AJS 7R, 350cc single cylinder race bike from around 1959.

So here we have a Protar model motorcycle. Founded in 1963 in Bologna by Tarquinio Provini, a famous motorcycle Grand Prix racer , they produced a wide range of motorcycle kits of the era and later branching into GP cars.

Sold out to Italeri around 1970 the history gets sketchy. The original kits were multimedia featuring white metal and plastic parts. A lot of the cars were re released under the Italeri banner, but they were now all plastic which presented challenges to the builder as the replaced white metal parts are not really strong enough in plastic to do the job as anyoine who has tried to build the Fiat Mephistopheles, alfa 8200 or the fiat GP806 will know..

The motorcycles ? well here is where it’s odd because Italeri did issue some bikes like the manx Norton in plastic which had originally been multimedia i think but others like this AJS seem to be all plastic but…in Protar boxes. My guess is Italeri carried on with the protar brand but like the cars, they did away with the white metal which is a great shame. Nothing looks quite like metal than metal.

To further muddy the waters some of these kits are often advertised as white metal and in fact aren’t and never were. This is from the ebay advert where this one came from#

“With its authentic design and quality construction, this die-cast motorcycle is a must-have for anyone looking to add a piece of Motorcycle history to their collection”

Nothing die-cast in here mate. It’s a major failing of ebay that people just copy other people’s listings and sometimes even their pictures so if the original poster got it wrong then everyone else gets it wrong as well as we see here.



Anyway, do your own research as they say

This is my first Protar build….even if Italeri have had a hand in it 😊 and this is the real thing from around 1959

Well i have retreated back into my comfort zone having got a bit of a bloody nose with WnW 🤣

My pre planning has gone out the window as looking in the box the wheels really are not too bad. My plan to lace them with metal spokes is on hold now. Normally the problem with spoked wheels on bikes is the spokes are way over size and whatever you do with them they just never look real. The common size on things like the Italeri Triumph 3hw, Harley WMA and the Manx Norton is 1mm spokes which as 1/9 scale would make them 9mm. In reality all the Italeri spokes are out of register L/R halves in the moulds so actually appear nearer 1.2mm. These spokes in this kit are 0.6 - 0.7mm so scaled up thats 6x9 = 54 and 5.4mm is pretty much spot on to real size and i would probably have used 0.5mm nickel silver wire.
My new plan now is to build up the kit wheels and see what they look like with metal spokes as a back up plan. There is a lot of work in metal spokes if they are not necessary but they do have the advantage in being separate from the rim and hub and its not unlikely the rim/hub/spokes/spoke nipples would all be different colors

loads of chrome but i dont think there was any on the original bike

Another protar kit i have has shed some light on the multimedia thing as there is an advert leaflet in one of the boxes

Notice this list contains "plasica" models and ""Metallo" model motorcycles but it also creates more confusion because for example under Metallo models is a NS 500 Freddie Spencer 1983 so thats 13 years after Italeri took over...so did Italeri really design new models in Multi media after they bought Protar bearing in mind they converted other metal models to plastic like all the cars.

I got a bit confused with all that Italo-mystery, but like the bike you chose, metal or not.

Cheers Rob

Neat to hear about the early history of Protar. I think Italeri continued to use the label up until at least the late '80s as my LHS has a Protar Ferrari F40 for sale.

Wheels & Wings Hobbies

PRR199 - Protar - 1/12 Ferrari F40 Turbo - WWHP111029

Preowned Protar 1/12 Ferrari F40 Turbo kit (PRR199). Resealed, mint. Iconic twin-turbo V8 supercar in impressive large scale with detailed engine and interior.

Those definitely weren't around in the '60s or Ford would never have won Le Mans. 😆

Carl

Edited August 24Aug 24 by FG2Si
Typo

what a cool subject.Never seen one of these builds, only know the brand by name.

Following.

I have very fond memories of the Protar kits, I remember building Hondas, MV's, Guzzis and Nortons in my long lost youth.

Cheers

Dennis

Well after a lot of dithering i have decided to re spoke the wheels. Although the spokes are more realistic in size on this kit the spokes do tend to run through each other where they cross and looking at other builds on the web even if you squint 😆 the wheels do let the builds down.

I have done this before but these are much harder to do than any others have done. I bought some resin rims off the web, these are a generic 40 spoke rim with deep flange alloy wheel design. The problem is they are not drilled which is not easy as spokes go through the rim in 4 directions ie: they protrude either left right or front back so drilling is complicated. These have been drilled 0.5mm but not opened up and counter sunk for the nipples

In order to create spoke nipples i have used electrical fittings used to add to soldered wire ends.

You will need to use the original hubs so the first thing to do is cut them away from the original wheels

i then strip them and paint them white because it makes them easier to see than the original black under the chrome

not bothered about finish at this stage as you need to drill 20 x 0.5mm holes in each side, 40 per wheel. the only help you get here is where the plastic spokes you just cut off have left a mark you can use for drilling.

Next you need to knock up jig to hold the assembled hub concentric to the rim something like this. Hubs here are semi gloss black and rims are Gloss white over sprayed with white aluminium from MRP

There are basically 4 rows of 10 spokes, here are the first 10 above

then 2 rows above

and 4 rows above. At this point you can slide the nipples down the protruding spokes and hold in place with a small drop of CA. then cut the excess spoke off as close to the rim as poss. Push each nipple right in before adding the glue

and hey presto a wheel. Front in this case

Because i was feeling my way a bit i didnt do both wheels together but now i have to do another......just glad this is not a car 😂

Edited August 26Aug 26 by Paddy

Most impressive work, it looks great.

Cheers

Dennis

I did the other wheel last night, i learned quite a bit which i am sure i will forget in time for the next build  🤣

I dont like the gloss black tires and hard rubber so i will probably slip them off and try paining them with tamiya rubber black ?

An often found problem with old kits and poorly packed kits

This is a 1mm rod and unfortunately the levers each end are also 1mm wide so cant be drilled.

The answer is to drill the levers, in this case 0.35mm and insert a hard steel rod and also i have cut a bit of 1mm alloy tube that slides on to the steel rod

Job done

Love your attention to detail Paddy. The wheels look great. I don´t know, if I had it in me to re-spoke a wheel, even after building some spoked wheels for MFH kits.

Cheers Rob

AJS 7R engines were often gold, but some were black. Basically, they were painted to protect the magnesium castings which would corrode very quickly if left open to the air. Its very much like the zinc chromate the US used on their interior alloy panels on Aircraft during he war . It also helped seal the casting that tended to be porous. Magnesium casting are about 35% lighter than alloy so have a great weight saving on engines

3 hours ago, Paddy said:

AJS 7R engines were often gold, but some were black. Basically, they were painted to protect the magnesium castings which would corrode very quickly if left open to the air. Its very much like the zinc chromate the US used on their interior alloy panels on Aircraft during he war . It also helped seal the casting that tended to be porous. Magnesium casting are about 35% lighter than alloy so have a great weight saving on engines

Now I never knew that, I knew they were a lightweight metal but did not realise that they were painted, I thought that was the metal's natural colour.

Every day is a school day.

Cheers

Dennis

1 hour ago, Spitfire said:

Now I never knew that, I knew they were a lightweight metal but did not realise that they were painted, I thought that was the metal's natural colour.

Every day is a school day.

Cheers

Dennis

Its not surprising because even today, 70 years after this bike ,Ducati use magnesium parts and they are still finished gold although these days i think its a form of anodising rather than a paint type application.

A couple of problems

the primary drive chain is of the rubber band type not unlike early tamiya tank tracks. There is no way to attach this to the primary drive sprocket ?

the only way around this i can see is to remove the teeth from the sprocket where the chain sits on it. 1/9 scale chains are rare. MFH do one but the pitch is quite different so i would still need to remove the teeth.

The carb on this bike had a remote float bowl, you can see above the carb has no integral float bowl. The reason is race bikes drink fuel . The fuel level in the carb is regulated by a float and valve like a lavatory system. that fuel level dictates the fuel level in the carb body above the main jet. If the fuel level varies so does the mixture in the carb body. For this reason the race carbs had a much larger remote float chamber that didn't tend to drain as the throttle was snapped open of held wide open. The kit does have a remote float bowl but nowhere to mount it. they just leave it dangling on the fuel line so this needs to be sorted. This the kit carb

I am doing my best above to get this into shape.

As i happen to have a suitable carb here on my shelf , you can see the huge float bowl attached to the carb , actually bigger than the carb itself.

On 8/31/2026 at 2:51 PM, Paddy said:

Its not surprising because even today, 70 years after this bike ,Ducati use magnesium parts and they are still finished gold although these days i think its a form of anodising rather than a paint type application.

A couple mountain bike companies were using magnesium for bike parts in the early '90s. Rock Shox used it to the make the lower fork legs on their Mag 20 (hence the name) suspension forks. When the paint chipped, the corrosion started fast and wasn't pretty. They usually just seize up if you were lucky. Same goes for the Syncros magnesium front hub I had. If you weren't careful when lacing them up, the threads on the spokes could chip the clear coat and they would start to corrode at the spoke hole and cause the flange to fail.

Carl

You might want to put your fingers in your ears for this one

I have decided to give one of these MFH chains a go....again. I don't take this lightly, they are £35 each and my success rate is about 1 in 4 with these so a very expensive option. Not a lot of choice in this scale and the rubber band chain supplied is not up to the job.

The idea is the PE side plates snap on to the white metal pins to form a chain

The reality is the pins are badly deformed and have no pretense of being domed with a tight fit to the PE links as above

This side plate should be a press fit 🤥

I really dont know why i am doing this now i look at what i just posted 🤣

It's a real shame because the PE parts look good.

I got one together with a lot of swearing and the chain is stopping me from beginning with my next MFH bike. Building up the segments was relatively easy, but connecting them was a nightmare. I wish you luck Paddy.

Cheers Rob

Hi Rob, i have a MFH Norton 50, a Montgomery and a Vincent waiting but with no plan to start unless i solve the chain problem, I did manage the Brough superior and the Crocker but used a couple of chain sets each to produce a chain. The sets really do vary as well from good to pretty much impossible.

Edited Thursday at 01:38 PM2 days by Paddy

That chain reminds me of that on a 1/8 Pocher Fiat I built years ago. The chain rollers were hollow, however, and a small

pointed tool was used to create flanges on either side. Looks daunting, but I'm sure you will get it done. BTW, very nice work

so far, looking great😀

Today's special word is SMUG which is how i feel ......Can you have super Smug ? sounds better.

This about 4" laid out straight so about 1.5 inch down its longest length plus curves/sprockets

The secret is parallel pliers whos jaws open parallel surprisingly so force is directly down the center line of the chain link pin. I had thought that my long nose pliers were sufficiently long that the closing angle probably wouldn't be a problem but it turns out they were 95% of my problem.

Here is the kit rubber chain. It has no holes for the sprocket teeth so all yo can do is sit it next to the sprocket

And here is thew MFH chain. its pitch is wrong for the kit sprockets so you will have to cut them off where the chain sits but its a lot better than the rubber effort so worth doing

its only sitting on the engine at the moment and will look better when it glued down and the chain guard is fitted. I had to temporarily mount the whole lot in the frame as the gearbox/rear sprocket are hold in position by screws so you need to mock it up to get the chain length. there is no adjustment so you need to get right to the link, not a problem with the rubber band chain. it will eventually get a black wash

If i did this again which i will as i have the Protar Matchless i would use a 1/12 chain for this primary drive as stock 1/9 is a bit large. Fine for final drive but large for primary. 1/12 is a lot more common and there is a good choice of way of doing it

Great job with the chain😀 Using the parallel pliers was a great solution. A very interesting build so far.

Go ahead, feel smug, you've earned it!