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Jaguar XJ220 -- Tamiya, 1/24


Matt Bacon

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The original wheels was special order from rally gurus Speedline. Not that i know, but i`m pretty sure they are function over

form,because when you are going close to 220mph aerodynamics are kinda important.

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  • 2 months later...

Well, it has been a while. Since the last bulletin, my wife's been ordained, we've moved house, my eldest has left for university at King's College, London...and my dedicated modelling shed has transformed into most of a garage:

bench-X2.jpg
Anyway, on with the important stuff -- I'm back at the bench!
seats-1-X2.jpg
seats-2-X3.jpg
The Jaguar has got some seats at last. Cockpit in various Vallejo tones of beige and sand. Home made belts with some spare Hobby Design brass buckles.
dash-X3.jpg
The dash responds really well to some detail painting. Very eighties plastics, too...
brakedisks-X2.jpg
Brake disks painted with Humbrol Metalcote steel -- polished on the rotors, left matt grey on the callipers, and painted with Citadel Boltgun Metal in the centres. I could drill them, or draw tiny dots for holes, but given that they completely disappear inside those alloy wheels, I'm not going to bother.
cockpit-1-X2.jpg
cockpit-4-X2.jpg
cockpit-3-X3.jpg
Cockpit all together. I'm still slowly working on cabling and piping the engine, and I'm getting to the point where the engine bay needs to come together around the engine and frame, so I can start on the plumbing that attaches to the walls...
Progress won't be quick (still many other demands on my time) but at least I'm making some headway, and it feels good!
bestest,
M.
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I think I've done as much plumbing round the engine as I can stand (and fit in...)

engine-only.jpg
The big insulated pipes are made from solder, wrapped in the embossed paper/foil from a cigarette packet. Whenever I see a fresh empty packet dropped somewhere, I always plunder it for modelling goodness before putting it in the bin and tut-tutting... See that tiny splash of red, buried deep in the guts of the thing, in the angle of the two insulated pipes? That's the distributor, properly wired with six plug leads, all going to the right places on the cylinder heads... At least I'll know it's there....
engine-spatchcocked.jpg
engine-opened-up-2.jpg
It's now a bit of a 3D puzzle. The instructions would have you add the firewall to the cockpit, but I can't see any reason why I can't complete the engine bay with four walls at this stage. The piping on the blue tank and coming out of the firewall are is new -- a combination of fuse wire, aluminium tube and rubbery jewellery elastic. The two insulated wires coming out of the right hand wall have to wrap around the back of the connector on top of the blue tank, so that corner has to get done first. I have no idea where to finish them off -- somewhere down in front of the engine. Equally, I'm not sure where the pipes from the front of the engine terminate, so they'll just get lost in the spaghetti junction of the firewall. The two insulated pipes coming over the left of the engine terminate in that black box on the wall -- that one I CAN see in my pictures. There's probably rather less than half the plumbing of the real thing, but it'll look busy enough I reckon...
Time to try a test fit! Wish me luck!
bestest,
M.
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Thanks, chaps... this is it for the rolling chassis:

rolling-chassis-2.jpg
rolling-chassis-from-rear.jpg
rolling-chassis-from-rear-2.jpg
rolling-chassis-from-rear-3.jpg
rolling-chassis-from-top.jpg
If you look really closely, you might spot the teeny-tiny Jaguar heads on the wheel nuts. Or you might not. Looks like I need to check the tracking... either one front wheel is on loose, or the steering link came off one of the wheel carriers while I was putting the wheels in place -- a tight fit!
Currently faffing about with the windows...
bestest,
M.
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Body is making progress...

body-26-oct.jpg
body-26-oct-2.jpg
None of the windows are fixed in place yet. I'll post a bit more detail next time, but I think it is possible to get the rear screen to open safely if you open up the slots for the pins on the hinges, so that the window can move backwards a bit once you've popped it slightly open, and then rotate above and over the rear edge of the sunroof. It has rails on each side and the louvres behind (and gravity) to hold it in the right place when closed, so it doesn't matter if the hinge is a bit sloppy.
And I couldn't resist this:
body-on-trial.jpg
body-on-trial-2.jpg
The rear louvres (just like the X framework over the engine) are the original black plastic, polished. I think one of the tricks with cars is to get as many different finishes as possible on the black bits, to give the impression of all the different materials used in real life...
bestest,
M
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Body is making progress...

body-26-oct.jpg

body-26-oct-2.jpg

None of the windows are fixed in place yet. I'll post a bit more detail next time, but I think it is possible to get the rear screen to open safely if you open up the slots for the pins on the hinges, so that the window can move backwards a bit once you've popped it slightly open, and then rotate above and over the rear edge of the sunroof. It has rails on each side and the louvres behind (and gravity) to hold it in the right place when closed, so it doesn't matter if the hinge is a bit sloppy.

And I couldn't resist this:

body-on-trial.jpg

body-on-trial-2.jpg

The rear louvres (just like the X framework over the engine) are the original black plastic, polished. I think one of the tricks with cars is to get as many different finishes as possible on the black bits, to give the impression of all the different materials used in real life...

bestest,

M

Well of course it is Matt! & you my friend have that technique down to a T ???

Cheers Cliff

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A quick gallop down the final straight now (yeah, right...)

chassis-body-1.jpg
chassis-body-2.jpg
I used real glass tinting film for the sunroof, and it worked pretty well. And before anybody comments, I know the wing mirrors aren't symmetrical -- apparently the design around the A-pillars means that the driver's side needs to be forward, while they look into the passenger side through the quarter light.
Last glimpse of the interior details
interior.jpg
And together at last:
together-2.jpg
together-1.jpg
profile.jpg
The fit's OK, but there are no positive locations for anything, and getting the simple hinge mechanism for the headlight covers into the right place as you bring the body and chassis together is a barrel of laughs.
Proper final pictures when the weather permits...
All in all, an enjoyable build of a pretty good kit.
bestest,
M.
Edited by Matt Bacon
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