Spiny

Thanks for the heads up, I was planning on going over with Tamiya Clear so you've definitely helped me dodge a bullet there. Although I have started testing decals on spoons (using the descriptive text which is always at the bottom of the decal sheet), this is only really any good for testing for wrinkliness and wouldn't indicate colour fastness so I would have found out too late. As it is, I know from building that 2006 Mustang a few years ago that the decals can survive Revell Clear. The problem: Revell Clear is harder to find than rocking horse manure at the moment. I've ordered in some Humbrol Acrylic Clear Gloss as that seems to be similar to the Revell (Tamiya seems more of a lacquer), but will try for wrinkliness first and then go very easy with the mist coats just to be sure. Good to see from your build thread that you've overcome this.

Another one agreeing that the weathering looks good - not too much and about right for a dusty rally.

Well, you did ask Actually, I'm surprised at how few of those traits I have - does that make me not a proper modeller???

That paint looks very good, even better when you consider it's black. Like you I'm nervous of the devalling of that bonnet scoop, fingers cross the decal is fairly pliant but I expect a fair bit of decal softener is going to come into the equation here,

Didn't get on here yesterday for fairly obvious (footballing!) reasons, but I got the build out of the blocks over the weekend. Like John, I couldn't be doing with a chrome sump, so those parts went into the bleach over the weekend along with the alternator (who has a chromed alternator 😕 ???) I did leave the carburettor chromed though as I figured that was something which may stay that way, and besides which I missed it! And it will probably be hidden underneath the air filter when finished. The engine halves were glued together, then separated as I realised I'd misaligned them, before finally being reglued again. A bit of sanding down got it looking something like ok, although a bit of texture has gone missing. Still got to finish painting the aluminium and the header blocks but the smaller pieces are done. All the smaller pieces in the pic are 'done'now, still deciding whether to add a bit of wash to the engine or treat it as a new, or show, car after a steam clean. One thing about this build which is going to help is that it appears to have a large number of sub-assemblies rather than relying on you adding various bits to one big lump. That will mean that if I get a mulit-colour part, there's a good chance I won't be delayed for weeks on end while I get it painted and instead can move on with other bits.

That looks a hefty beast! Extremely well done though, it's hard to believe that you built this one from scratch such is the quality.

Another one here that will be keeping an eye on this build - I've been eyeing up this kit but, like others, need to free up a bit of stash space first (and resist the temptation of other kits). I hadn't realised that it had been moulded in dark green, hope that covers ok. At least it's not red! And another one who would like to see Lassie too, although I'm not sure I like the way she seems to be on a collision course with the E-Type on the box art. And I hope your kit has better luck than the last yellow E-Type roadster I saw which got rear-ended by a TVR coming off the ferry

Not sure if this will work, but might give you ideas. This is the set-up I use (photo taken a long time ago, garage has had a tidy now!). The body support is made from an old piece of MDF with holes drilled though to allow some electrical wire offcuts to be threaded through. Bits of blu-tak on the end of each wire help to grip the bodyshell and prevent scratching of the paint. As the electrical wire is dressable (can be bent to shape and then retains its shape), you can bend the wire to suit the shell lodging it in a suitable place to support the body. Looking like a very good start on the engine by the way.

Got to agree with you on the ride height, the higher setting is better. I can't help thinking that we've got so used to cars sitting fairly low now that it's easy to forget that back in the day cars did sit quite high up. Also, I'm not sure I can cope with reference to "DaF" - I keep expecting to see a Variomatic make an appearance 😆

***REPETITIVE PHOTO ALERT*** Having mentioned that I had started on the paint earlier, I guess it's only right that I should go through that process now that the group build has started. There is logic behind all thr shots in primer I promise, shame I didn't think to take a pic of it pre-priming but can't be helped. First step was to spray the body with a guide coat so I could see any mould lines, sink marks etc. better than on bare plastic. Unfortunately, the photo doesn't really show them either, although it did make it easier to see in real life. Fortunately, on this kit the mould lines are in places which are quite easy to deal with and a light sanding along the tops of the front and rear wings, and a bit heavier sanding along the tops of the doors dealt with most of them. The worst bit seems to be around the headlights which look as though there has been some work done to the mould over the years, I've done filling and sanding here as well as sanding down the sills which were quite messy towards the rear, particularly on the left hand side. The other main patches are where I cut and sanded off the badges - although I like the look of them they shouldn't be on this car. Fortunately, once I'd scraped the main part of the badges off with a #17 blade they weren't too difficult to sand smooth. The final job was to get out the scriber and deepen the panel lines - as this is a black car there won't be any wash going in so I wanted them to be noticeable and the depth of the lines is somewhat inconsistent, you can tell this dates back to 1985. After that it got the proper coat of primer. If you're observant, you can see there are still sink marks near the headlights - after this photo they were filled, sanded and the front of the car given another coat of primer. I've had the copyright text reappear on cars before when I've primed, so it was a relief that the badges seem to have gone. After that, it was onto the colour coat. I was quite pleased with how this had gone on (the orange peel wasn't as bad as the photo makes it look), but then noticed that the pain was a bit thin on the underside of the sills. So today I decided to give it another coat giving it a good spray from underneath. The result is a duller finish, but with less orange peel. Not a disaster though as I'm going to give it a clear coat after the decals anyway. No picture of it as it stands - next week I hope to start decalling it so it will be seen then, but the pic above isn't far off how it stands now. Thanks for looking.

Those seatbelts are very impressive. And also look like an awful lot of work - got to commend that.

Time for this to go to bed for a while as I'm doing a Mustang for the group build, but it will be back once the Mustang is complete. I did get the suspension done for one side though: Probably didn't help myself in doing the springs gloss black with satin black for the damper in the middle - it's not as if you'll see them once the wheels are on and it has added time. But that's the way it goes I guess. In the end it was a little trickier to assemble than I thought, with the main suspension arm going in easily once I'd redrilled the mounting holes, but getting the springs in was quite fiddly in terms of getting them installed around the arms and rear axle. The easiest way is to try to seat the pin in the chassis, then metaphorically crossing your fingers (crossing your real fingers during install makes things even more difficult!) while the spring is hooked over the pin on the arm. Not difficult, just a bit of a faff. But it looks ok when it's done. First job on returning to the Jag is to get the other side done. But in the meantime, the only update likely in the next 3 months or so will be when/if I get the body polished out.

Got to agree this is all coming together very nicely, it's going to be a stunner when finished. Another thing I tried with my Stratos which worked quite well was to paint the window rubbers before adding the decals as I could mask in relative safety. After the decals I clear-coated the whole lot, but then brushed on some matt clear over the rubbers to dull them down a bit.

Sounds like a real battle, but the results look worth it. Definitely one worth perservering with.👍

Guess I'd better declare mine here - seems that there's quite a few of these about so I'll leave out the box contents, but just to be clear this is the kit in question. Because I tend to build at a pace similar to a snail on spice this will be done straight out of the box. And as my first car build on returning to the hobby was the 2006 version, I absolutely have to build it in black with gold stripes to resemble it's cousin from four years ago (looking at the picture now I realise how much neater my more recent builds are under the camera!): But first, a small confession. Although I haven't started building anything yet, I have got some paint on the body as I tend to leave a couple of weeks between coats and could see that holding me up. It's just had the colour coat (pics at some stage over the weekend) so still decalling and clear coats to go. Hope that is ok as there is well under 25% of work done to date, but it's not a completely fresh build from 10th July.

Beautiful looking build. The colour really suits it too, a nice change from the usual red.

Looks as though Keith beat me to it, I was also going to say that looking at the end result there's no need to be gentle. You've done a good job here. Good idea to keep it dust-proofed too.

Very nicely done. I have to agree with you that the new decals look much better.

Not that easy to see, but in the doorway there are some fold down steps. For the price of one of these, I'd be surprised to see anything less.

Good job on the decalling, this is not an easy design to get right but it looks as though you've managed it. Not sure if this will work with what you want for the car, but I cut the decals over the bonnet grille hollows as you did, but then filled the hollows with black wash which hid the cuts (these are holes, being a louvred bonnet when all is said an done).

Going to add to the "Spot of the Week" collection going on recently from people on holiday. Over the last week around the lakes, a convoy of three '60's Elans, a pair of 1930s Bentleys, Morgan 3-wheeler, Ferrari F12, numerous Series 1 & 2 LandRovers, Alfa Giulia GTA and, if you count non-roadworthy cars, a Mk1 Fiesta XR2 and Mini Marcos. But the only one I got a photo of was this - a Unimog Camper seen in both Ambleside and Keswick and which I really like the idea of.

A day off work and I got a little bit more done. First of all, the front suspension. It has become obvious that when you turn the wheels one end of the steering arm tries to unclip itself (and does eventually succeed). Obviously that's not a problem at the moment because access is easy to put it back on, but when the wheels are fitted it will become much trickier. So time to get some sort of solution... a piece of cotton about 3-4mm long. This was superglued at each end to the steering arm to form a loop rather than a U around where the arm clips onto the suspension - it still tries to come off but can't get more than about half a mm before the cotton retains it in place. Not sure it will stand up to heavy use, but it won't get heavy use - just the odd turn for photos at the end of the build probably. The photo doesn't show it too well (becuase it's so small) so I highlighted it a bit: I also got a start on the rear suspension, although there is more to do. The frames for the it have been fitted to the chassis, and most obviously I got the exhausts installed. I also had a go at dry-fitting some of the suspension - it feels as though it should be a 3-handed job at first, but dry-fitting revealed that I should be able to fit the main arms and then clip the springs in place which will make things much easier. Thanks for looking.

Don't let the hard work put you off - it turned out nicely in the end. You could always try a kit without an engine to try getting your mojo back - that would save a lot of time. Or, if you get the urge to do another Countach, the Aoshima one is excellent, probably the best kit I've come across so far

Thanks for the info @At Sea, and those Jags look really nice too, especially the first silver/gold one. While the mileage may seem poor, it's similar to the 12mpg I got from my old Pontiac of similar vintage and that only had about half the power. So in that context, the XJS could be thought of as economical😆

Looks as though you've made some good progress on these, shame you hit primer but nothing you won't recover I'm sure. In terms of spraying temperature, I've not had any problems at 25 degrees, but usually try to make that my upper limit if I can (have got away with 27 degrees before but prefer not to tempt fate).