While I was building Meng’s 1/9 scale Kawasaki Ninja H2R motorcycle kit, I couldn’t help but admire the design and engineering that went into how this kit goes together. I didn’t use a single drop of glue! The whole kit either pushes together, snaps together, or screws together. Meng shows us some great engineering.
The actual Kawasaki Ninja H2R that this kit replicates doesn’t let us down either when it comes to design and engineering. When you hear the “Ninja” name you know it’s going to be special. The Ninja H2R was developed as a closed-course racing model (thus the “R” in its designation and why there is no headlight or rear license plate), and features a huge 300 horsepower, 998cc, turbocharged four cylinder motor, mono-shock rear suspension, and slick tires. It’s like the kit’s instruction sheet says, “More than any motorcycle Kawasaki has built to date, the Ninja H2R is a showcase of craftsmanship, build quality, and superb fit and finish.”
The multi-medium kit from Meng does an excellent job of replicating this amazing motorcycle. The kit consists of 210 parts that include: colored plastic, clear windshield and taillight, photo etched brake rotors and air cleaner grille, metal screws, rubber hose, and chromed metal dry transfer badging.
An interesting aspect of this kit is that all the pieces on the bike that would be painted black on the real bike are presented in a smooth, polished black plastic. I chose not to paint any of these parts because they looked realistic.
The kit also includes decals for the green striping, and a large sheet of carbon fiber decals. I will tell you right now, applying the huge array of carbon fiber decals to the fairing proved challenging. If you have not done carbon fiber decal work before, you might just want to paint the fairing instead.
I recently found out that there is a pre-painted version of this kit available with the carbon fiber decals already on the cowl. I definitely would have spent the extra money just for the fairing! But, then again, that would be like putting together a die-cast toy, and there would be no challenge in that.
The kit assembles with no major problems. The completed model features working steering and working front and rear suspension. I did opt to buy the Movable Metal Front Fork Set”from the Meng 1/9 Supplies Series (No. SPS-069). It simply replaces the kit’s plastic front fork tubes with machined aluminum ones. The aluminum forks just add a little more realism to the kit.
Building the Kawasaki Ninja H2R motorcycle took me about a week, working two or three hours a day to complete this well engineered kit. I enjoyed the experience, and highly recommend the kit.