Jaguar XJ220

[Windy37]

Looking good . The silver shines well . Good work .

Gary . 

 

[Spiny]

Thanks. I think putting it right underneath the desk lamp has made the silver look better than it is, but I do think the Revell Aqua Silver is a good paint - this is brush painted and even allowing for the camera making it look better than reality it has still come out ok.

[Mr Mansfield]

Engine looks like it fitted together really well. So much going on in a small space! Nice clean lines on those lights. Always a tricky area, good tip using a wet cocktail stick 

[Spiny]

Started the weekend by fitting the engine to the chassis. As feared, that half millimetre didn't go away when I initially put the engine bay in, so I resorted to the clamps while the glue dried.

 

 

Happily that did do the trick second time of asking. (If anyone has one of these to build, don't try clamping onto the tail-lights - not my best move first time around ). But, once I'd clamped it as above it came out ok.

 

 

Most of the rest of the weekend's modelling time has been spent on the front suspension. Not the easiest thing to get a photo of, and this is the best I got, but hopefully it gives an idea of where I'm at.

 

 

In truch, the wheel hubs and steering arms are painted ready for assembly but I figured it was worth giving the paint a bit longer to dry before assembly so that will go together next weekend. And then it will be onto the interior....

 

Thanks for watching.

[FunkyChiken]

Really nice and clean build here! 

[Spiny]

First job this weekend was putting together the steering mechanism. Apart from one of the brake disks insisting on parting with its hub, this was quite a painless process:

 

 

After that it was onto the interior, and as usual hitting the dashboard start of the build slowed things down. It didn't help that I painted the main part of the dash in light grey as on the instructions THEN looked up pictures. It seems that the norm on the XJ220 is for the top of the dash to be the same colour as the binnacle so I masked the bottom and gave the top a coat of darker grey. The camera is being very harsh on that line between the paints - in reality it looks ok, and will be mainly hidden anyway. Nearly there with this, just need to add the decal for the instruments and paint the heater grille in the main dash.

 

 

And I'm afraid Christmas prep and waiting for paint to dry means that's it. Thanks for looking.

[Spiny]

A little more progress, although the interior was always likely to be slow progress. That said, Tier 4 naffness hitting probably means I will get more done over Christmas than expected.

 

But for now, back to the model and it didn't take much to get the dash completed:

 

 

The instructions have the whole interior in one step, which is a great bit of demotivation in that it feels like you're not moving. But there's quite a few small places, and so many different coloured bits on that firewall. Thought I was ready to add a few bits to the interior, fitted the accelerator then just as I was dry fitting the gear lever realised I'd missed painting the console around it. So this is the current state of play - Could do to tidy up around that console first but all the little bits are ready to add to the cockpit then it'll be onto doorcards and seats. Meanwhile, there's still some more detailing to do on the engine side of the firewall - something to do over Christmas. Oddly the painting on this side of the piece isn't called out until later

 

 

Thanks for looking.

[Spiny]

One of the few advantages of being cooped up in Tier 4 for Christmas is that with not having to trail across most of England visiting family I've made a little more progress with the Jag.

 

First job was a simple one - fitting the remaining controls into the cockpit. Not really anything to write about on this - everything fitted easily as most of the work was done previously with the painting.

 

 

In theory, the next step should be fitting the seats and door cards to the cockpit. But... the seats are still being painted. And, while the door cards are done now (even the dial decals on the driver's door are on ok), when I dry fitted the cockpit it was apparent I would need to clamp it to the chassis until the glue dried. First job was to get the firewall fitted, then in went the cockpit and clamps holding the sills to the chassis appear to have done the trick.

 

 

That's actually a pretty good indication of where I am at the moment, but a note on the tyres. Unfortunately, these come with quite large seams down the middle of the tread. I had a look to see if I could short-cut it by fitting it to the electric drill and rubbing against sandpaper, but didn't have anything to clamp the tyre onto the drill. So, it was manual sanding of the tyres, first with 60 grit then 280 grit. The two tyres in the middle are the ones I've done, the two on the outside of the picture below are fresh out of the box (the photo underplays the seam a bit)

 

 

Thanks for looking, hopefully I'll have something more up before too long as best part of a couple of weeks off work.

[Pouln]

Well, the sanding definitely brings much better tyres. Those 2 are looking nice.

 

[Fnick]

Couldn't agree more. Good job on the tyres.

 

Nick

[Alan R]

Blimey,

I don't think I've seen Tamiya tyres with that much of a seam on them before!

The two you have done do look very good though!

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Cheers,

Alan.

[Mr Mansfield]

So much grey plastic in that interior! It really makes it a car of its time. All looks like it’s fitting together nicely. Did everything stay in place when the clamps were removed?

[Spiny]

7 hours ago, Alan R said:

Blimey,

I don't think I've seen Tamiya tyres with that much of a seam on them before!

The two you have done do look very good though!

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Cheers,

Alan.

Don't think I've seen that much of a seam on any car before - definitely the most disappointing part of this kit.

6 hours ago, Mr Mansfield said:

So much grey plastic in that interior! It really makes it a car of its time. All looks like it’s fitting together nicely. Did everything stay in place when the clamps were removed?

Lots of grey, but at least they did 3 different shades in there to make it that bit harder to paint! All is staying in place at the moment - I put some tube glue on the pegs where it fits into the chassis, clamped the cockpit down, then ran some Tamiya Extra Thin around the edge to give it a bit more hold when the clamps came off. To be honest, it only needs to survive until i get the body on. Although with my usual rate of progress that could be a month away...

[Spiny]

Only a couple of days, but having done the hard yards with the interior, and with being off work, I made some very visible progress so figured it was worth posting up. First up is the part-assembled interior with seats - only one door card here to allow me to get a better image of the interior. Before putting the seats in I gave a couple of very light rubs to the light grey with the 3000 grit (blue) side of the Ultimate Thinny buffer to give the seats a bit of a leather-like sheen. It's worked quite well in the flesh but the photo doesn't show it very well I'm afraid.

 

 

After that it was a case of fitting the other door card, dash and the frame over the engine. As I've come to expect from this kit, all fitted together perfectly but I did have to hold the dash in place for a couple of minutes while the glue set a bit as it kept wanting to tilt backwards. The radiator had a couple of goings over with the black wash to give it some more depth, not that it will be very visible once I'm done

 

 

And then onto one of those steps which is always a bit nerve-wracking on any car build - fitting the wheels. Apart from the front right hub falling off and having to be reglued, this was quite a simple procedure and the wheels don't wobble like some kits I've done which just hold the wheels on with pegs. Best of all, I've got the wheels on and it's not tripodding at all

 

 

And with that, the chassis is pretty much done - just need to add some Big Cat decals to the wheel nuts. Now it's onto the body giving me plenty of chance to mess up the bits you'll see when it's finished.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Fnick]

From what I can see the chances of you "messing up" 🙄 the body are slim indeed.🙂.

 

I really like that understated interior.

 

Nick

[Windy37]

Even without the body on you can see just how large the XJ220 is . The build looks great . Nice one . 
Gary . 

[Spiny]

23 hours ago, Fnick said:

From what I can see the chances of you "messing up" 🙄 the body are slim indeed.🙂.

 

I really like that understated interior.

 

Nick

 

If only the chances were that thin - looking back at the 10 cars I've built (excluding the rebuilds), eight of them have had something go wrong in the last 2-3 weeks

 

Mustang - paint chipped when the window popped out

Corvette - windscreen didn't fit the surround

959 - negative clearance between engine and cover

Cuda - rear valance no fitting over exhausts

Honda S600 - no issues

Trabant - boot floor too large to fit through boot opening when body fitted

Skyline - no issues

Countach - fit of doors no great

Challenger - front and rear bumpers no fitting very well

Fiesta - front wings needed removing to fit the body

 

Fingers crossed this follows the Honda and Skyline... although today one of the decals on the wheel nuts vanished on its own. And I do mean on its own - it was there with the Microset doing its stuff when I set off for a walk in the park, and missing when I got back 2 horus later. Hopefully not visible in real life, but I replaced it with a spare radiator cap decal from the Challenger - same size and colour, just not a cat.

 

22 hours ago, Windy37 said:

Even without the body on you can see just how large the XJ220 is . The build looks great . Nice one . 
Gary . 

 

Thanks both, and to all who liked. You're right, it is massive. It'll look even more massive when put in the display cabinet as it will be sitting next to the aforementioned Honda!

[dbostream]

12 hours ago, Spiny said:

If only the chances were that thin - looking back at the 10 cars I've built (excluding the rebuilds), eight of them have had something go wrong in the last 2-3 weeks

 

Sadly the same happens to me all the time nowadays that is why I often end up putting the kit back in the box, the latest one the Yamaha bike I was working on. Sometimes it is my own fault but sometimes the kit is engineered to make you lose your mind.

[Spiny]

Time for a shuddering halt - the window rubbers always seem to need lots of layers to get truly opaque. So while I was building that up I set about the detail painting on the body, Mostly little bits like keyholes, indicators etc. with the front grille being the area which makes most difference, and also needs most work:

 

 

I have at least managed to get the front side windows painted and installed now. Trouble is I managed to get some of the resin on one of the windows, fortunately I caught it in time and was able to wipe the resin off enough to just leave a smear, then a polish with Tamiya Finish got it back to looking ok (it's the window you can see in the pic below). Think I'm going to have to do the same with one of the rear windows as managed to make a mess of that too - leaving it for today and will have another go tomorrow. But the rear grille at least went in nicely so this is where I am now.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

[Paul H]

Been following this with great interest & hope Tamiya will rerelease this kit soon.

 

What resin is it that you are using to attach the glass?

[johnlambert]

I find detail painting on car bodies to be one of the most nerve-wracking parts of the build.  This is looking good.

[Paul H]

6 minutes ago, johnlambert said:

I find detail painting on car bodies to be one of the most nerve-wracking parts of the build.  This is looking good.

 

Ditto, however since I started using acrylics instead of enamels, I have found it much easier, since any mistakes can now be dealt with much more easily & without damaging the paintwork.

[Spiny]

Thanks everyone. I'd have to second Paul's comment about doing the detailing in acrylics - if you stuff up then you can (if very quick) wipe off the error with just a damp cloth. If you leave it a bit too long there's still the option to scrape off the offending details with a wooden cocktail stick and not cause any noticeable damage.

 

23 hours ago, Paul H said:

Been following this with great interest & hope Tamiya will rerelease this kit soon.

 

What resin is it that you are using to attach the glass?

 

This is the stuff I've got, although there are plenty of other similar resins which would probably do the job just as well.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B076RHF9NG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Generally I squeeze a small blob into the lid of a lightproof contained (old photographic film case for me) and apply to the relevant surfaces to fix the glass. Once in position, I got a cheap UV torch and use that to set it reasonably well - so long as it's in daylight it will finish curing on its own over the next day or so... or just leave the torch shining on it for longer. It doesn't hold as fast as CA (nor fog up the glass for that matter) but seems to be stronger than ClearFix.

 

As for the Jag (seeing as I'm writing this up), I got the rear windows in and then tried the headlights. Unusually the headlights in this kit seem to fit quite well in the 'lights off' position, the mechanism appears to be working but you have to be very careful with where you set the headlight buckets to get it to operate correctly and it's still a little sticky.

 

 

 

 

 

[Paul H]

Ah - I know the stuff you mean.  Never tried using it for clear parts, as I've always been happy with with clearfix or PVA since I know that neither will damage the clear parts or paint and can be cleaned off easily - like the acrylic, with a cocktail stick if necessary!  I'd have thought that on this kit, there is more than enough surface area for either of those to hold the clear parts securely, without having to use UV resin?

[Pouln]

That’s great stuff to create lenses on your dashboards too. 
Nice work!