Way back when I was a youngfella I built this. At the time I hadn’t really advanced to painting everything, and was happy with the idea of the yellow plastic being the right colour. So when Tamiya re-released it as their “100th 1/12 motorcycle” I decided to give it a go.

The kit though nearly 30 years old wasn’t half bad. Little or no flash and pretty well detailed. I decided to do this as an “out of the box” model, with no after market parts.

I started into the build and mostly followed the direction of the instruction, as over the years I have found that Tamiya usually have this spot on, and about the only thing I might do is skip ahead and paint up the shiny fairing parts so they are nice and dry when it comes to handling them.

The first thing to do was assemble the engines main structures. There is the cylinders and lower halves which are both different colours. So I kept them separate until painted. I used Alclad2 paints for these parts, so they were primed using Halfords grey primer, then Halfords gloss black as this is what is required to get the best finish with Alclad 2. The upper half was finished with Alclad Chrome, and the lower half with Alclad Aluminium with a drop of Humbrol black to darken it to the correct colour.

I then went on to paint the carbs, which were again painted with a mix of Alclad Aluminium and Humbrol Black, however a darker mix that used before. The tops of the carbs were to be painted a light yellow. This was a mix of Tamiya acrylics. I think it is important to have parts like this done right, as it gives a nice contrast to the “metal” colours used all around. I then painted parts like spark plugs, and various bits of detail around the motor all using Tamiya acrylics.

I gave the whole assembly a wash of black oil, first to bring out the detail, and second they engines were pretty scruffy back in them days!

Next I moved on to all the little bits that take up time, for example; the chain. The sprockets were painted using a mix of alclad and black, the chain itself was painted by hand with Tamiya acrylic Aluminium and each of the pins were done with Tamiya Gun metal. Then the whole thing was washed with black oil paint.

I then moved on to assemble the frame and swing arm. These bits needed a little filling and sanding on the joints, but there was not fitting problems at all. The frame was painted Gloss Black, and the swing arm/shock was all painted with Alclad Chrome. I also painted the wheels using Tamiya Gold.

I assembled all these parts so that I could move on to the exhausts, which I wanted to do a bit of test fitting for.

At this point I wanted to test fit the exhausts, as they had hollow areas which I wanted to see if it was ok to fill. It turned out there was only one area which couldn’t be as it wouldn’t fit against the frame properly if it was filled. So I filled all the other holes using Isopon (I like the smell), sanded them, and primed them. One thing that was missing was welds. On the real thing each exhaust is made up of a number of parts welded together to give the right shapes for the expansion areas as it is a two stroke engine. These welds are very obvious so I wanted to add them in. I had some good pictures of the bike, and used thinly cut masking tape to make each joint, then put on some primer over the tape.

This is one of my favourite parts! With the exhausts primed, they are next painted Gloss Black, then Alclad Chrome. It is important to have a good metallic finish before going on to the next steps, and also give a coat of Kleer floor polish to protect the chrome.

Each part of the exhaust changes colour depending on how heat builds up at each area. Around each weld Tamiya Clear Blue is airbrushed on, then between the welds Clear Orange. Then parts of the two colours are darkened with Tamiya Smoke (clear black). Next, a very thin mix of Matt Black (90% thinner) is build up with the airbrush. Finally each weld is given a wash of black oil paint. The only way to really get this right is to refer to as many photos of the real thing you can get. If you cant get enough photos of the exact bike, at least refer to other two stroke exhausts.

Next I wanted to complete the bike without the fairings, I felt the chrome on the forks looked a little thick and hid detail. I removed it using a fiber glass pencil , then repainted them using a Alclad Chrome.

I felt I had to add a little extra detail here. The kits shows that there should be brake cables and clutch cables only. I added a temp gauge cable, tacho cable and 2 throttle cables. There is no speedo on these racing bikes!

Now the next part was actually done much earlier, but, for the purpose of the write up, I am putting it at the end. Fairings…

I assembled all the separate parts and filled /sanded the joints. I primed them with Halfords White Primer. I rubbed this down before I put the top coat of yellow, white and black on. I used Tamiya Yellow polycarbonate, which I decanted from the aerosol can and airbrushed on.

Next were the decals, which were the only thing that was bad with the kit. I’m surprised they didn’t sort these out before re-releasing the kit. They really showed their age and were very thick. The large black decals were the worst! Even with the use of Microsol it was hard to get them to bend well. In the end, I put them on as best I could, and any bits that were bad, I removed with a sharp blade and touched the area up with black.

I left all the parts for two days and then used Halfords clear lacquer to give a top coat. I was very happy with the results. I like this lacquer as after only drying for one night it doesn’t seem to take any nasty finger prints! I then put on the fairings and added a it of clear pipe coming out of the petrol tank which wasn’t included in the kit (breather pipe).

I then noticed that there was a steering damper on the real thing. I made one out of scrap parts. I wanted to put this on as it is a very visible part on the model.

All in all this is still a great kit, and I have the Laguna Seca 50th anniversary Yamaha that was done in the same livery to build. I think they will look great together.

By Lee McGuire

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