Jaguar XJR-16

[Sabrejet]

It's not often nowadays that I get to make a vehicle model, having in the past built many, many kits by Tameo, Meri, BBR, Alezan, Marsh, Provence Moulage, Starter, Tenariv - in fact probably every major car manufacturer in 1/43 scale, plus a couple of 1/20 Studio 27s too. But this is just off the table, a kit dating back to (IIRC) 1992, and which I only 'discovered' during a garage tidy at Christmas. I did have trouble with cracking of the decals, but a coat of hairspray did the trick and they stayed together long enough to be applied. Mind you I notice a couple of cracks now I look at the photos: must touch those up.

 

Model is Raul Boesel's Jaguar XJR-16 from the 1991 IMSA championship, from a 1/43 kit by Starter:

 

 

 

 

 

The XJR-16 is the final iteration of the 1989 XJR-10/11 (IMSA/WEC, respectively), the latter of which I modelled all of 27 years ago, again 1/43 scale by Starter. I dragged it out of garage storage this morning and took some photos of that for comparison. It's stood up remarkably well considering it's been boxed and tussled around for at least two house moves!

 

 

[Lowbrow]

Nice!

[Stu_davros]

Another nice pair of 43rd's, a builder after my own heart, I love the Jag XJR's aswell.

Those Starter kits have a reputation of cracking decals, I've built their XJR-5 and Peugeot 905 and both of them had the same issue. It's a shame because otherwise the Starter kits I have are really nice.

 

Cheers,

Stuart

[Sabrejet]

20 minutes ago, Stu_davros said:

Another nice pair of 43rd's, a builder after my own heart, I love the Jag XJR's aswell.

Those Starter kits have a reputation of cracking decals, I've built their XJR-5 and Peugeot 905 and both of them had the same issue. It's a shame because otherwise the Starter kits I have are really nice.

 

Cheers,

Stuart

 

I have found that: I've probably built 50 or more Starter models and the decals were never as good as Provence Moulage (who used Cartograf). I'd usually go for a PM kit over Starter because they always seemed more crisply moulded. Also PM's XJRs and 962s had vacform acetate headlight covers/fairings, whereas Starter often used solid plastic/resin, which was nowhere near as accurate. On most of the Starter XJR's and 962s I did, I replaced the clear parts with acetate sheet. I preferred PM's resin and PE too. Fortunately I still have a few kits in the stash (PM Aston AMR-1, Starter AMR-1 and a BBR Ferrari 333SP), but 1/43 kits seem thin on the ground these days.

[Stu_davros]

I think the likes of Spark and minichamps have killed the kit market with their (very good) pre-built models. I have collected Provence Moulage kits amongst others for about ten years and I much prefer them to any other manufacturer and they are still available via eBay.

In the absence of new kits there is plenty of old ones to keep me busy.

[Lowbrow]

I'm another builder who laments the passing of many of the great producers...Provence Moulage, Starter, BBR kits, Tameo doing most of the F1 field. It's sad.

[Stu_davros]

Agreed, and the loss of Adriaan of 'this way up' will probably mean another kit producer disappears.

[PatW]

Superb! I remember that marque of Jaguar  testing at Silverstone just 5 miles from here in the day.

[Sabrejet]

I always preferred the V12 XJR's and had high hopes for the V6 turbo XJR-10/11/16 but they never really managed the success of the old cars.

[F1xena]

On 6/29/2017 at 10:28 AM, Stu_davros said:

Agreed, and the loss of Adriaan of 'this way up' will probably mean another kit producer disappears.

Hi,

I visited Adriaan in Cape Town a couple of times (the last time just a year before he passed away) He was disappointed with the way certain resin/diecast model makers came out with exact versions of the kits he spent so much effort mastering and casting...even replicating his errors, as he discovered when he later realised he had made a mistake with a certain part. Funny that no-one did an Amon AF101 (as an example) until Adriaan made a kit, then all of a sudden it was available at half the price as a built model. TWU operated on really slim margins, and with the economic situation in South Africa, he could never even consider taking legal action against the copy-cats.

Lee-Ann is selling off the last of their stock and unfortunately that will probably be the end of This Way Up.

Adriaan is a real loss to our hobby...such an enthusiast, a gifted artist, and on top of that, a really nice guy.

Cheers

Tania

[Stu_davros]

11 hours ago, F1xena said:

Hi,

I visited Adriaan in Cape Town a couple of times (the last time just a year before he passed away) He was disappointed with the way certain resin/diecast model makers came out with exact versions of the kits he spent so much effort mastering and casting...even replicating his errors, as he discovered when he later realised he had made a mistake with a certain part. Funny that no-one did an Amon AF101 (as an example) until Adriaan made a kit, then all of a sudden it was available at half the price as a built model. TWU operated on really slim margins, and with the economic situation in South Africa, he could never even consider taking legal action against the copy-cats.

Lee-Ann is selling off the last of their stock and unfortunately that will probably be the end of This Way Up.

Adriaan is a real loss to our hobby...such an enthusiast, a gifted artist, and on top of that, a really nice guy.

Cheers

Tania

 

I never had the fortune to really know Adriaan or Lee-Ann, just via a couple of emails. The last one was from Lee-Ann saying that Adriaan was booked off work for a week, I later found out that he had passed away just a few days after.

I always really liked the esoteric subjects TWU did, who else would do the Cosworth 4WD.

 

Stuart

[shood23]

You have much more nerve than me sabrejet to make a finish like this on a 1/43 kit, that 1 and only 43rd I tried is still sat in its box with a shocking paint job.

 

Shaun