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Airfix Jaguar 420 Vintage Classic Kit


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Another kit completed, I pre-ordered this one as soon as it was announced because I wanted to get my hands on it.  The Jaguar 420 seems like an odd subject for a kit, being a short-lived four-door saloon.  That said, Airfix did a very good job of capturing the car's shape and details, even the leaping cat bonnet mascot is quite well reproduced.  What was less good was the amount of flash and sink marks that needed addressing, particularly sink marks around the headlamps.

 

I added some basic door cards to the interior as this, like many Airfix closed cars, doesn't have any detail for the insides of the doors.  This isn't really visible on the finished model but at least I know it's there.  I've also replaced the kit side windows with some thinner clear plastic for the quarterlights and left out the door windows entirely to provide a slightly better view of the interior.  It's a pity you can't see more of the interior as the seats, dashboard and steering wheel are quite nicely reproduced.

 

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I was inspired by the box art, and the sighting of a similar real 420, to go for metallic gold, something close to Jaguar's Golden Sand.

 

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The interior is supposed to be Oxblood, this was mixed by eye mostly using Tamiya NATO brown with a bit of white and red.  The dashboard was painted various tans and browns before getting an orange clear coat.

 

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There's a reasonable representation of the 4.2-litre Jaguar XK straight six under the bonnet.  If you wanted, you could go to town adding all the extra reservoirs, wiring and plumbing that the kit lacks.  It's also worth noting that as far as I can tell the inner wings are nothing like the ones on the real car.

 

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The underside looks pretty realistic.  It's a bit of a shame that the rear suspension isn't assembled as a complete unit (as it would be in reality) before mounting to the body as it's quite difficult to get the springs located correctly.  Whoever designed the front suspension is a complete sadist as the steering linkage attaches to the chassis under the front crossmember but above (from this perspective) the anti-roll bar, so has to go on after the crossmember and ARB assembly.

 

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If I did this kit again I'd probably modify the scuttle ventilation flap so that it was in the closed position, change the windscreen wipers and maybe even the windscreen glazing itself.  The tyres are painted Tamiya NATO black, which I think gives a nice, realistic colour.

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That's a lot of detail for a 1/32 kit. You've done a great job with this it. Have you thought of adding a grey wash to the panel lines? IMHO that would round it off nicely. 

 

And I agree with Andy. Gold works really well on this one.

 

Nick

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Lovely build - I think this is the first one I've seen!  The moulding looks a lot crisper and more detailed than I thought it would, especially the underside, and the overall proportions of the body look a lot better than I expected too. 

 

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Thanks everyone for all the comments.

 

On 09/03/2022 at 20:57, Fnick said:

That's a lot of detail for a 1/32 kit. You've done a great job with this it. Have you thought of adding a grey wash to the panel lines? IMHO that would round it off nicely. 

 

And I agree with Andy. Gold works really well on this one.

 

Nick

It is very well detailed for its age and scale. 

 

Sometimes I add panel line washes but in this case I'm going to leave it as it is.

 

On 10/03/2022 at 06:13, CliffB said:

Very nice John :goodjob:.   It looks like you managed to get the bonnet hinges to work too - which is more than I could do!

 

Cheers

Yeah, the hinges didn't present any problems, in fact there were surprisingly few issues with getting parts to fit.  I deviated from the assembly instructions and added the hinge mountings to the firewall earlier than Airfix suggested.

 

22 hours ago, Paul H said:

Lovely build - I think this is the first one I've seen!  The moulding looks a lot crisper and more detailed than I thought it would, especially the underside, and the overall proportions of the body look a lot better than I expected too. 

 

I'm going to take some credit for that, as the body needed quite a lot of cleaning up and filling.  The other parts weren't too bad all things considered.

 

9 hours ago, Kitkent said:

That’s very smart John,I want one now! The golden sand colour’s just perfect for this car. It’s a very decent kit by the look of it.

Chris.

Yes, it is a good kit and I'm glad I picked it up.  Jaguar had some lovely colour combinations in the 1960s, I'd like to see one on Opalescent pale blue.

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2 hours ago, Kitkent said:

The blue and the golden sand must have been the the 2 most popular colours! Also seen in the Sweeney TV series,bank robbers car along with the S type of the sixties too…Chris. 

I can't remember where I saw it, possibly on eBay, but someone makes a resin 1:32 Jaguar S-Type body, which would go nicely with the Airfix 420 wheels and floor.  Someone also did a fairly convincing Ford Consul GT/Granada slot car body, so you could re-create The Sweeny car chases if you really wanted.

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That looks lovely, very well done

On 11/03/2022 at 22:58, johnlambert said:

The blue and the golden sand must have been the the 2 most popular colours

I seem to remember that there was a darkish grey was very popular, that is what I am intending to do mine in.

They definitely did that colour in the S Type

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