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Jaguar XJR-8 (1/24 Hasegawa kit)


Scargsy

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So my second entry for the GB and I'm finally building something other than an aircraft this year!

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Hopefully suitably big and British - 7 litre, V12, 720HP monster, 4.8 metres long and loud as hell.

I prefer the look of the open rear wheel Le-Mans version but this is what I have in the stash and I'm going to build it OOB.

I'll be adding the cancer stick logos for historical accuracy (I think they come supplied in the kit) - hopefully I'm OK posting those logos/pics on BM?

 

Build to start / sprue shots / etc. once I get the two tiny MiGs off the workbench!

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A great choice @Scargsy and it's nice to see another car in the GB.

I've got a bad case of 'horsepower envy' though, as I think my 7.7 litre Roller only delivered about 50 ;)

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  • 3 weeks later...

OK so time to make a start - the MiG GB entries now finished, here's what's in the box...

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Not a huge number of pieces (and some are used for other variants), no engine so quite a simple kit - I guess the challenge will be in getting a good paint finish. the only tricky construction part appears to be the rear wing support which looks like it could be fiddly and a bit flimsy.

 

The kit includes decals for all the purple parts but I'm not sure I trust them, or my skills to get them on all those large areas smoothly so I'll be attempting to paint the purple parts, luckily the yellow stripes are separate decals for the most part so can be overlayed on the joins to help cover up any untidy masking edges hopefully.

The only exception to that will be those parts that run over the roof towards the rear, I'm not sure if I'll use them as is or attempt to cutout those purble bits and mask/paint the purple areas on the roof. Let's hope the colours are a good match.

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All the white plastic parts were packaged into a single poly bag, so unfortuantely there's a few small scratches on the side of the bodywork I'll need to sort out.

 

Instructions all seem pretty simple and straightforward, however I'm not looking forward to masking up the interior of the windows to paint the glass edges.

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Anyhow I decided now was as good a time as any to make a start so attached in the side panels.

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Annoyingly these only attach on two of the three sides (the edge towards the front and the top edge) with little lips, so I added some thin strips of plasticard on the rear edge (after test fitting the body to check I had clearance).

I also added the wing mirrors at this stage, as I wanted to get a good join prior to paint, as well as a tiny in-fill piece that goes into the front air scoop.

 

The interior cabin was attached to the underside and I separated off the spoiler parts - leaving some small sprue attachements to help me hold them during painting.

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The seat was also tidied up - it had come away from the sprue already, it appears to have some raised moulded parts to represent the seatbelts, so I guess they'll need painting - would be a pain to have to sand them out of the concave seat, they seem quite soft in terms of detail/edges though.

 

So that's it so far - I'm planning on try to sort the pieces for an airbrush session, I like to paint as much as possible in one go, rather than a piece at a time. I'm not sure on what paint to use yet - I have some Zero Paints white and purple for the Jag but I much prefer using self-leveling thinned Mr Color stuff as it's more forgiving in terms of application mistakes. No idea on what colour to prime the white too, sometimes I have issues with grey primer bleeding back through whites.

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Small amount of progress - 

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The body shell was primed in a mix of Mr Surfacer White 1500 and Grey 1000 (with self-leveling thinners) along with the wing parts. However I'd forgotten to remove the seam lines down the sides of the body shell so I've since sanded them out and re-primed those areas.

 

The rest of the parts I primed in a mix of Grey 1000 and Black 1500, the instructions call for black but I thought a very dark grey might make it more interesting. The wheels and seat I primed in just black for contrast.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A couple of sanding and repriming sessions later and I think I've got all the wrong bit right (hint I hadn't).

I tried to paint the front splitter directly in Tamiya X-5 Green, but it didn't show up great over the black primer, so I mixed some of the grey primer I had on hand into it, giving a priming 'minty green coat'

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Body was then given a coat of Zero white, and the splitter another coat of Green - this time going down much better.

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The body I gave another 2 light coats of Zero Paint white - I'm not why but I always end up with a kind of texture? The final coat I'd actually added a little bit of extra thinning in the form of self-leveling thinner, hoping it would help by 'sinking' into the low points and also by softening the paint but it didn't seem to help...

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I'd love to know what it is causing this texture because if I could do it when I want (and remove it when I don't) then that would be handy.

I tried looking at it under my 30x hand held microscope and what it appears to be is small pits in the paint surface, could it be badly mixed paint, bad atomisation in my airbrush? Me applying the paint in too much of thin mist coats rather than wet ones? My primer coat? What's unusual is it is pretty uniform over the entire model (i.e. it doesn't look like I'd expect orange peel - with a bit too much paint in one area and it being blown about by the air as it dries - but maybe it is?)

 

Anyhow - I'll try and remove the larger dust lumps and try flatting it back a bit with some 2500 grit, but the issue is that the paint has pits (it actually feels smooth to the touch) so it's not like tiny high spots I can knock off.

Next will be masking and painting the purple parts - the kit comes with decals for them which I might use down the rear top section but hopefully I can paint the parts that at least have the yellow border decals.

 

 

 

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I used ZP White once on a build and had about the same issues, my guess is that the paint is quite thick so probably needs way more thinning which I wasn't used to doing then. I haven't used it since actually so I don't know how it would stand up against my current painting "skills". I'd probably try to wet sand most of the coat off and try again with thinner paint, as in 70% thinner / 30% paint or something. 

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3 hours ago, JeroenS said:

I used ZP White once on a build and had about the same issues, my guess is that the paint is quite thick so probably needs way more thinning which I wasn't used to doing then. I haven't used it since actually so I don't know how it would stand up against my current painting "skills". I'd probably try to wet sand most of the coat off and try again with thinner paint, as in 70% thinner / 30% paint or something. 

 

Thanks, might be worth a shot - this Zero Paint stuff is supposed to be pre-thinned, but the final coat I did add a bit of self-leveling thinners, which I think helped (although that was over the already rough surface).

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK so time for an update...

 

The texture did settle a little once dried and given a little sanding but wasn't in the mood for completely stripping back.

I added the purple parts with Zero paints...

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To check approximate masking I'd printed out a 1:1 scale copy of the decals and sliced them up to check. Unfortunately there's a little bit of purple overspray coming up from the radiator/front duct.

The texture problem still persisted, given they were relatively flat I'd tried sanding back and repriming/painting the wing several times...

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One thing that is odd, where I'd completely oversprayed on one section of wing and the paint had run it was completely smooth. Also looking at the wing under the microscope it was as though there were tiny white (but more probably clear) bubbles causing issues?

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I have to say it's a lovely purple colour, almost has a hint of metallic to it, though it doesn't match the decals completely.

I hand painted the limited interior parts (belt raised detail on seat, radiator, gear knob) and attached together along with the sprayed up minimal engine detail (a couple of exhausts and a support strut)...

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I clear coated then micromeshed the whole body and wing parts once dry, then assembled the wing - this was a bit of a pain, there is a tiny part that attaches the two uprights onto the body but the connection points are tiny. I ended up losing it at one point, fiddling around with it, trying to file bits down. I have a hard floor so usually it's not a problem with the old carpet monster but I couldn't locate it, I ended up checking under the chair cover, then getting the dust pan and brush out - which usually finds any tiny parts that have gone wandering across the floor. In the end I'd given up hope when I later found it had fallen into my pocket!

Anyhow - for now I've attached it onto the rear of the car, I'll attach the wing I guess as a final step - that way I can hopefully align it better (otherwise I would be worried it would be crooked).

 

I moved onto the decals, I have to say the Hasegawa kit supplied ones do seem to go on and conform nicely, though there are a lot of parts to align together which is a pain manipulating multiple ones at once. The rear engine cover piece for example is in 3 sections, a central 'hump' one and two side parts. Annoying also the long yellow stripes have to conform to a small cross stripe at the rear (though thankfully it's broken up on the left side at an air duct so not too bad, but it also needs to line up with the engine cover pieces).

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In the end I managed to get decals all on without too many mishaps - I'd planned / started doing the number 5 car (which has slightly different rear-side purple parts) but the number folded up terribly when trying to place it on the front, so I switched out for the number 4. Other than that, and a few annoying wrinkles the decals went on pretty well, though annoyingly the yellow 'swoosh' that goes down the side is a little transparent and my purple under-painting does show through a little at the rear end.

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Anyhow it's all looking pretty good - not sure why they stopped doing cancer stick adverts not like it um, OK ignore the object in the left of the above picture! Don't start kids, it ain't cool - just think how many model kits you could buy with the money you'll save.

 

Anyhow I rattle canned some Mr Topcoat clear on (not shown), I'll leave that to fully dry and move onto the clear parts next I guess (which I'm not looking forward to, given I've no pre-cut masks. Apparently there needs to be a green ring around the headlight covers and the internal window frames, I'll need to check the plastic, hopefully there's some guide ridges.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was at the Jaguar Centenery event at Borrklands last wekeend and came across this pair. I note number 2 is on your box lid but you have decals for 4 and 5 only. Strange. Well here's a picture of numbere 6.

Enjoy

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I was surprised to see how small they were. The new Audi's etc are massive by comparison..

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So I've managed to finally get it finished - seemed to be a simple kit destined to give me a lot of issues (probably more user error than the kit's fault)...

 

I started with some black panel line (for the front wheel vents) but I didn't overly like the results, so I used some 'neutral grey' filter as a panel line wash on the doors and other openings.

I built up the headlights separately, the clear parts I'd painted/decaled first before dipping in floor polish. I had managed to get a scratch down the windscreen though!

The body and wing looked a little too shiny for my liking so I gave them a coat of semi-gloss Topcoat, though being a fool I managed to get lots of dust and dirt stuck in it.

I'm not used to decalling rubber wheels and they did rip a bit in parts (also they appear to be printed backwards - I've no idea why, so as to increase glue or something?)

Getting the windows attached was a pain, seems the roof has sunk/bent in slightly so lots of swearing with super glue, PVA and masking tape later I got them approximately in the correct places, though the tape did rip up half of the Jaguar and sunvisor decal! Luckily (I think due to clear coating before) I managed to remove it gently from the tape and get it back on the window.

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Time for final assembly and again I end up with some problems..

Getting the headlights in is a pain (since they fit in a recessed housing and there'll little in the way of alignment help other than a slot and small protrusion on the back of the headlight).

I could have done a better job with the front clear lenses but by this point I was kind of wanting it all to finish! :D

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Getting the tiny rear light on the rear deck proved a pain too also I noticed far too late that the rear light clusters actually have an up and down sides (they're slightly wider on the bottom, so I ended up having to place the left one upside down, otherwise it would have the indicator on the wrong side!

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Anyhow it's now all done - and once I managed to super-glue the wing on I think it doesn't look too bad.

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So another GB entry finished, time to build something else!

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A cracking result despite your self depreciation.  You can be very happy and proud of this model. 

Great work. 

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