MT640 Scandanavian Winter Camo

[Timelord]

IMG_1089MT 640 7595.jpg (148.27 KiB) Viewed 3190 times

[Laurence]

Looks cool!
Have you painted it or is it vinyl?

[Minter]

Nice job! Well done Gary - bet that turns a few heads when you pull up at the local chippy!

[hounddog]

Nice job

[Wirralman]

I am reminded of the time when my Olive Drab combat gear was withdrawn and I was issued with modern (then -circa 1973) DPM kit
DPM being Disruptive Pattern Material

By choosing a Scandanavian winter scheme it is certainly different and hopefully will deter low life from 'borrowing' your bike

The range at what you want to hide is vital to the scheme , the longer the range the bigger the patches Woodland schemes that vehicles are often painted in should have 'feathered' changes of colour , Urban schemes more abrupt changes in vertical blocks

[Timelord]

Hi and thankyou for the compliments. Yes nearly all the original mods are still there as they are one of the reasons I bought the bike. I have added a few but most of the mechanical and quite extensive alterations were already there. I was quite eye opening to find as I partially dismantled/worked on the bike to find that much more of the bike was altered than it appears at first glance. Just subtle stuff but widespread apart from the obvious biggies. A compliment to the previous owners is deserved. The paint is paint and not vinyl. The tank reacted once petrol was later introduced and kept on reacting despite my best remedial efforts. After quite a bit of online searching, I eventually found reference to Acerbis XL tanks being made of polythene and NOT plastic as such and that the polythene tanks are intended to "breathe". yes you got it - the tanks are "intended (???) to breathe. Why one may ask and to that I can not come up with a logical answer. Anyway Acerbis say that the tanks can not be painted or have any stickers or wraps as this will prevent the tanks breathing. Well actually it traps the vapour and bubbles are a result. I had to scrape the entire tank clean the late night before we trogged off on a Summer tour to the Dumfries area. I have a good metal tank which I will get round to painting in the Winter scheme and swapping in from time to time when not doing any long distance stuff.

The visual effectiveness of the pattern was not a prime concern as it is actually for my civilian use and is not intended to be any particular accurate replica. Nevertheless it is in the vein of WW2 Nordic pine forest/snow type camo with a spangly modern/retro pattern twist that evolved with every piece I painted. The disruptive pattern on this bike is not just the camo panels, it is the overall whole including the areas of dark mechanicals, light panels, dark rubber, light wheels, dark seat. light panniers etc all in an adjoining block matrix. Simple but effective. So there are 2 camo schemes for different ranges/backgrounds, the small paint pattern and the larger colour blocks interlocked and these also work together. Simple but complex all in one - lol. I do like camo and its theory. I believe in the Scandy theatre of war that the patterns did have relatively sharp edges on the vehicles to blend in with their surroundings.

Also in actual fact my last MT was the usual green all over and I wanted this one to stand out a bit more on the local UK roads for safety reasons as well as looking cool in some type of appropriate theme and it was also my favourite camo pattern, but although tempted for years I didn't dare do my 4x4 in it - as yet.

[Timelord]

Thanks Pete, the green cover is still most resplendent on the bike now as a result. I did originally wonder what prat had this made and fitted when there was a lovely big surface underneath just ready to be painted afresh. As you know, I now know why! lol. I suppose I could paint the vinyl cover to match - aaargh.. I do still wonder exactly how much the tank is allowed to breath with the vinyl cover on but I think the actual amount of vapour that bleeds through the tank walls is exceedingly minute. It just looks bad as a paint bubble steadily expands towards its nearby friends over a week long period. I know it is only a negligible quantity of vapour due to the flash test I performed - with a lighter ....lol. No fuel actually in the tank at this point

[Mr Shiney]

I love it.

[jamba]

I like it a lot!

[gegdonnell]

A Really cool job, hope you don't loose it when winter comes in the North.