La Chopa Atomica

By: Ismael Gonzalez

  First a disclaimer: I'm a motorcycle ignorant. That been said, I was curious about Revell's chopper kits and decided to do one. I called it La Chopa Atomica.  Chopa is a puertorican slang for a fish, somewhat similar to a bass.  Atomic because the color used is Atomic Orange, a 2007 Corvette color.

 I ended up modifying almost everything. Only the frame, wheels and tires were spared form modification.  The fenders were reshaped, added a small tail light, the front fork was machined out of aluminum and tubing, handle bars are brass and plastic, and the fork brackets are sheet styrene, shaped like  butterfly wing nuts. The tank was widened and a new gas cap was machined. The seat was sanded smooth.  The oil tank (4 parts) and the air cleaner housing were also machined out of aluminum.

Spark plugs were scratchbuilt and fully wired.  Everything else was wired and plumbed: including: brake lines both front and rear, battery cables, starter, fuse box with wiring harness going into the frame, throttle cable,  clutch cable, fuel line, oil lines in and out of the oil tank, headlight wire and shifting linkage.  Both brake  lines have chrome clamps about halfway each, to keep them in place. Different wire gauges were used throughout.

A digital speedometer/data/trip computer was machined and the display was created and printed in my computer.

Several shades of aluminum, magnesium, chrome silver, silver chrome trim etc were used.  The kit's chrome in the headlight was scratched. It turned to be my best Alclad job ever.   The chain was detailed with brass paint and black wash.

The pictures in the background ARE level. The camera has some "barreling distortion" at macro level

The sun really brings out the color to life!