Yamaha Paper Craft 20th anniversary

[toratora]

https://www.motorcycle-magazine.com/yam ... maha-ya-1/

Dec 29th, 2017

At the end of this year Yamaha will mark the 20th anniversary of its strangely compelling range of Paper Craft model motorcycles by launching a miniature paper replica of its 1955 YA-1.

The tradition of releasing a new Paper Craft model at the end of each year dates back to 1997. The first, a V-Max, appeared at the Tokyo Motor Show in October 1997. Yamaha published the plans on the internet, to print and build free of charge, and has done the same with all its successors. Since 1997 there have been more than 70 different models added, including animals as well as bikes. All are still available online.

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Paper Craft Yamaha YA-1
Reckon you’re up to building this?

The YA-1 will join the list of downloadable kits before the end of 2017. It’s a replica of Yamaha’s first bike. Race versions came 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th at the 1955 Asama Highlands Race.

It will be part of Yamaha’s ‘Ultra-Realistic Paper Craft’ range. Completed, the bike is 49.5cm long, a fraction larger in scale than others in the range.

At the moment, the Ultra-Realistic Paper Craft line includes the MT-10, R1M, VMAX and MT-01. The smaller-scale ‘Realistic’ range includes the 1990 V-Max, 1998 R1, XJR1300, Dragstar Classic 1100, SR400, TMAX, 2004 R1, 2005 M1, YZ450F and 2007 R1.
All the existing Paper Craft models can be downloaded from Yamaha’s dedicated site here.

Building the bikes isn’t a five-minute job, though. Even the basic models promise hours of frustration. The Ultra Realistic Paper Craft machines are larger—1:5.5 scale rather than 1:6 scale – and far more complex. On average, you’ll need to print out 47 sheets of A4 card for the parts of an Ultra Realistic model, with a total of 771 parts to cut out, shape and glue together. The basic ones are around 16 sheets and 174 parts.