Tamiya 1/12 Red Bull Yamaha
WCM YZR 500 '99

By Tony Paton

Introduction

For more information regarding the history of this bike, please read my 'First Look' article that appeared last month. Basically I modeled the Gary McCoy version of this bike as he is Australia's leading hope in this years 500gp championship after the great, five-time world champion, Mick Doohan retired after succumbing to injury.

Construction

Special Paints

Tamiya created special spray paint for this bike called 'Pearl Blue'. I had this imported from Rainbow Ten in Japan. The instruction states that 'Mica Blue' can be used as well. I also imported the special new metallic enamel colours they have for their bike kits. They were X-31 Titanium Gold, X-32 Titanium Silver and X-34 Metallic Brown. Where used they made a big difference, especially X-32 for the exhaust pipes. The Repsol Honda 98 500Gp bike gave instructions for what paints to mix to make these colours.

Painting Woes

Body cowls were removed from their sprues and glued to tooth picks. They were then sanded with 1200-grit sandpaper and sprayed with matt white undercoat. After it dried I applied the special spray paint to the various parts. To my horror, hundreds of tiny bubbles appeared in the paintwork. Curiously only some parts were affected while the others looked ok. I sanded and sprayed again, some parts the bubbles returned while others they didn't. On the parts that were ok the first time, now bubbles appeared on them. I couldn't and still can't work out what happened. Others have suggested mold release agent bubbling to the surface but I had washed all sprues in warm soapy water and dried beforehand. Many days and a whole spray can later, 90% of the cowls came up all right. Some were a little bit scarred but I let them be, as I knew they would be covered by decals. I can only put it down to a bad batch of paint.

Decals

There are not many decals to apply as the major sponsor has a basic scheme. The large 'Red Bull' decals, for the side, applied very well and conformed to the body. The front cowl decal was a bit too big with both bull tails braking off. Maybe they should have produced the bulls as a separate decal to avoid this in future. A bit of Microsol was needed to force this decal to conform to the well-rounded cowl. The small white 'Yamaha' decals that apply on the sides of the front cowl are very soft and much care is needed. One of these was half destroyed in the process. A bit of white touch up paint cured this. Once dried, a coat of Testors Gloss coat was applied. Even on toothpicks, the completed body works looked superb.

Construction of the Chassis

Right from the beginning you must choose which rider you want to replicate. This is due to one rider using a hand brake for his rear brake (instead of a foot brake) and others having a different style of clear canopy on the cowl.

The engine block and swing arm were completed as the body parts dried. The wheels were sprayed black while the frames was sprayed semi-gloss black.

The large tires were mounted onto a torch (flashlight) handle and a large grinder was used to rough up the surface. This takes half the time required to do by hand sanding. Only use one of these if you know what you are doing. It is easy to loose a finger or totally destroy the tire. Front fork problems

Front Forks

As I stated in my 'first look' article, the stage where the front forks are completed looked to be the most complicated. It turned out to be so. I believe that Tamiya should really have made this area easier to follow. Especially when the two fork parts have to be inserted into their respective holes. Pushing them in they stop a fraction of an inch below where they should, and a lot of force is needed to get them up to the right height. I didn't do anything wrong, overpaint etc so I'm not sure why it was so hard to get into position. I suggest, leave out putting on the brake tubes and handle bars, until you get these parts to the right height by placing the top part they finish up at (A53) on top. I managed not to break anything (so I thought at the time) but one of the forks would not move any higher. So it is lower by about 1/8 of an inch which makes the wheel sit on an angle. It looks like the wheel is turning so it doesn't look that bad but I wasn't happy.

Exhausting Times

The exhaust pipes and mufflers were painted using the new X-32 titanium silver. They came up a treat and for the more adventurous out there, there is a great opportunity to add extra detail to make them more realistic. The mufflers are covered with decals to make them look like carbon fiber. Take care with these decals, as they are very soft to handle. Perfect placement is essential, as you do not want to move them much. Paint the whole muffler as these decals are just a bit see-through.

Final Construction

The body cowls were then attached to the body. The front cowl had the clear canopy attached along with a cover for the on board camera. The small decals were also placed on the canopy. Wait for the sun visor decal to dry here before attaching it to the bodywork or it will move or rip while you try to get it into position.

The seat cowl is attached to the chassis via screws and is in two parts. This is to allow the top pair of exhaust pipes to be screwed onto the insides of this cowl. So when painting and decaling, attach the two together by masking tape on the inside. When the decal has dried, cut the decals with a knife to avoid ripping them when you separate the parts again. After attaching the pipes, glue back together with white glue to avoid spoiling the paintwork.

The side cowls were a little tricky but not impossible. Another problem which also occurred due to Tamiya's instructions for the forks, the front brake tubing gets in the way of one cowl. It is impossible to attach it, so I had to cut the tube and place it inside the cowl after I attached it. I suggest feeding the tube to the rear of the camera holder near the radiator and glue it to the handle bar using that route.

The fuel tank is then placed into position. It is unique as it can swing up to show off the motor etc. Remember how I thought during the fork process I didn't break anything? Wrong! I broke one of the small clips that help the tank to swing up. So now the tank sits there and if I want to view the interior I have to take it off. This is how it works on the Honda GP bikes so I suppose it could be a blessing if some else was to mess with it and break it.

Finally the undercowl is attached. This is also not glued as it can be removed as well.

Conclusion

I had finally finished. The bike looks great at all angles and the color scheme is certainly striking. The problem with the paint and forks etc, meant I didn't enjoy the creation process at all. So I hope that if you are attempting this kit in the future that you'll find my descriptions of problems helpful and avoid all the traps that caught me out. Good luck and enjoy!