Tamiya VFR 750R

I just checked with a friend who uses it. He said it will lose its shine if cleared over. He has not tried to use future though.

Sam wrote:I just checked with a friend who uses it. He said it will lose its shine if cleared over. He has not tried to use future though.

Wicked, nice one.. I was going to try it on a spoon but no need..

Today I did some bike chain and the forks + lots of small pieces. I’m about ready to make the frame up and for the engine.



I didn’t like the black bits inbetween the links so I mixed up titanium gold with normal gold and went back through the links.. looks better imo




I did a bit of the forks too ready for painting the fork seals and callipers

Today I put some clear on the white bits, the front bit came out ok but the tank and other parts needed some more so I’ll wait for it to dry off then try and flat it and add some more clear, if I mess it up, no biggie, it’s plain white. Next up, painting the fiddly bits on the engine nuts n stuff + the calipers

Did some more, was slightly worried about the chrome getting marked so I used my new thing I got from hlj on my last order. It’s basically a plastic sheet with masking tape stuck to it.




I’ve also in the past struggled with the hosing. So I thought about using a thin strand of wire down the middle then it will hold its shape when I need to bend it.



Don’t know if it will work yet, I’m not that far ahead

Are you spraying all these colours ....and not using brushes ?

Probably 95% sprayed, the tiny nuts are by hand and the larger one in the centre of the chain, may rub it down and spray it yet. It’s kinda annoying when everything is so flat then that bit has brush strokes .

I like the trick with the hoses. Looking forward to seeing how well it works.

The wires seemed to keep it straight but i cut the wires too long so it didn’t work properly, I’ll try it again another time.

Built the engine but had a little issue by snapping one of the mounting bits, bodged it with some clear heat sink and hope it works . Painted all the nuts on the engine I could find in mat black. There’s a few more little bits to glue on yet, hopefully without snapping anymore stuff.





Has anyone else put a bit of tape on top of the bottles and wrote the code on it?

Mounted the frame, was a struggle because the rear sprocket and chain threw me a little.. didn’t push the spacer in far enough for the back of the chain to sit within the swing arm.. worked it out and here it is.





Needed to put the wheel securing nut on too because the break disc fell of due to boring out the hole for it to fit.. didn’t need to do it either.. ooops

Really looks good.

Cheers buddy

I like how the different shades of silvers/charcoals, and washes give it so much more depth and character. I usually stick to the color chart.

Thanks Sam

I always go with the colour chart and had full intentions on doing it again but I think because I’ve built so many kits over a short amount of time that when I googled the bike I could break it down into tamiya colours and the chart is wrong in some places (compared to google) . I chose a 700 mile original bike too.
I naffed up the lower fairing, petrol tank, rear cowel and delta today though, Sanding through the clear on some parts then repainted the delta. Looked like I painted too early and the clear wasn’t cured underneath so when I hit it with paint I got crazing ooops. ‍� . They are all rubbed down now and the bike parts are primed again.
Handlebars next and YouTube vids on how to heat stain, wish me luck I’m dreading the exhaust.

You decided on a bike build yet?

Handlebars finished I think.

I’m confused, I primed, smoothed and painted the bike parts again. Something happened though, I’ve had it before and don’t know why it happens.
Does anyone know?



It did it on the lower fairing too but only in some places and not as bad as on the picture above.
I even went onto YouTube and watched a vid on painting , followed the instructions and it still did it.

Frustrating, isn’t it ?
It’s usually using incompatible paints, or the previous coat hasn’t fully cured to accepted the next coat of paint, or simply an oily patch caused by fingers. I think we all have experienced it at one time or another, and a simple answer is often not forthcoming. Stripping ALL the paint off and starting again is often the only answer, as just sanding back just leaves an edge that creates the same problem. Others might have better ideas.....I’d like to know..

Morning Ron.. that’s what I thought too but I’ve used the same brands together since the beginning and never had this problem.
I was put into a model site chatroom on Facebook the other day. Couple of people who were in here, are in there too.. Marcomoto and Dallas
So I put the pic in this chat and the first person said moisture in the system.
He knows his stuff! Straight to the compressor and gave it a shake.. sounded like a half full flask . Hardly anything in the moisture trap and a full brews worth in the tank . I haven’t emptied it in ages, totally forgot it existed..  so hopefully in a few hours I’ll have nice paint … fingers crossed

If you’re on Facebook the group is called ‘Road and track in scale’ it’s a closed group so you have to answer the questions before an admin will let you in, they have some really nice builds on there too

Good point - not using an airbrush that often I wouldn’t have thought of that.
Good luck with the next stage.

Cheers Ron.
Made sense when I thought about it .
I was wondering if my ab needed parts but they are expensive

You guys are up late....wait....I'm the one up late.
I have such a love/hate with my airbrush, I have yet to use my new one. It's been about six years since I last used one.

9:30 am here buddy
Why don’t you use -an airbrush?
And why type is the unused one?

Painted the fairings again and this time it didn’t do the thing.

If you zoom in you can see some faint crinkles but this was never going to be a museum piece so it’s staying as is.





More problems though, decals surprise surprise.. I was going to paint the colours on and use some tiny gold stripes which I thought were on the decal sheet, they are but part of the red, so options are.
#1 Paint it red anyway and bang the decals on over the top and hope for the best.
#2 Try to remove the gold lines from the red by expertly cutting them out like an absolute god which I’m not so I’ll knacker them up instead.
#3 Dont paint the red just use the decals hope it looks right
4# Use only part of the decal by cutting not so close to the gold line but still cutting them off the larger red part.
#5 paint the gold stripes over the paint joins at the same width over every single part of the bike where necessary.
I’m doomed!
4 seems the safest option to me with the hope that the x7 is the same colour as the red on the decal. I maybe able to print the decals off then use that as a template for masking the red but there’s no help with the blues unfortunately.
Why is it never easy when you want to make something that looks good.

I’m no expert - but the guys who build the models for the box-art are, and they are even retouched. I’d just go for the decals, just take your time, and if a few end up slightly out of place, it won’t be the ruin of the kit. .....and masking up to spray panel-work can lead to other problems.....but what do I know?

Thanks for the input Ron,

I’ve been thinking. Paint is cheaper than decals and I’ve got enough so it’s free and if I mess it up i can remove it by either sanding or putting it in a bath but if I kill the decals I’m screwed and they are expensive to replace. I’m really eager to do the Michelin Escort Cosworth and that needs painting side by side colours and is covered in bendy decals too.

I’ve got a couple of days to decide