Tamiya 1/12 Yamaha YZF-R1M "Tech21"

[Stef N.]

The following is a version of the racing bike that run the Suzuka 8hr 2019, which in turn was based on the livery from the 80s version. This is the R1M rather than the actual R1 and after a lot of research, including Japanese twitter, I can find no evidence that this really existed except in the imagination of Studio 27 decals and me.

 

So using the base Tamiya YZF-R1M kit, the Studio 27 decals, Planet Japan Blog, other internet sites and artistic licence I have been making the following. Please let me know of any mistakes, glaring errors,poor workmanship etc..

 

 

Like all Tamiya bike kits the engine and other body parts fall together. Mostly painted with Tamiya lacquer semi-gloss black, AK alumimnium, Tamiya acrylic gold and chrome.

 

 

I invested in a new, powerful extractor unit so now I can use Zero Paints far more safely. I originally undercoated with Tamiya spraycan primer but due to a lack of accuracy I missed some areas properly and the ZP was too powerful for the plastic. (White primer on white plastic is hard to be fair). So I bought some Mr Surfacer and airbrushed it on and the results were far better. Great stuff that. I've glossed a couple of parts with Tamiya Lacquer and that stuff works well.

 

Thanks for looking and I will update soon. 👍

Edited August 22, 2020 by Stef N.
Shrinking photos.

[tyketraveller]

Looking good there👍

[Stef N.]

A small update. Exhausts, radiator and other bits painted and attached. No major problems except the larger pipes were a bit of hard work. Being quite short they were tending to bend rather than flex.

 

Some things I've learned: Tamiya lacquer metallics spray very nicely and the flat aluminium is ten times better than their acrylic version. It has much finer particles so less glitter. I tried a pin wash on the radiator but it worked only so well. It was either too dark or not enough so will have to work on this and do some trials.

[Stef N.]

One thing I like about bike modelling is the amount of practice I get with the airbrush, Some sections give you much more practice than others. The following is the front fork section and its multiple parts with multiple colours. The blue parts were painted at the beginning and have been sat curing for ages*. For the forks I was going to use Tamiya's choice of clear orange over gold but it didn't look right to me so a mix of AK's brass and light brass (which is actually darker??) at about 50/50 seems to have worked ok. The rubber in the tire was hard to rub down. It could have been due to the recent heat but it seemed to smear the rubber rather than erase the seam. As was advised in a previous build I drilled out the holes on the brakes and yes, that little bit extra effort does get a better result.

Anyway, all painted and fitted together. The only trouble was the large screw,used to attach the forks to the bike,popped some of the glued parts, so a reglueing and an overnight curing was done and worked. Trying to get things done too quickly again.

*I thought I had painted all the fairings together but getting to the end of the build I found two rogue parts that I had forgotten about lurking in the box. Ho-hum.🥴

 

 

 

[Mumbly]

I have the Fujimi Tech 21 FZ750 on the bucket list, but they are starting to ask silly money on Electronic Bay, so fingers crossed they re-issue it.

 

Looking forward to the finished article.

[Stef N.]

Nearly done. A couple more steps and a long weekend means I should have it finished. Getting to that stage where I want to move on to another project so I'll have to stop myself from rushing it though.

 

The Fujimi FZR was one of the first bike kits I did and really nice it is too. I was a bit out of my depth though, using new paints and techniques that I made a complete mess of the fairings and so it sits on my shelf "half naked". Will definitely go back to it now that I know more.

P.s. Try Kent Models as they still have it at a reasonable price.

[gamblor916]

Nice work! This should look nice in that 2 tone purple. I have this in progress too in an old school red white scheme.

[Alan R]

18 hours ago, Stef N. said:

*I thought I had painted all the fairings together but getting to the end of the build I found two rogue parts that I had forgotten about lurking in the box. Ho-hum.🥴

How often have I done that!

Just about every model that have recently worked on, I always find a couple of parts that I missed spraying!
The last was my Taniya Nissan GTR R32 NISMO special. I forgot the door mirrors.

In the end, I couldn't be bothered to crack out the airbrush and brush painted them. 'twas Zero Mica Red. Got away with it as they were very small!

 

Cheers,

Alan.

[Stef N.]

On 29/08/2020 at 14:09, Alan R said:

How often have I done that!

Just about every model that have recently worked on, I always find a couple of parts that I missed spraying!
The last was my Taniya Nissan GTR R32 NISMO special. I forgot the door mirrors.

In the end, I couldn't be bothered to crack out the airbrush and brush painted them. 'twas Zero Mica Red. Got away with it as they were very small!

 

Cheers,

Alan.

These were the offending little items. 4 seperate bits of spraying necessary as they are rather prominent bits of the tail end.

 

[Stef N.]

Anyway, this is the last part for this section. I'll post up an RFI when the fairings are decalled and installed. Touch wood it goes together well.

 

 

Thanks for looking in and comments. Not the most rivetting or informative of WIPs but its been good for me to get my work shown. Cheers all.👍