Aoshima 1/12 Yamaha V-Max '90 - Notes

The bright chrome sprue suffers from some sink marks in the mirror faces and dust in the chrome coating. A bottle of Alclad II Chrome would be nice to have in order to fix this by stripping and refinishing. I just used the parts as is and touched up the gate marks with Model Master Chrome Silver and left the mirrors off the finished model.

The instructions are quite clear. But since they are written in Japanese, study the instruction carefully and make your own notes on the instructions before starting the kit. Here are some notes describing how my assembly differed from Aoshima's. 

Since I don't use Gunze Sangyo paints, here is a list of paints that I used:

Step #1 & 2
The self cleaning holes were drilled out using a micro drill in a pin vise. The discs were painted with BAP on the braking surface and the centers were painted with NBS.

Note: the alignment pins on the rear disc are off by 60 degrees causing the bolt head to be misaligned. I trimmed off the pins and aligned the disc properly on the rear wheel. 

Step #3
The upper portion of the forks were masked off with Tamiya masking tape and then the lower half stripped an painted with NBA. The calipers were painted with BEX and sealed. Be sure to get the wheel rotation direction right as it is very difficult to remove the wheel once the forks are assembled. The brake lines and speedometer cable were heat formed so they could be routed properly.

Step #4
I assembled, cleaned up and painted the swingarm first and then added the wheel and caliper. The caliper bracket was painted with NBA and the caliper with BEX and sealed. I used Humbrol Maskol to mask the bracket before painting the caliper.

Step #5, 6, 7 & 8
After some more dry fitting I discovered that it is possible to shoehorn the engine into the frame after assembling the frame. Just be sure to leave off the carburetors and spark plugs and add them once the engine in is the frame. I assembles the engine and painted it with the muted black. The spark plugs and carburetors must be added after the engine is in the frame otherwise the engine will not fit!

The engine was painted a muted black to give it some contrast from then gloss black frame and body work. The engine highlights were hand painted with Model Master Chrome Silver using a ultra fine paint brush. You could also use Bare-Metal Foil for this.

Step #9
The rear exhaust headers were added after the engine was in the frame.

Step #10 & 12
The individual carburetor parts were assembled on the engine. If fully assembled first, it will not fit into the frame. Also, I left off the engine case covers F12 & F13 so I would have a place to hold the model during assembly. These to pieces were the last pieces added to complete the model.

Step #11
Assembled as instruction and installed when the frame was assemble. The fuel tank had to be added with the frame halves. I wanted to paint it separately, but it will be virtually hidden once the side covers, rear wheel and seat are added anyway.

Step #13
Again, the engine was not installed at this time. First the frame was assembled, cleaned up and painted with TS-14 before adding the engine.

Step #14
Rather than using silver paint and reflector decals on the sides of the radiator, I used Bare-Metal Foil and painted the reflector with X-26 which looks much better than the kit decal. The radiator was painted with BEX and sealed.

Step #15
The metal springs were primed first and then painted with TS-14.

Step #16
The mufflers were left bare plastic and buffed with a finger nail file/buffer and then polished with Tamiya's Rubbing/Polishing Compound for a highly polished surface. The mufflers were then masked off and the pipes painted with BEX and sealed.

Step #17 & 18
The right and left side covers, B29, B30, B31, B32 were first painted with BAP and buffed with a flannel cloth. Since metallizers are very fragile, I secured the parts to a cardboard backing, and laid some heavy paper on top for a mask. The masks for the front covers had the silhouette cut into to them. Then the masks were taped to the cardboard and then the BEX airbrushed on being careful to spray away from the edge of the mask. The BEX was then sealed before removing the masks. This worked perfectly. The screens in the front covers were hand painted with the muted black.

Wrinkles were added to the seat and painted it with a muted black. 

I also added a 'glass' face to the instrument panel made from very thin vac-u-formed plastic from top packaging. I glued it in with Kyrstal Klear.

Step #19
The controls were first painted with BEX and sealed. Then the grips were painted with muted black and the levers and ends painted with Model Master Chrome Silver. I also added a 'glass' face to the speedometer made from very thin vac-u-formed plastic from top packaging. I glued it in with Kyrstal Klear. The handle bars were painted with BAP.

Step #20, 21 & 22
Nothing changed here.

Well, that's it. My first Aoshima build and although the kits had its quirks, I'm very pleased with the final result.

Contact Coaster http://home.interlog.com/~khartlen +/kits/tamiya/24935/notes.htm Last revised on: March 2, 2004 Copyright © 1998-2003, Kenneth W. Hartlen. All rights reserved.

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