Duck done!

 

It ducking well works!

The one and only disapointment with the Tamiya kit is the stickers provided for the beak and eyes. They don't stick to the plastic, and even if they did, the result would look rubbish. A few moments with some pots of orange and black paint gave a much better effect. This IS finescale modelling after all...

On land, the duck scampers around at great speed. Steering works, although not that well. You need to be alert to the progress of your waterfowl. 

On the water, the swimming is more leisurely, but just as effective. Not suitable for a stream, there's no way the duck would fight the currents, but idea for a pool. At some point, we will try the boat club pond, but only on a still day. And with a net handy to retrieve the bird from a random part of the bank!

A great fun kit, that goes together nicely, and if I'm honest, would take about an hour to assemble.

Feet on

 

I love how this kit prety much pushes together. The plastic feet slot into place on the yellow plastic curved things (I don't know that they are called, look at the photo) which also hold the foam circles that act as both wheels and floatation devices. It's all so well designed. 

The head and neck are articulated so they can bob back and forth. Although everything pushes together, I glued the two sides of the head as the halves didn't seem to want to stay aligned properly. ABS glue was required for this, Revell Contacta not being potent enough for this very hard plastic. 

The bobbing action is driven by a fork on the side of the unit being activated by a cam on the wheel, which is why it's important to get them on the right side. To be fair, there is a step in the instructions for each side, even though they are very similar. Another occasion when it pays to double check you have the right parts in your hand before assembly. 

Underneath there is a tail wheel to allow the duck to steer when on land. Another neat bit of design, which incorporates a tiny O ring to keep the until pointing in the direction you set it.

Duck motorising

 

Hello. This isn't what I was expecting when building a silly duck kit. That's quite the gearbox. 

I assume these gears are shared with other kits, as there are far more on the sprue than used here (spares for the box - hooray!). Identifying the correct ones take a bit of paying attention - no counting teeth, but when you look closely, there are differences between the face of the gears, which are replicated on the instructions. 

Everything slides onto stainless steel rods, the main one being octagonal to enusure the gear doesn't move on it. No lubrication required, this all turns lovely and smoothly. 

Tools required  for the build are limited to those for removing parts from the sprue, and a couple of cross-head screwdrivers. The battery box and motor cleverly clip together, although feeding the wires that take power from the AAA battery is a little fiddly. Once you get the clip on the face of the motor, it's all held securely in place though. 

The finished unit. Turn the pointed back end to turn the motor on and off. Unscrew it to change the battery. An O ring keeps water out, along with a bit of (supplied) grease. A little tweaking to ensure the output shaft sticks out the same distance on both sides, and we are ready to start building the body.

Tamiya Motorised Duck kit

 

OK, this is one of my silly projects. When I saw this video, I knew I wanted to build the kit. 

A quick trip to the Plaza Japan website, followed by a three-week wait for the post, and one was mine. 

 

As with all Tamiya kits, the contents look impressive. Mostly plastic, but with mechanical bits in metal, and some foam parts too, there's quite a bit for your money.  

This is going to be fun.