Yamaha YZR-M1 2013

[AlanG]

Originally Posted by DavidESP

Alan, if you say so, I'm sure we can take it to the bank.

Hmmmmmmm...

We are getting towards the end, and I can no longer put off making the fairings. The front fairing is first, and in fact the outer skin went together rather more easily than I expected.



The whole of the inside is lined with a second set of pieces, however. This is quite tricky to install while maintaining the smooth shape. No allowance has been made on the parts to allow for the paper thickness, so some trimming was needed to get a reasonable fit. The result is not truly beautiful, but it will not be seen very clearly, so will suffice.



Finally there is the instrument console and air duct from the scoop to the radiator.



Alan

[AlanG]

Now we come to the side and under cowling. I have been anticipating trouble with this for a long time, ever since I made the frame side members and tested them against the top of the cowling, in the flat. They didn't fit then, but I had hopes that once the cowling was shaped things might be a bit better. They are not.



Looking closely at the photographs of the test build in the assembly instructions, it is clear that the parts didn't fit for them either. At least it is not all down to my poor workmanship!



As an aside, there are tabs printed on both sides of this join - I suspect as a result of a last-minute change, perhaps in beta testing, which wasn't carried through to completion. I removed them from the edge of the cowling, as they clearly did for Yamaha's test build.

Looks like some adjustment is going to have to be done...

Alan

[AlanG]

Some adjustments later...

First things, straighten out the kink in the top edge about half-way back, and cut back the curve at the front a bit. This gave a much better fit to the frame, but left a dubious internal fit near to that kink. More tweaking sorted that out, and I now have something which I think I can work with.



Alan

[Vermin_King]

Nicely done. Maybe next time they release a complex model they should have you do the beta build. You could obviously give them honest and reliable feedback

[AlanG]

Originally Posted by Vermin_King

Nicely done. Maybe next time they release a complex model they should have you do the beta build. You could obviously give them honest and reliable feedback

Perhaps it wouldn't be translatable into Japanese

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With the top edge sorted out, the remainder of the side cowlings was tricky but not problematic. There were a few more spurious tabs around the openings, easily rectified.



The inside is again lined with a second layer of paper to darken it down. This I cut into smaller pieces to make fitting a little easier. The inner layer has most of the tabs for fixing the interiors of the cutouts, so can't just be omitted even though it will hardly be seen. You will notice a colour mismatch with the pieces behind the upper cutouts - I have been having a little trouble with my printer, fixed now I hope.



I had some trouble fitting the bottom piece joining the two halves together - my cowl sides wanted to taper in more significantly over the forward half, and then flare out right at the front, whereas the supplied part has straight sides for most of its length. I decided to fit a new shape to the existing sides rather than force them to fit or rebuild them.



Alan

[AlanG]

Now to start assembly of the completed blocks. The instructions recommend starting by fitting the engine to the frame, but I could see that the frame would need breaking apart at the rear to fit the rear arm, so chose to do this first.



Then came the engine, and not entirely surprisingly (!) it didn't fit too well. It wouldn't sit high enough in the frame to allow the rear spring to mount both top and bottom. It needed a bit of surgery to the top of the engine, and a prop to make the frame a little wider, to squeeze things in.



The rear mounting point of the suspension doesn't really line up with the rear arm brackets, but it's not too bad, and won't be seen anyway.

Alan

[romanmodels]

making good progress Alan.

[retunga]

Starting to come together, looking good.

[AlanG]

Thank you, gentlemen - we struggle onwards.

Next up is the rear wheel, to tidy up the back end, but first I elected to make the stand. I hadn't intended to do so, but after the fight with the engine and frame I felt like a little simple modelling for a change. It turned out to go together perfectly (phew!)



Now for the wheel itself.



Things start to look quite nice.

Alan

[Vermin_King]

Looking very good. I'm glad you are 'struggling through'. You are using your own version of tires, right?