Yamaha YZR500 Tamiya 1/12

[cor]

Hi all. Ive been asked to build a bike for a guy whose into moto GP. This bike was raced by a few teams, most notably by Kenny Roberts who won the world championships 3 years in a row.

There will be 4 sets of fairings depicting a different bike for various riders and teams.




Heres a few pics of the beginnings...

[cor]

Bit of work tonight modifying the engine.

[Twokidsnosleep]

You have my attention

[cor]

Bit more detail on the engine. Added the fuel lines.

This is what Im attempting to do with the kit:
The donor Tamiya YZR500 (OW48) kit and will convert it to the 1979 YZR500 (OW45) factory version, as well as the 1980 TZ500 Factory production bike leased to privateers that racing season.

[cor]

You have my attention

I know you like a bike or two. I like the engine work on these machines.
Ive aldo started a 1/12 Mp4/4 Mclaren by Meng, but its been on hold while Ive been working on some models for other people. Will but a wip up later for that.


I bought myself a set of high end drill bits from 0.3 to 3mm in 0.1mm increments, and a good pin vise.
It seems to be essential for adding the cables and lines. Wish I had one sooner.

[cor]

One more post for tonight...

Got the spark plugs in - I drilled out the plugs to fit a smaller cable. The Tamiya kits always have a too-thick cable for their engines I think.

Also mounted the engine into the frame. Its a lot easier to handle now and its been detailed up a bit with some pe bolts and painting.
The plug leads will go in tomorrow after the glue has fully set.



Looking good so far.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Lovely, just lovely
Nice clean paintwork and mods

[Kevthemodeller]

Some lovely work

[cor]

Lovely, just lovely
Nice clean paintwork and mods

Thanks Scott, its good to work on these raw engine machines.

Some lovely work

Thanks Kev. I know you like a bike too.




Bit of work on the fairings. All sanded and primed.

[digger303]

Sweet as always.

[cor]

Sweet as always.

Started on some decals. Lots of curves, so a real pain to get them to contour. I use Tamiya's Mark Soft Strong.
The red on the back cowl is also too short, so I'll have to match the colour to extend it to the edges.
Overall looking pretty good though. A nice clean colour scheme for Johnny Cecotto

Johnny Cecotto is a Venezuelan former professional Grand Prix motorcycle racer and auto racer.
He rose to prominence as a teenage prodigy in 1975 when he became the youngest motorcycle road racing world champion at the age of 19

[digger303]

[cor]

Jonny Cecotto's fairing is mostly done. Moving onto Kenny Roberts, 3 times in a row world champ 78 - 80

Kenny Roberts












Heres a sample of spot models decals compared to the old Tamiya decals that came with the kit. [Tamiya at the bottom.]
Spot models need to get a far better resolution with printing. They really are quite inferiour. So Im using the Tamiya ones for this fairing.




Reference pic of the bike to copy, different to Tamiya's reference. They chopped and changed stickers a lot - even the instructions say a 'Canon sticker was sometimes seen on the bike.'

[Twokidsnosleep]

Aways love how a model kit truly comes alive with the decals
This looks great
I hope you are making appropriate motor noises with your mouth as you put this together....I would be

[cor]

Aways love how a model kit truly comes alive with the decals
This looks great
I hope you are making appropriate motor noises with your mouth as you put this together....I would be

The instructions tell you at what stages to make the mandatory noises.

[cor]

Some work on the swing arm.

[cor]

Some work on the second of the four fairings. Lots of headaches with this as the bike required modification to the decal setup of the kit bike. A few different sets of decals were needed to get it right, so its a bit rough but still looks pretty impressive.

One think I like about this kit is the thickness of the fairing is nice and thin, in line with scale for the real thing. Sometimes these parts are way over thickness.











The aluminium foil on the rear swing arm turned out nice. Its always a bit thicker than paint, so it can obscure detail, but no paint comes close to the metallic look of real metal.

[digger303]

Your foiling skills have really improved. The swing arm looks flawless I can't see a join at all.
I really like the decals too as a standout.

[cor]

Your foiling skills have really improved. The swing arm looks flawless I can't see a join at all.
I really like the decals too as a standout.

Thanks man. The foiling I've been doing in small sections.

[cor]

I got stuck in over the last few days and have almost finished the chassis.
The fairings have been painted, and the last 2 will have the decals done this week.

The chassis needed a few small mods as the front forks will have to come off for each fairing swap for the photos, and I added a bit of pe bolt heads and the like, and the usual aluminium foil on the front discs and upper forks, some extra pipes from those white bottles on the front of the frame, and a pe grille on the front of the radiator. Overall, its come up pretty good.

























And saw this at the LHS. I think I want to build some more bikes, the 1/12 engines are what Im into. This more modern kit looks the business, and after I bought it I discovered it was ridden by the son of the guy who rode the one Im currently building, Kenny Roberts Jnr.

[digger303]

Cool.
You've been busy this weekend. Marvellous work

[Twokidsnosleep]

That looks sweet
The shots outside make it look so real

Gotta love bikes, they are very addictive to build

[Kevthemodeller]

Spot on very nice work

[cor]

Cool.
You've been busy this weekend. Marvellous work

Thanks digger

That looks sweet
The shots outside make it look so real

Gotta love bikes, they are very addictive to build

Thanks scott. You're right. Very addictive indeed these bikes

Spot on very nice work

Thanks Kev

Heres some test samples of the finished bike. The final product for this build is the photos, not the finished model. There are 4 fairing sets to photograph it in...


photo of the real bike

[cor]

All 4 fairings complete and photographed.

Here's some samples. Turned out pretty good, and has got me motivated to build another bike as my next build.