Hasegawa Jag XJS

[Spiny]

Normally when I put up a WIP thread I start with a fully painted body because I actually started the car yonks before. This year, I decided to go through the body as it's done. And with warm weather last weekend I was able to get an quick layer of primer on this one, not to mention priming the chassis.

 

The kit is Hasegawa's Jaguar XJS which was done a couple of years ago to an extremely high standard by Matt Bacon. I hope I can even halfway to that, although I don't feel I can face wiring up that V12. Initial impression of the kit is that it looks very detailed and hopefully high quality, although not without its flaws. And those flaws seem to be mainly in the manfacure - for example I can see flash on the chrome grille and the body has needed a bit of work. This is how it started (apart from a little bit of sanding before I thought to take the picture).

 

 

Mould lines are quite pronounced, and I have no idea whose idea it was to run them down the crease between the rear wing and the flying buttresses - almost the perfect place to make them difficult to sand off. It also looks as though this is a kit which at some point in its life was the touring car version with various holes plugged up - the ones in the scuttle and boot are especially obvious. So after a quick sand of the worst seam lines I gave it a coat of white primer to help with identifying the areas which needed work, then filled the low parts, wiped the filler with a piece of card so it was lower, then left it for a week. Over the weekend I set about, scribing, filling where the tool slipped, sanding back, removing the seams and high points and ended up with this:

 

 

Quite a scabby looking body, but I think I have it pretty much sorted. Ready for priming now anyway. And that leads me onto my first question...

 

As the first picture shows, for some reason Hasegawa have chosen to mould it in a dark red. And going over it with that white primer has confirmed my suspicions that this is a colour which is going to bleed through if I don't stop it. Given that I'm not doing this as a red car, my question is "I've heard that silver paint can stop bleed though. Is this correct? And if so would a light metallic gray do the same job?"

 

It'll be a long time before this gets finished (there's an SSR taking priority at the moment, and midway through I expect I'll be stopping the build for the Mustang Group Build), but with warmer weather I hope I can get some progress painting it for now. Apologies if this post looks as though I'm not impressed by the kit - I am but the body moulding is the most disappointing part of it so I can (hopefully) get the bad news out of the way at the start.

 

Thanks for looking,

[johnlambert]

1 hour ago, Spiny said:

Quite a scabby looking body, but I think I have it pretty much sorted. Ready for priming now anyway. 

 

 

Scabby body, pretty standard on an old Jag, unfortunately.  Looks like you're doing a good job of putting it right

 

I would have thought that grey primer would hide any of the original colour.  On my Fujimi Honda Prelude the Tamiya white primer hid the red plastic very well and on my Monogram Maserati Halfords grey primer did the same for the maroon plastic.

 

This is a kit I fancy doing some time, I've seen a couple of builds on here and I look forward to watching this one progress.

[cmatthewbacon]

I hate to say it @Spiny old mate, especially after the positive comments, but it was only last July I finished the XJS... I know lockdown’s seemed interminable, and it does FEEL like years ago, but... 😜

best,

M.

[galaxyg]

Good luck with it, I'll be watching this one. I wish manufacturers would never mould anything in red.

[keefr22]

10 hours ago, johnlambert said:

Scabby body, pretty standard on an old Jag, unfortunately.

 

Talking of which, anyone watch Harry's Garage on Youtube  - his latest one is the start of a restoration job on his XJC coupe - scabby indeed and costing him around £20K to get put right! 

 

11 hours ago, Spiny said:

I've heard that silver paint can stop bleed though. Is this correct?

 

I tried it once and it worked fine, but I did spray the car in dark blue, so afterwards I wasn't sure whether the plastic colour would have bled through anyway? I recently bought the Fujimi 250GTO which I want to build as a 'homage' to chassis 3505GT which is in a pale pastel green colour. I'm pretty sure the red would bleed through that, so as well as the green paint I bought a pot of Zero paint sealer that I've also heard is very good at stopping bleed through. 

 

Looking forward to progress on this one - what colour are you thinking of going for?

 

Keith

[cmatthewbacon]

That Zero sealer does the job, but it’s weird stuff. Mine ended up with quite a gritty finish, and I had to sand it with wet sponge sanders, which I almost never do. It’s quite thick, and despite it saying don’t thin it, I think you need to with most airbrushes. It feels a bit like spraying thin, bile coloured Copydex!

 

Silver Stynylrez primer also does the job, and cleans up with water, so that’s what I’ve used since...

 

Red plastic is a bummer, though, What was Revell thinking with the E-type?!!

 

best,

M.

[keefr22]

1 minute ago, cmatthewbacon said:

What was Revell thinking with the E-type?!!

 

That everybody wanted a red one....

 

Thanks for the heads up on the sealer Matt, I was dubious about using it on the GTO so I think I'll stick with silver paint.

 

Keith

[Alan R]

Hi Spiny,
I built this kit when it originally came out 40 (ish ?) years ago.
I mucked up the paintwork on the body then, but i did get the ignition wiring right, even the firing order (I think   )
I recently bought this again, and have so far completed the engine. (I think I have a build for it somewhere here...)

 

I noticed a bit of flash on mine that I don't recall on my original one.

 

Beware also, some of the parts are very fragile, especially around the steering area.

 

I shall key an eye on this for some inspiration...

 

Cheers,

Alan.

[Spiny]

22 hours ago, johnlambert said:

I would have thought that grey primer would hide any of the original colour.  On my Fujimi Honda Prelude the Tamiya white primer hid the red plastic very well and on my Monogram Maserati Halfords grey primer did the same for the maroon plastic.

 

 

12 hours ago, keefr22 said:

I tried it once and it worked fine, but I did spray the car in dark blue, so afterwards I wasn't sure whether the plastic colour would have bled through anyway? I recently bought the Fujimi 250GTO which I want to build as a 'homage' to chassis 3505GT which is in a pale pastel green colour. I'm pretty sure the red would bleed through that, so as well as the green paint I bought a pot of Zero paint sealer that I've also heard is very good at stopping bleed through. 

 

Looking forward to progress on this one - what colour are you thinking of going for?

 

Keith

 

Thanks for the advice both of you, and without realising it you've covered my planned next paint layers (with some left over Light Titanium Grey from the S600 at sealer I expect) - Halfords Grey Primer with Tamiya Deep Metallic Blue as the colour coat. I'm hoping it will suit the Jag as well as I think it will, but time will tell. But from what you've both said I'm feeling much more confident that I won't be getting any of the infernal maroon making an unwanted appearance through the paint.

 

8 hours ago, Alan R said:

Beware also, some of the parts are very fragile, especially around the steering area.

 

I shall key an eye on this for some inspiration...

 

Cheers,

Alan.

 

Thanks for the heads up, I'll take extra care when it comes to the steering (and probably still break it anyway!). Unfortunately, this is going to take a while to really get goind as I won't get the build started until after I finish the Chevy (current ETA somewhere around the end of April) and I'm expecting the Mustang group build to interrupt the build through summer, but hopefully I'll have the body done before spring is out.

 

Thanks for all the comments and tips from everyone who has posted, much appreaciated

[Spiny]

Decent weather yesterday meant I got a chance to spray a bit more in the garage. The plan was to get some primer on the smaller bits - bumpers, sub-frame, bonnet. But as is so often the case things didn't go according to plan, and that was entirely down to a case of butterfingers - basically I dropped the ice-cream tub which was holding all these bits

 

Fortunately, no harm done to the parts but the bbq skewers detached from the bumpers so I had to reglue them. And by that time there wasn't enough time for the glue to dry and get the paint on, so onto Plan B - primer on the body.

 

 

Very pleased with how this went - the finish is probably the smoothest I've managed to get primer and will need just the lightest of sanding to be ready for the colour coats. Better still, it seems the filling and sanding has worked as no sign of the mould lines or sink marks which were obvious beforehand. The primer seems to have covered really well with no sign of the red from the plastic yet - fingers crossed it stays like that.

[johnlambert]

That body is looking really sharp.

[keefr22]

Yes, I agree, looks very nice!

 

Keith

[Fnick]

Ditto. Very smooth and a great base for the colour coat.

 

Nick

[Spiny]

Not a lot done on this one this weekend, just added primer to the bumpers, bonnet and front subframe. So, instead of some grey pieces, here's a picture of a spoon instead:

 

 

This is the test spoon for the XJS. I tested the colour last year, but a new problem has arisen since then, namely it seems that you can't get much in the way of Revell Gloss Clear for love nor money, and that's been my go-to when there are decals to cover. Having had a bit of wrinking when I tried Tamiya clean before (possibly due to pooling in a recess), I figured I'd be best off giving it a test on part of the description from the decal sheet (hence the 24) and covering that with a heavy layer of clear. Happily, it's worked ok so I will be using the TS-13 on this one.

 

Also recently, I got hold of some Novus to give that a test as I seem to be getting through the Tamiya compounds quite quickly, and the Finish in particular is hard to find, and expensive when it is available. I probably should have gone over with the Coarse compound first, but after the test spray (and leaving it for a day), I gave it a rub over with Novus 2. Pleased with the result, I would say it's similar to Tamiya Fine in terms of end result - shiny but won't give quite the right sort of reflection in the display cabinet with its undiffused LED tape. So I went over again with the Novus 1, and that's given the result in the photo. I think with a bit of smoothing of the orange peel first (which wasn't too bad - typical for a test I suppose) the Novus will be a good alternative to the Tamiya.

 

So no body pics, just a spoon this week

 

[Fnick]

14 minutes ago, Spiny said:

just a spoon this week

Well at least it's a very colourful shiny spoon! 😋. Out of interest are the novus compound easier to get, cheaper or both?

 

Nick

[Spiny]

19 minutes ago, Fnick said:

Out of interest are the novus compound easier to get, cheaper or both?

 

They're certainly easier to get than the Tamiya Finish Compound! I got the 1 & 2 off Amazon for about £25 - sounds expensive but they come in 8fluid ounce bottles (about 230ml) rather than the 22ml tube for the Tamiya. Novus 2 is a paste not that dissimilar to the Tamiya compounds, while Novus 1 is a spray and much more watery - spray that one on the cloth not the piece you're polishing.

[Dunderklumpen]

On 09/03/2021 at 11:04, cmatthewbacon said:

Silver Stynylrez primer also does the job, and cleans up with water, so that’s what I’ve used since...

 

Wow! My favourite primer in silver? I did not know that, so thank you very much for that information! Would that be extra good for priming under metallic colors? Today I use UMP Gloss Black under Vallejo Metal.

[cmatthewbacon]

Just now, Dunderklumpen said:

Wow! My favourite primer in silver? I did not know that, so thank you very much for that information! Would that be extra good for priming under metallic colors? Today I use UMP Gloss Black under Vallejo Metal.

I think black’s still best for metallics. The silver provides a bright base for colours, and prevents bleed through of the underlying plastic colour. They do a pink one as well, which is great for reds or yellows...

best,

M.

[Dunderklumpen]

On 29/03/2021 at 12:04, cmatthewbacon said:

They do a pink one as well, which is great for reds or yellows...

I’m doing yellow right now, so good to know. Thanks!

[Spiny]

After a bit of a break for bad weather and Easter, I got a chance to put some more paint on this one. (Actually, last weekend I got the satin black on the chassis but didn't put a photo up for that). And this time, the Jag has some paint, rather than primer, on it:

 

 

Wait a minute I hear nobody ask, wasn't it going to be blue? Well, it still is going to be blue, but as I had some light gunmetal paint left over from the Honda, I figured I'd try that as a blocking layer to further reduce the chances of that red bleeding through from the plastic. Sod's Law states that this layer went down really well (much better than the photo suggests) which is typical - one of my best colour coats and I'm going to cover it up.

 

So just a short update for this, thanks for looking.

[Spiny]

Well, it's time to make a proper start on this one. But first of all, a bit from last weekend with some more work on the chassis. Now I know I haven't put up pictures of it before, but it has had a coat of primer, and satin black. Time to get those front wheel arches body colour, which meant lots of masking - Papa Johns leaflet to the rescue here

 

 

It's had the colour coat since, clear coat should go on next weekend weather permitting. Always a bit of a pain having to mask up, but at least any paint which creeps under the masking shouldn't be too noticeable. And speaking of colour coats, I got the colour coat on the body this weekend. I had been thinking the paint might come out a bit lighter than I was hoping, but on the evidence of this it's pretty much the shade I wanted. Just got to hope the same is true once I get the clear on it:

 

 

The last pic is really just to show that I have made a start. Theredoes look to be a couple of sink marked on the back of the engine, hence the filler. As far as I can tell it won't be covered up, but will be out of sight anyway being half-hidden by the scuttle, but I thought I'd try and get it straight and level anyway. Just need the filler to dry. All the other parts are still work in progress as far as paint is concerned, but at least I've started the XJS journey proper now.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

[keefr22]

Nice update Spiny, good to see it underway, I like the colour!

 

Keith

[Paws4thot]

On 08/03/2021 at 21:17, Spiny said:

this is a kit which at some point in its life was the touring car version with various holes plugged up

Well, Hasegawa did the TWR XJS race car first, then the standard coupe, convertible, and XJS TWR (road) so they all have an ignition kill switch or a filler for same. It looks like tool wear is getting to the filler slightly.

 

Ref paint bleed through; one of the first things I do with most road car kits is paint the inside of the shell with matt black.

[Mr Mansfield]

Very nice. I do have a soft spot for an XIS. Interested to see how this goes together

[Spiny]

Matt Bacon did one earlier - if I can get it to go together as well as his the answer to you will be "Very well indeed".