Tamiya 1/12 Yamaha YZR500 "Kenny Roberts" OW48

[Mumbly]

They certainly were different times.  Go to the Suzuki or Yamaha dealer and buy an RG or TZR, a service kit and the tune up goodies that you could afford, load up the Transit and go racing.  
 

It was Honda getting serious with the NS500 that really killed the true privateer, as this raised the bar for Yamaha and later Suzuki having to follow.  Still, this era bike does benefit with a simpler subject, no electronics making life easier.

4 minutes ago, klubman01 said:

Modern MotoGP is still infinitely more entertaining than F1.  It's proper racing, with lots of overtaking, and really close.  Granted, there are no true privateers anymore (the same has been true for F1 for many, many years), but the satellite teams are on competitive machines, and God bless Tech 3 for finally getting the win they really deserved.  I think the whole paddock was really chuffed for them when Miguel Olivera won the Styrian GP.

Trevor

Totally agree with you Trevor.  I used to avidly watch F1, going back to the Seventies (along with other racing, 1st memory of the BOAC 1000 km at Silverstone in a downpour, not sure the year).  Today, if it is on I will watch it out of interest, but it is too contrived.

 

MotoGP, and Moto3 are spectacular entertainment, less so Moto2, but still leagues better than F1 on the tv

Edited September 1, 2020 by Mumbly

[Mumbly]

Not much to report on this as I have been mulling over an issue that has been at the back of my mind since I started the bike.  It is also really non-descript, but I think it not being resolved makes it stick out to me.  It is all on the seat unit.  Firstly, an eternity spent on removing the gap of the two halves has touch-wood been sorted, my attention was focussed on the attachment knobs.  These are turned aluminium, and are also used on the OW70 kit that I have in the stash, so I wanted to get this fixed.

 

This is what Tamiya provide:

 

 

And this is what it is meant to look like:

 

 

So, after much head scratching dress pins were the excellent alternative.  A small bit of 1.5mm rod and problem solved!

 

 

It is close enough for me, and when cut to length (these are just poked in) it will pass.

 

This has been holding me back, I can now get some yellow on the seat and tank and start to focus on the front end.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Tony

[heloman1]

On 8/27/2020 at 6:10 PM, Mumbly said:

Thanks for that Colin, it will be 2 years in October!

 

Tony

Good news mate, I lost my wife to it five years ago. She put up a valiant battle but it beat her!

 

My build is sidelined at present.

 

Colin

[Mumbly]

Sorry to hear that Colin, I lost my dad to it but mum and brother fought it off.  It doesn't care who you are, you just need a bit of luck and good care.

 

Minor disaster with the handle bar, I think this was as a result of using one from the spare kit as it had fallen off the sprue.  This had been painted originally, so the removal of the paint may have weakened it.

 

 

Not to worry. A drill out the original and replace with some 0.9mm brass tube and it as good as new.

 

 

I also drilled out the accelerator for the cables and removed the brake connector and used some 0.7mm brass tube to connect the bolts for the banjo connectors from RB Motion.  Also, the hole for the screw has been countersunk to make it go away when the forks have been installed.

 

 

Also, time to start the body work.  I gave the Tamiya LP8 Pure Yellow a go.  While it went on flawlessly it looked wrong.  The Yamaha America livery is one of my favourites, so I had to buy some colour matched Zero Paints Kenny Roberts YZR500 Yellow.  This is spot on, and went on over the LP8 perfectly.  Some Zero Paints Clearcoat Lacquer was then applied and it was time for the trade mark block stripes.

 

These are some shots with the tanks and seat just balanced, and I have since finished the tank filler caps.  Next time will have these parts done, along with all of the finishing details.

 

 

 

Fairing is on the next thing to do list, and I am guessing the fit will be like the seat unit, so many attempts to fill the gaps.  I have worked out that it will be best to build it, then cut the belly-pan away.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Tony

 

 

[heloman1]

Coming together nicely, Re the dress makers pins, if you check out the beading shops (crap booking to) they have all sorts of goodies that can be used on bike builds.

 

Colin

[puffyrs]

Coming on well .remember watching KR at Brands near me

[Mumbly]

Slow progress since my last post.  The needle washer on the airbrush had perished which explained why I was getting sputtering from it.  Finally got a replacement one, and I am waiting on some beeswax to further seal it.  Once this had arrived, I was able to clear coat over the decals, and paint the triple clamp and clip-ons, much masking required. 

 

These have now been finished off, along with the loose cables for the clutch and throttle as well as the banjos and front brake lines.

 

The seat and tank are now fitted, along with some new cable ties (wire painted white) and the breather tube from the tank.

 

With the top steering assembly in place, the cocktail stick front-end has now given way to a pencil sharpener, so I am going to concentrate on the forks, wheel and brakes next.  The fairing can wait.

 

Anyway, here are some pictures.

 

Thanks

 

Tony

 

 

[Mumbly]

Forks on!  Which is less rude than fork off!

 

The original idea was to possibly use stainless tubes for the fork legs, but with Tamiya’s way of linking everything together I had to park that idea.   I had spent time making copies of the originals with Blue Stuff / Milliput and also in resin, and I was able to separate the callipers from the fork legs and make some new brackets out of some strip plastic.

 

So, with this in mind, and after removing the chrome from the kit parts, I removed the callipers from the forks.  This then allowed the forks, brackets and brakes to be painted separately and to get some colour difference in as well.

 

 

 

This is what I did, but I forgot to take any progress pictures until I had it all assembled.  Anyway, the brass tube is for location to the forks and brakes and then I used some 1.2 mm MasterClub nuts to finish them off.

 

Also, there is some photo etch replacements for the forks too, not sure what they are for though, could be pre-load or rebound adjustment, but on the kit they are part of the moulding, and looked a bit ropey. 

 

For the fork tubes, I used some chrome bare metal foil, and this has come out much better than expected.  The fork sliders are painted with AK Xtreme Metal matt aluminium with some Gauzy shine enhancer.  The brackets are the same but with some Tamiya matt clear, and the callipers are Vallejo magnesium with matt clear and a bit of flat aluminium dry brushed over.

 

The discs have photo etch additions, and again a mixture of matt aluminium, magnesium and more resin nuts (0.8mm this time).  The brake lines are attached as well, thought they are hard to see.

The screw for the axle is temporary, as I have a brass tube and some bolt covers to add.  As is the headstock bolt, then it is the fairing! 

 

Here are the pictures of a proper looking Yamaha on two wheels.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Tony

 

 

 

 

 

[Mumbly]

Nearly done!

 

I decided a while back to go with a half fairing so as to show off the engine etc.  Also, the forks will not be coming off as the screw through the headstock will be covered, so removing the fairing later is not going to happen.

 

Tamiya’s excellent etched saw blades cut through the fairings at the join, and I temporarily added some card to act as supports for the top and bottom for painting and decals later.  Apart from that and the screws being drilled through, the only chore was the filling of the gap in the two halves.

 

I have to mention how good Zero Paints are, I have now used their Primer, the yellow and their clear lacquer without any issues.  I do have nearly a full bottle of KR Yamaha yellow left over, which I cannot imagine using elsewhere.

 

I have a final gloss to seal the decals and a rather prominent decal malfunction on the black of the RHS of the belly pan to fix, plus the screen, front axle, headstock and a better paddock stand to make and this will be finished!

 

I am thinking of building the spare kit as the 2nd bike in the garage in a state of rebuild, engine out cylinder head and barrels off, wheels off etc, but not next as I have not decided on the next one in the stash.

 

Anyway, a few pictures.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Tony

 

 

 

 

[silver911]

Very nicely done mate...also like the idea of the stripped out bike to accompany it later

 

Ron

[NigeG]

Looks superb 👍

[Mumbly]

Never counting your chickens is oh so true.

 

Final details now complete, screen attached and upper fairing attached, tick! Front axle instead of chunky screw, tick! Headstock screw covered with bolt, tick! Paddock stand started, tick! Decal repair, tick!  Masking tape ripping other bits of decal off, tick!  sh*t, f**k, bu**er, ar*e and other sentence enhancers. 

 

But, looking at the bright side, I now have a cunning plan worthy of Baldrick. 

 

As part of repairing the first decal I took a scan/copy of my spare set of decals.  The decal that needed to be fixed was the black belly pan decal, it is quite large with many curves.  From the copy I could place some Tamiya tape over where the damaged section of curve is and then cut this out with scissors, a perfect template.  This tape mask was easily placed on the belly pan providing a perfect match.  I had already put down a few coats of clear and had flattened the ridges and edges down with some Micromesh, so some X1made it good.  What I failed to do, was use Tamiya tape throughout, so some general-purpose masking tape, which was not even pressed down to cover against overspray became the spawn of Satan. 

 

Not to worry, I have the masters to make a new curve to fix the number 1 background, and the speed blocks are square, so that is a case of following the existing lines and use some more X1 and the Yamaha KR Yellow.

 

Lesson learnt!  From now on, always scan my decals and print a copy. More clear coats.  And stop being cheap!

 

Anyway, the bike with a finished half-fairing picture:

 

 

Paddock stand:

 

 

Arrggghhhh!!! picture:

 

 

It's all good fun

 

Tony

[Mumbly]

Final update on this one. 

 

Paddock stands are now done.  I have repaired the torn black decals, but have left the yellow as is, getting a colour match was too much so I decided to leave it as is. 

 

I will load a couple of images and then post in RFI.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Tony

 

 

 

 

RFI 

 

Edited November 21, 2020 by Mumbly