Red Bull Yamaha

Red Bull Yamaha

 

This is a Tamiya kit, and like nearly everything Tamiya makes it is of very high quality. The kit is molded in white and silver/gray plastic, with rubber tires and a full set of decals and dry transfers. One of the coolest features of these bike kits are that the body panels are held on with screws and can be removed to show all the detail underneath.

Even the fuel tank swings up to show more detail:

The Build:

This one only the second motorcycle kit I've ever built, and it was a challenge. The assembly sequence for some parts made painting a little tricky, and the amount of exposed detail made it necessary to get rid of all mold marks and flash lines.

Like most of my models, I started with putting together sub assemblies of major components to look for any issues in the final assembly and painting.

drive assembly

frame

completed chassis

frame, engine and intake

I started with the drive assembly, frame and engine. The great thing about this kit is that a lot of it will fit together without glue. This made test fitting relatively painless. Parts that had any seams were filled with Squadron Green filler putty.

working coil-over suspension

After test fitting, I took the model back apart to start painting. Since I am building this kit straight from the box, I followed the paint instructions closely. I painted the tank, fenders, and body panels metallic blue. After letting the paint cure for about a week, followed with a clear coat of Future (now Pledge) acrylic floor polish. A lot of modelers use Future for clearcoating, as it levels out beautifully and can be applied simply by dipping the parts. It also doesn't have nasty fumes so you can use it indoors.

After this stage of painting, I couldn't resist fitting the body to the frame, just to see how it looked.

Once the body panels were cured, I began working on permanent assembly and painting of the rest of the bike. The frame, wheels, and intake were painted gloss black, and the engine, exhaust pipes and suspension components were painted various shades of silver, gold and steel.

 Once all the components were painted, I put the frame and body panels together again to apply the decals. This was necessary because the graphics on this bike cross several panel breaks, and cutting the decals apart beforehand was not a risk I was willing to take.

The decals were applied with generous coatings of Micro-Sol decal solution. This product softens the decal and allows for it to conform to irregular surfaces. It took several coats, but eventually the decals settled into place. I'll be going into more detail about using it on my current 'big' personal project.

Once everything was painted and cured, final assembly could begin. There was still some detail painting to do as well, mostly on the brake components and suspension. The swing arm and mufflers also had decals which needed to be applied, as well as the dry transfers for the tires.

After the majority of assembly was done, I had to route the shift and brake lines, which are made from vinyl tubing. They were a little tricky to bend without kinking but otherwise went on fairly easily.

The exhaust pipes were the last pieces to go on before closing everything up. Even though you can't see much of them once the bike is assembled they got the same level of attention.

The whole project took about two months from start to finish, which is pretty quick for me as I generally divide my time among several projects. This one hooked me though. The finished kit is about 6.5" long.

Despite the complexity of the kit itself, all the techniques I used were fairly basic. No airbrushing was involved, all paint was applied either with rattle cans or brushed. If you like a challenge, these Tamiya bike kits are great, and with a little work they will look phenomenal.