Tamiya XJR-9

[FalklandsCraig]

Well following my disappointment with the amount of detail of my Hasegawa Jag I bit the bullet and managed to win a Tamiya one on Ebay courtesy of British Red Cross so I might of paid a bit of a premium but hopefully theyll benefit from a few of my pounds. 

So I hope I can do this beast justice, this is my first Tamiya kit and I must say they are fantastic, dry fitting everything together and it all stays together, I am very impressed. 

There is a fair few items on order so progress is slow BUT I really want to build this as detailed as I can, the cars hold very fond memories as a kid, i got to meet Martin Brundle a few times through his racing career and have been lucky enough to be photographed sat in a few of his sports cars and F1 cars. As such as I have a couple of die cast Le Mans '88 winners this will be built as Martin Brundles car that failed to finish.

I have added all 12 HT leads to the distributor cap, I was going to find the firing order but once the air intake box was added you couldnt see them so their all fixed in numerical order instead. 

Lots of pipework will be fitted but i need to add most of that to the floor pan so my aim was to get the engine as detailed as i could first. 

I'm lucky enough to have about 1000 photos of these magnificent cars and virtually every book ever published on these and TWR, i really admired Tom, he had plans for everything and MOST came to fruition, I'm sure he could sell ice to eskimos with the amount of big money backing he got through his business and racing career and I'm sure a weekend in a bar with him would of been hard to beat.!!! 

So I've added brake lines and as many various leads I can decipher from the photos,  most of them just run to the floor around the sump but hopefully will give a good impression.

The exhaust is only dry fitted but the wiring for the lambda sensors have been fitted.

So huge amounts to go and will be extremely slow but I cant afford to rush it, the disappointment would be too much to bare.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated, it is only a few hours into the build and nothing is final where it is, just mostly mocked up at the moment.

 

Edited July 20, 2020 by FalklandsCraig
Didnt make sense

[Alan R]

Hi Craig,

Good start!

I don't know whether you have thought about it, it might be worth trying to fill the gap where the manifolds meet? I tried, using Mr White putty. It wasn't the greatest success, but I will try again.

 

Cheers,

Alan.

 

[Codger]

2 minutes ago, Alan R said:

Hi Craig,

Good start!

I don't know whether you have thought about it, it might be worth trying to fill the gap where the manifolds meet? I tried, using Mr White putty. It wasn't the greatest success, but I will try again.

 

Cheers,

Alan.

 

A better possibility might be Bondo two part which won't shrink. Fills big gaps like that better and can be shaped on application with a finger or brush wet with Iso.

[FalklandsCraig]

It is probably the most disappointing part of the build so far, but depending on which photos you work from some different designs of front exhaust headers exist, I wont contemplate changing those but the gap is something I cant overlook.

I have found a very well detailed build that was on here and has since ended up on another forum informing readers of an issue with this forum, I dont know or even want to, i wasnt a member and its obviously old news, but it is a fantastically well detailed model of which I can only dream of getting close too. 

Work gets in the way to prevent me achieving much of a run but nothing worth having is quick. 

I will hopefully have more pictures after the weekend and hopefully I'll be heading in the right direction. 

[Planebuilder62]

How about fitting plastic card in the gap to the headers?
 

regards Toby

[Alan R]

On 7/22/2020 at 5:41 PM, Codger said:

A better possibility might be Bondo two part which won't shrink. Fills big gaps like that better and can be shaped on application with a finger or brush wet with Iso.

Pretty difficult to get here in the UK.

[Codger]

23 minutes ago, Alan R said:

Pretty difficult to get here in the UK.

Sorry mate - did not know. I thought 3M very big world-wide.

[Sabrejet]

You can get bondo in any Halfords. I'd use Milliput though.

[Alan R]

22 hours ago, Codger said:

I thought 3M very big world-wide.

No problem. 3M is big here too. The product might have a different name here.

 

Shame really, I have seen so many builds from the US that use bondo to great effect.

Cheers,

Alan.

[Andy G]

I used PPP on mine.  It took two or three goes to build it up sufficiently, but it looks ok now.

[PHIL B]

Great project Craig! Martin's a star isn't he? Tom was a force to be reckoned with too. How about a TWR XJ-S to go with your XJR-9LM?

Thinking about your exhausts, like Planebuilder62 said, how about 4 slices of plastic rod to fill the gaps then some judicious sanding? With the right thickness and plenty of liquid cement the excess will fill any gaps. or if you use slices of the kit sprue stretched, the joint will be virtually invisible.

 

Phil

 

[Mr Mansfield]

On 23/07/2020 at 20:29, Sabrejet said:

You can get bondo in any Halfords. I'd use Milliput though.

I’d suggest millput too. Easy to get from Amazon or Hobbycraft. I’ve not noticed any shrinking, it goes into little gaps like that well & smooths easily with a wet finger

 

Engine looks great, looking forward to seeing this come together. Good luck!