Model Citizen

Not my usual sort of post, but considering how hard I found it to find any of this information on the net I thought I'd write it myself.

It concerns puncture proof tyres, AKA air free tyres, AKA green tyres.
I found very conflicting opinions about these from people who would never explain what sort of bike they have, where they tested them and whether or not they had actually had one.

So, without repeating there mistakes, I'll give you some info. I'm in Mertyhr Tydfil, South Wales, where the weekend pass-time is smashing bottles on the roads and pavements. I cycle to work most days which is only about a 5 mile round trip. Not much compared to some cyclists, but for one we're 1300' above sea level, next to the Brecon Beacons where the SAS train. It's not unusual to see cloud on the hills outside my house. I can freewheel for about a mile on the way to work, as the downhill is steep, but coming home is a nightmare. It's really hard work in an area that is cold due to it's altitude.

So, the bike. I've had the Giant OCR 2 a few years now, bought from my local bike shop Taff Vale Cycles which is an excellent bike shop. I have my bike serviced there about 2 times a year and just get them to fix and repair whatever needs doing.



The biggest problem of course is punctures. It drives me nuts that people just smash bottles on the road and pavement. Yes, I do cycle on the pavement/path a bit along the River Taff, not the Taff Trail mind you, because unfortunatley that goes next to a pub, with again, lots of broken glass next to it. I go on the pavement for two reasons. First, I can relax a bit and look at the scenery and the river, seeing herons and buzzards etc I actually got buzzed by a heron one morning, I almost fell off! In flight the thing was blooming huge! The other reason I cycle along the path is because drivers here in Merthyr are atrocious! I used to cycle in Essex, with no problems. The drivers there seemed so much more bike aware, but here in Merthyr I've had so many near misses by stupid drivers doing things like cutting me up on roundabouts or speeding past me and turning left or even just stopping. Busses here are terrible too, sometimes I cycle along and wonder if I'm actually still alive or was I killed back there!

Anyway, back to punctures. Last time I'd just had enough. it's getting so dark here at the moment that I could'nt see the road, so when I heard the hiss it was the usual story...get off and walk. I had chunks of glass sticking out of the tyre, and these babies are Kevlar too! So I started looking up punture proof tyres. I read a lot about Armadillos, which are a normal tyre but the toughest on the market, but also found a couple of sites doing puncture proof tyres.



Now, back in Basildon in the early 90's I did give puncture proof tyres a go on my Saracen Blitz mountain bike. They were pretty bad, a lot like riding through mud. Not very good, and pretty hard. I was hoping though that in 10 years the technology would have improved. A lot of what I read seemed remeniscent of that early 90's experience, or there were comments that some big bike guru thought they were a bad idea so they stayed away. My own bike shop were a bit skeptical and said they were a gimmick. So I carried on cycling and as usual had a couple of good days followed by another round of broken bottles. So I spoke to green tyre which seemed to offer a lot of choices. Here's there blurb about there product:
Green Tyres are produced from one piece of micro-cellular polyurethane.
They come in loads of colours, and with a free fitting kit. So I measured up my bike, and made my first mistake, I did'nt take the tyre off to measure the internal rim (ooops) so managed to order the wrong tyre. Anyway, they then sent two by mistake. So I rang them back and ordered the right one. No problem at all. One thing to note was that both tyres, although supposedly available in a wide range of colours were only in stock in black. Anyway, the right tyre came the next day without costing me any more, and I set about fitting it. The kit gives you a couple of cable ties and a green spatula for edging the tyre on. I followed the instructions, edging the tyre on a little at a time. It went on easy enough, but did'nt go under both rims. This was hard work. I had to get the spatula under the tyre and work my way round the wheel pressing it into and under the second rim, boy was it hard on the thumbs!
Just to note as well, I only bought one tyre for the back as I rarely get punctures in the front. So, there it was fitted on, and it looked very thin compared to the front tyre. The tyre I chose, a "Racer" has a PSI of 100, which is what I usually pump my tyres up to. Another company I rang, Amerityre only had a PSI of 55.
I gave it a quick test in my slippers up and down the street, which seemed OK, I could'nt tell the difference really, but wanted to try a work run for a proper test. This does'nt involve anything tougher than road surfaces and pavements with the occasional slight curb and one hairpin bend to go over.
The next week was just colossal storms, so my wife took me to work in the car, but today I cycled. What was it like?
First I noticed the bike was no slower, though the wind was blowing a right gale, I'm pretty sure it was the wind against me slowing me down, because when it died down I seemed to be travelling at a good speed. What it did feel like though was that feeling you get just as your tyre is going down. It's definatley a harder ride, and is going to take a little getting used to, but as said, this is just for road use to and from work, so there's not much to cause bumps and knocks. I'm not sure if the harder ride is going to damage the spokes, everything was OK when I got off, and Green Tyre promise no damage to the rims, which I believe. I dont think you could squash the tyre down that much. I also noticed, the hairpin bend I go round the bike seemed to slow itself without me applying brakes, again this could be down to the gale blowing, but I can't be certain. A few more rides will let me know if the conditions are favourable. Another comment I heard was that they could become mis-shapen and cause damage, but I can't see how really, still only time will tell.
My conclusion is, it's a slightly more uncomfortable ride, easily liveable with though knowing I wont get another puncture.

The Hulk...or...Making the Most of it...or...A Labour of Love

First a little history. I bought this months and months ago from a sculptor at The Clubhouse . It cost £60, which is a lot of money for me, but I really liked the look of this Hulk kit, in my opinion, the best I'd seen. I saw it at Buc Wheats excellent site and made some inquiries as to who the sculptor/supplier was. i found out it was fellow Clubhouse member Mikey B and placed an order. After a month or so with no contact I was getting a bit worried. I e-mailed and PM'd but got nowhere. In the end Uber Moderator "Spock" stepped it and helped me and other panicing customers get there kits. For me it took about 3 months and when it arrived I was none too pleased.

1. A view of the head. it was so bad my first thought was to bin it. Maybe garage Kit fans have become spoilt in the last years with kit's being produced that need hardly any clean up, but one look at this and I contemplated the months it would take to clean.


2. The head is'nt on it';s own. Take a look at the hands.


3. In this pic you can just make out a huge bubble waiting to cave in. It was really depressing to look at. As said £60 was a lot of dosh for me and it looked like it had gone down the drain.


4. Holes were'nt the only issue, there were resin protrusions aplenty. Now, a big question: Why did'nt I get my money back? Well, it took so long to get with so much "persuasion" I figured I'd never get the money. Also When I commented in the original post from Mikey about the quality I got no reply. At the time I was fuming and contacted other buyers to see if I'd been sold a duffer. it turned out I had'nt, they were all like this with customers saying they'd never make it. In Mikey's defence, it turned out he was going through a crisis, I dont know the nature of it, but having had them in my life it may have been very bad, at the time I did'nt care that much just thinking this is no way to run a business....now I can afford to be more philisophical and gracous....read on.


5. OK, well I thought about putting it back in the box (again) and putting it back on the shelf...yes, it really was that daunting, but instead I got out the dremmel and got to work.


6. The dremmeling I got done in 2 sittings, next it was time to fill. Some of the gaps were horrendous, and as a rule only the worst kit's I've done have needed a hacksaw on them!


7. The gaps between seams were pretty bad. i filled them with Sculpey, which i've got more confidence in now I've started sculpting a bit. i added some veins to mask the seams and blasted it with a heat gun to make it rock hard.


8. Legs, well i decided to pin these together. Although this is only a 1/6 figure because he's so muscley it's more like a 1/4 one. So I thought with all this weight a little pinning would'nt hurt. In case you dont know I'll just explain the easy way to pin.


9. basically, just put the bits together and make 4 pencil marks over the seam you want pinned. place the marks at 4 points around the area.


10. terrible picture, but the next step is to use a ruler to join the lines together, this will give you a cross....and X marks the spot. Easy huh?


11. Then just drill on the cross and insert the pin. I super glued the pin in and then glued the 2 together.


12. Well, this is the 3'rd priming. I've primed, filled, primed, filled then lost so much detail in the head I've dremmeled in the hair and eyes and primed again. This is the end result.


13. A few coats of grass green with my airbrush and the base coat is down. At this point I really started to enjoy this kit. For all the pain you cant get over how well this model has been sculpted. My plan now was to just go round the muscles in a darker colour, a style I've used before on military vehicles believe it or not.


14. Here he is finished! As said, for all the hassle Mikey B did a fantastic job on the sculpt and I'm glad I persevered with what may become one of the rarest hulk kits around. You can see the dark shading has gone down, and I've highlighted the veins with bright green. I wanted to make them noticeable and also thought it could show the Gamma pumping round his body.


15. The shorts I did in grey with some pastel on them to add age. The last thing I wanted to do at this stage was add washes that could run onto the skin, so pastels it was.


16. The base....it's kitty litter. no....really!


17. You can see on this close up i've lost a little detail on the face, but it's good enough.


18. Last pic, I added some brown to his hands and feet to show the use those fists have had. Thanks for reading this far. Mikey if you ever read this, all in all this was a great sculpt, well done. If you have one of these on the shelf, it's definatley worth the hours/weeks/months to finish it.