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Hasegawa Jag XJS


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Thanks, I think Novus is taking over from Tamiya compounds as my go-to for polishing. I used a glasses lens cloth for the last layer rather than my usual cloth and it seems to give a better finish than I got with the Mustang.

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5 minutes ago, Spiny said:

Thanks, I think Novus is taking over from Tamiya compounds as my go-to for polishing. I used a glasses lens cloth for the last layer rather than my usual cloth and it seems to give a better finish than I got with the Mustang.

Whatever it takes mate. Looking for better ways to improve your work is the way to go 🙂👍

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Two tricks I've learned with Novus -- first, use a slightly shaggy ("soft flannel") type microfibre cloth, and secondly, just damp it a little bit and squeeze out as much as you can before applying the polish. Dunno why it works, but it helps, honest...

best,

M.

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Thanks for the tip, although personally I found the lens cloth to work better than the 'shaggy' microfibre. Same old story, each person has something that works for them I guess.

 

I am intrigued by the damp cloth though, something which never occurred to me and I will try next time I'm going for a shine. Just one question, is that for the Novus 2, Novus 1 or both?

 

Thanks again, all advice is always appreciated.

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Again not a lot of progress with the interior. I've not got on too well with the Mr. Hobby Aqueous paint - it seems to dry almost instantly but then take an age to cure. Combine that with running a light colour over dark red plastic and it took all weekend to get the cream leather painted up. But finally, the seats are done, and the cream is on the door cards too. And I got far enough with the interior tub to get rid of the masking tape - there were a couple of bits where the cream pulled off adjacent to the masking tape which was annoying, as was the bit where it crept under the tape onto the ''carpet'. Fortunately both touched up ok with little hassle. Next weekend I'll have a crack at that centre console which should hopefully paint a bit easier.

 

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Other than that, a little more detail on the dashboard, and some black on the body for the side trims. Both still need a coat or two adding, so pics of those next time. But I did get the BMF on the front bumper to go with last week's rear bumper chroming.

 

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Unfortunatley I think this only ok. Lesson learned is that I should have put a gloss coat over the black paint before the foil to get a better finish, but I'll know that for next time. Other than that, I'm reasonably happy with how it's gone given this is still early days for me and foil - there's a couple of small creases in the foil on the front bumper and I managed to put some scratches on with the cocktail stick, but I can live with it how it is. Hopefully once part hidden by the body and grille neither will be too obviou.

 

And that's it for this update, thanks for looking.

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I'd agree it's worth sticking with, it came up quite nicely on the Mustang despite a bit of wrinkling and it being my first time of using. I think it's a technique I'm learning, but each time I make a mistake that's something learned for next time. There's quite a bit of window trim work on the XJ-S so plenty of chance to get some practice in.

 

Speaking of Mustangs, what happened to that big blue thing you were looking at for the group build?

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1 minute ago, Spiny said:

I'd agree it's worth sticking with, it came up quite nicely on the Mustang despite a bit of wrinkling and it being my first time of using. I think it's a technique I'm learning, but each time I make a mistake that's something learned for next time. There's quite a bit of window trim work on the XJ-S so plenty of chance to get some practice in.

 

Speaking of Mustangs, what happened to that big blue thing you were looking at for the group build?

I stopped building the big Mustang when I decided to start work on the new cave mate but I have plans to return to it soon 🙂👍

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Finally feels like the interior is starting to come together - 3 weeks into it now and I think it will be another one or two to get there. But it does look more like an interior now, even if I only glued three pieces this weekend.

 

First job was to get the centre console painted, a relatively simple but fiddly task. First of all I went over the silver bits by brush painting with Molotow Chrome, then very careful painting of the black. A few months ago I got hold of an Army Painter Psycho brush which is perfect for this sort of thing, might need to order a second brush as this is even finer than the Tamiya Ultra Fine which is saying something. As a result, this is how the tub looked after painting.

 

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With that painted, it was an easy job to fit the first parts - seats and gear level. I think now I'm seeing them with some trim in too I'm liking the colour of the seats again, the cream I was hoping for might have been a bit overpowering so I'm happy with the colour now.

 

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Of course, that hasn't been all of the detail work. The dashboard is painted up now, but I've still got to paint the top and fit the dials so work to do there. The walnut has come out more like mahogany, but I'm ok with that. And the door cards still need some work. The chrome trim is done with the pen again, and I need to paint the speakers and wood trim on these too. As you can see I started with the speakers - the instructions have you do them in silver, but the pictures I found show them in a black plastic, some with a trim which may be chrome or may be shiny black. I'll do the trim shiny black as it's a bit more forgiving when I make a mess of it than silver will be.

 

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And finally the body. I've done all the matt black paint on it I think/hope, so today I made a start of the foiling. Only done the driver's side so far, next up will be the passenger side then the windscreen surround. There's a couple of bits where I didn't quite get it cut in a perfectly straight line, but fingers crossed I am getting better at avoiding creases. The strange light mottling is due to be getting the camera at just the wrong angle for lens flare (only just noticed it) and nothing to do with the model. Hopefully the next photo of it will look better.

 

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And that's it for this weekend, thanks for looking.

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5 hours ago, Toftdale said:

Great job on the foil - Andy 

 

Thank you, just got to hope I can at least match it on the other side. I deliberately did the right hand side first as it's the left hand side which is more visible in my display cabinet and I wanted to get some practice in - it would be the way of the modelling gods that the left side goes pear shaped.

 

1 hour ago, Marco F. said:

Superb work on the details. 

Looking forward for the progress up to a stunning replic of the 1:1

Marco F 

 

Speaking of the modelling gods, on most of my builds they always seem to strike me down in the last three weeks of a build. I'm very glad you like the way it's going so far, but I'm just waiting for that disaster at the end (probably bumper related when I fit body to chassis I predict!).

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More fiddly painting work this weekend, but on the bright side the dashboard is done (apart from gluing on the steering column and wheel). The dials are reversed decals (i.e. glue on the front) which are put on the back of the clear 'glass' which is stuck behind the dashboard. If I'd have used my brain I'd have stuck the glass in first, then put the decal on so I could line it up with the holes for the dials, but I didn't so just stuck them on the glass before fitting in place. In this case I lucked out - they just happened to be in the right place, although the thickness of the clear plastic and the angle of the dials meant that a you could see straight past the decal. Very obvious when it's just a dashboard, probably less obvious when it's all stuck together but rather than take a chance I painted ove rthe back of the clear plastic once everything was dry.

 

The doorcards are almost done too. I only gave the walnut strip a single coat of paint which hasn't provided full coverage - however given that it's meant to be wood I quite like the effect so all that's left for this is to put some clear over the top and I can call those done too.

 

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Barring disasters I should have the interior completed next week, and hopefully fixed to the chassis too.

 

Speaking of the chassis... this was the week when I put the engine in. First attempt saw the front suspension fall off (it's only glued in two places to the subframe with the struts loose in the subframe and wheelarch to allow steering. So a bit more glue to get that held in place, and I got the engine in at the second attempt.

 

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That's all for this week, thanks for looking.

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That's looking really good.

 

I was dreading masking up that dash-board and door-cards, but after what I see here, I'll probably start work on this tonight. (Assuming I can get the man cave warm enough!)

 

Cheers,

Alan.

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The good news is that because most of the different colours correspond to the relief of the part masking can be minimal. The only masking I did was on the door cards, and that was only for the vertical lines between the tan and sail colour - everything else is hand painted. You would need the magnifying headset, but because of that relief you can paint up to an edge quite easily - the reason the rims to the speakers have the lowest quality edges is because they were painted last and it's harder to get a good edge freehand when you're painting the higher surface.

 

Incidentally, the black recesses around the chrome door handles were done with very watered down satin black, similar to how I did the dials on the Mustang if you saw that build but on a smaller scale.

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Good news! It's only taken about a month and a half but I've finally finished the interior :)

 

First up, finishing the door cards, a nice easy job which just involved some clear over the 'wood' trim, runing some watered down brown paing along the door lines and adding clear red to the reflectors on the arm rests (which barely show in the photos and are practically invisible on the real thing). So with the arm rests fitted:

 

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After that, it was just a case of fitting the dashbard and doorcards onto the interior. Lots of detail on this kit, just a shame that most of it will be barely visible when finished.

 

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That's all ready to fit to the chassis now, but I'm going to make sure the glue is properly dry first so it will wait until next week.

 

Other than that, I've made a start on the wheels - no pics but they're proving just as fiddly as the dashboard what with black around the nuts, shiny black centre and steel around the spokes. I've also been putting more foil, still not finished but I only have the top of the windscreen and A-pillars to do to get the body done. One of the bits I did get done was the rear trim above the number plate:

 

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I'm pleasantly surprised by how well the BMF has gone over the JAGUAR letters without splitting, tearing or hiding the lettering. Less pleasant though is how it's highlighting every little bit of unevenness in the paint. Since this pic was taken I've gone over the cente bit with flat black. The intention is that I will sand over the text and, fingers crossed, just take the black off the text to end up with that standing out in silver. Wish me luck!

 

That's all for this week. Thanks for looking.

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One of those satisfying weekends this time around where it feels like you've broken the back of a job. Yes, the foiling is all done apart from the interior mirror :happy:

 

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I hadn't realised until I've finished the foil just how much it defines the side window shape. The shell has always looked like an XJ-S, but it just looks much sharper now. Then, just when I thought I'd finished it all, I decided that the chrome pen for the rear chrome trim wasn't cutting the mustard and so decided to foil that too. The very thin strip across the boot was particularly difficult - not 100% satisfied with it but its as good as I can get. I also sanded off the JAGUAR lettering with 6000 then 12,000 Micromesh, again not 100% satisfied but reasonably happy with the result. The Jag fans may notice I made a bit of an error with the boot - somehow managed to misread both the instructions and reference material but far too much risk of damage if I try to rectify things. I also had a go at creating the reversing lights in the foiled areas by masking around, then giving it a coat of matt then gloss clear. I should have stopped at matt as the end result is almost invisible; guess I'll know for next time.

 

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Separately I also moved on a bit with the chassis. The wheels have been the latest thing to slow me down, with steel paint needed for the gaps between spokes and a small line just outside that, not to mention the various nuts etc. Happily two are done and the tyre treads sanded back and tyres fitted. Just a shame the steel doesn't really show - maybe I should have gone for a less accurate gunmetal colour to make that work more visible!

 

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And then it was just a case of fitting all the interior and other bits onto the chassis. I think the firewall maybe should lean back a bit more that I've done it, but it's close enough. And the washer bottle and brake server really have pretty rubbish guide points for installing - I think they're in the right place and orientation but it would be very easy to install them differently, particularly the brake booster.

 

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So that's where I am now, thanks for looking.

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