Red Bull Project

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Tamiya 14076 Red Bull Yamaha YZR500 '99

This project started early in February 2000.
After getting the necessary paints and reading Tamiya Model Mag's feature on this kit, I started with assembling the tank, front fender and  seat unit. Instead of putty I filled the seams with super glue, worked really well. All parts to be painted Pearl Blue were primed and sanded. The TS-PB was sprayed on, but next morning bubbles had appeared all over the place. My advise to people trying this spray paint is to spray really thin coats and take several hours of drying time in between. That's what I did after sanding the bike down and it worked a lot better. I would also recommend a silver primer because the PB is quite thin.
When the bodywork was finished I "saved" what was left of the TS-PB using Coaster's method so that I can airbrush if I need to touch up something.

The frame was assembled and along with the rear swing airbrushed with Badger engine black acrylic paint. The engine and air intake are molded together, so some masking is required here. The air intake was airbrushed with Tamiya X-18, and then some subtle "carbon" texture was applied with dark gray paint sprayed on through a mesh. (the mesh comes with the Tamiya Super Blackbird kits) 
The airintake were masked off and then the engine block was sprayed XF-56, when this had dried i masked the engine block with maskol and airbrushed the cylinders with Non-buffing aluminium metalizrer from Model Master. The radiator and piping were done at the same time.
The exhaust pipes and several other parts (as per the instructions) got a coating of X-32 (titanium silver) wich sprayed very well. Heat discoloration was then applied to the exhausts using clear blue (X-23) and clear orange (X-26) before decaling the mufflers. The rear disc was sprayed with Humbrol polished steel, and the caliper was drybrushed with X-31 (titanium gold). The brake hose end was painted chrome silver and then detailed with clear blue and clear red acrylics. The finished chassis looks like this:

The bodywork was decalled and test fitted. I think the Pearl Blue is good looking but it does not look like the real bike's finish.
I did not like Tamiya Model Mag's Red Bull too much to begin with, but I'm starting to like it more and more, the finish they accomplished with Cycle Style Plateau Blue and silver base coat looks much closer to the real bike than the TS-PB I used. I am not that excited about their weathering though. Here's a pic of my Red Bull almost finished:

I had to touch up the yellow on the front decal, Tamiya X-8 mixed with a touch of X-6 gave a pretty close match.

This page was last updated on 03/19/00.