In progress: Detailed 2004 Yamaha YZR-M1

[pettercardoso]

Last summer I built a Tamiya 1:12 bike and I loved it..and since then I've been buying several others, including the recent 2004 Team Gauloises M1. I really liked the livery and beeing aware of Tamiya's bike's quality and detail level, I didn't hesitate




No it's time to build it. I will try to detail it as far as my capabilities go.
First step was to glue the 2 halves of the gas tank and form the inside shape with epoxy putty. It's still a little rough, but it's coming along






The oil level "check points" were molded only to the engine block. The carter also has 1, so I drilled holes in the respective place to later detail them with homemade PE insides and acetate "glasses".



As you can see from this picture, the cluch cover is ventilated:


I made a pattern on masking tape and drilled them with a 0.3mm diameter drill bit. The picture is a little blurry..



I'm building the late season version, so I made the modifications to the cowlings and oil carter:





There is also the piece that holds together the frame and the steering box, wich was molded at the same level as the sides of the frame. I can't explain exactly what it is and I didn't take any pictures before I cut it to pieces . I cut them off and replaced them with thinner styrene sheet at the correct level, as per the reference picture:






I'll be using Lion Roar PE set, but I'm still waiting for it to arrive.

Thanks for looking.

[lotus_man]

Should be a good build. Must admit I fancy buildiung this one myself to go with the Rossi RCV I have... can I ask where you found the reference photographs?

[pettercardoso]

The photos are from the book:MotoGP Racers Archives 2004 that you can find on HLJ or HobbySearch.

I don't have a scanner, so I just borrowed a digital camera to take these pictures

Edit: Apparently, HLJ is out of stock..

1999.co.jp here

Thanks for looking,
Pedro.

[robrex]

Awesome! The progress so far is very good, I'm looking forward to the updates?

[RallyRaider]

Great stuff, I'll be watching all these bike builds closely.

[klutz_100]

impressive start!
look forward to learning a lot on this thread

[ImolaEK]

Awesome, Funny thing is that this morning i was actually watching a rerun i believe of motogp and Rossi won the German grand prix. I dont know much but his bike looks a bit like the one your building, might be the same but i don't pay much attention to them since i don't follow motogp too well.

Looking forward to seeing more Pedro

Cheers,

[sportracer02]

Hi,

these are very interesting details, keep up the great work

[BugZilla]

Outstanding work and attention to detail. Look forward to seeing alot more on your build.

Dave

[Zek]

Friend petter......it continues that fabulous work!!

[pettercardoso]

This is going pretty slow because it's been a very hot Summer with temperatures reaching 104 ºF (40 ºC)..It's been very tough on the forests too, everything is burning..

The swingarm was filled with epoxy filler and the stand supports were replaced with PE ones from LionRoar's set (wich is brilliant, I might add)
If you look closely, you can see that I also closed the shock absorver "hole" with styrene sheet. It now has a much cleaner and real look to it


The frame received the same treatment. You can also notice the bracket for the fuel tank. It's just a test part made out of 0.2mm brass sheet to check the correct dimensions.




That's it for now. Thanks for looking.

Cheers.

[klutz_100]

coming along really well.

Great detailing!

[joelwideqvist]

Thumbs up Petter!! Looking REALLY good, with great eye for the details. How did you create the rounded inner shape of the swing arm? Did you just fill it and then sand it down or did you use some other tool? It looks perfect.
Best regards
/Joel

[pettercardoso]

Thanks, Joel.

I used a very special tool indeed...my fingers and sandpaper!
Seriously, though..No, no tricks. Just filled it with epoxy putty and sanded back. The small blemishes and little air pockets were filled with Tamiya basic putty thinned with Revell Contacta glue. It works kinda like a really thick primer.


Thank you for looking!

Cheers.

[sjelic]

Great job Petter! Some realy nice details.