interpolate!). Luckily, as it pertains to verbiage, no interpolation necesary - BUT, the shortcoming is the depth of the explanations! Specifically, because it's a replica of an egine, AND because it's plastic!, there is sort of a double-edge-sword effect going on: you need to use glue to fasten things, BUT you need to be EXTRA careful you don't glue something together that is suposed to remain free-moving! In short, the manual frequently says "Glue only as shown" or "Glue only where shown" meanwhile THEY DON"T SHOW YOU ANYTHING! Fortunately, if you have basic knowledge of how an engine works (moving pistons inside cylinders etc) you can pretty much figure out what to glue and what to leave be, BUT, in fairness the manual TALKS about this but just a VERY poor job showing it. Please know this before begining assmembly! A very smart thing to do is to read the manual through a few times BEFORE even attemting to start building it.
Delicate parts: The only other criticism I can cite is that some of the plastic parts are very delicate -- such as the fine teeth of certain gears and pulleys etc. Not only do you need to do careful cutting these parts away from their respective "trees" (or 'sprues' as they call them in the manual) but you really need to be extra careful trimming them! You need to be careful NOT to cut away any little nipples etc that ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THERE! In short, don't cut something structural away haphazardly because it looks like a flange! The old "Measure twice, cut ONCE" addage comes in handy here. Again, the criticisms are minor- I was actually very impressed with the quality of the kit and I really like the resulting working model I am left with!
Once finished, it's just an amazing little toy -- you hit the button and you can watch the entire operation of a real Harley engine PLUS it sounds awesome! The whole thing operates on 3 AA batteries and a simply dual-belt drive system; One belt moves power from the motor to the model and the other belt (on the backside, beneath the cam-cover) automates the pushrod/rocker assemblies on both cylinders. As opposed to the other V8 visible model from when I was a kid, the only thing NOT included on the TwinCam that the V8 had was LED lights to simulate firing. The Harley Kit does NOT have lights. However, with MINIMAL cleverness and ingenuity one could retro-fit a little LED light system of you were so inclined.. in fact, it'd make a REALLY fun special assignment!
So what about the IRONY?? What the heck could be so ironic about the stupid plastic model engine anyway?!?!? As it happens, it's just ironic "life timing" that another epinions user started a pi*$ing match with me over the real life TwinCam Harley engine! It's actually all quite funny - but it's just the timing of everything that is ironic... Who would have thought I would have built a plastic model of a Harley Engine after 20 yrs of not doing a model! Furthermore, WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THE VERY SAME WEEK SOME IDIOT WOULD HAVE ACCUSED ME OF NOT KNOWING WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT, REGARDING A HARLEY TWIN CAM???!?!?!?! especially now, since I have a total 3-dimensional graphically-working image of the whole engine working! I think I'm pretty sure I know what I'm talking about! =) Isn't that ironic?!
I don't know what else to say -- This model kit was alot of fun, it WAS a challenge and took a nice chunk of time (while I did it in about a full day, you can easily strerch this out a bit to 2 or 3 if you go slower). THe thing works great, looks amazing and is just sooo neat! I was always enthralled with complex machinery in general, but especially because of my fondness for HD, I really liked building this model kit and I like it even more NOW THAT IT's FINISHED! The thing about models is that usually they're really fun, right up UNTIL THEY"RE FINISHED! THen they're just boring passive blobs of plastic. This model WORKS, and that's the whole point! Kudos to Testors for replicating a classic! The TwinCam visible model is great fun and would be suitable for anyone about 10-12 and older, but because of the aforementioned, is really equally suitable for adults! I know I may be a big kid inside, but this adult really liked it!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 48.99 Type of Toy: Model Kits
Age Range of Child: 9 Years or Older
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