mrmike

I'm liking this build! Keep it going!

Looking good, Geoff! I think I would have paint the hubs and lugnuts with semi gloss black instead of flat black. But then, maybe they were flat black after a while in the elements...

Nice Jeep! Nicely detailed, too! I have the earlier release of that kit with the custom wheels and tires and I may build it sooner than later inspired by yours.

Ken, if happens from time to time and it is up to us modelers to correct these flaws if it is within our skillset. I knew I could do it with a little scratch building and some 11/32 tubing. So far, it looks pretty good. Noel, I have not thought of replacing the wheels with PE wheels, nor will I. I will stick with the plastic ones as I have already pointed out earlier in this thread.

I started following Ant on a show called For The Love Of Cars with him and Philip Glenister. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_the_Love_of_Cars

Thanks David! I thought about the situation and concluded that tubing would be a good thing to use and I happen to have some 11/32 tubing on hand, so it was a perfect fit. Noel, thank you for the idea, but that doesn't seem to be good for me, especially since I have styrene tubing on hand. I would rather go through the proces of shaping and fitting the tubing than to go through the effort of copy paper and then transferring that image to very thin card plastic. For me, that would be a waste of my time and energy. And, there are no parts for headlight tunnels in the box and it appears to be an overlooked item when they designed the kit, but headlights are included.

The Story McNally stops at Boston Police Headquarters to find out more about Johnny Wilson. Lt. Det. Troy prints out Johnny's arrest record for McNally and he reads about all of Johnny's arrests and prison time. That afternoon, McNally gets a call from Johnny telling him to meet him in the alley behind Camber St. in Jamica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston. McNally arrives at the alley and he walks up the alley with his SIG Sauer P227 drawn and ready. He approaches a slight bend in the alley and he finds a body on the ground. Johnny Wilson and he is dead. McNally calls the Police and he waits for them to arrive. Several cops and the Coroner doing their jobs and the Det. Steven Darvell arrives. Right away, he accuses McNally of killing Johnny. McNally tells Darvell to either arrest him and talk to his lawyer, Charlotte Rothmann or investigate what actually happened at the scene. Darvell snorts and walks over to the body and the Coroner. A cop walks by McNally and says, "He's a jerk!" McNally agrees with him. The Build I like to gather pictures of the 1:1 and use them for my background and screensaver on my laptop. I was staring at my background picture and noticed the headlight tunnels on a 1:1 Jaguar and I didn't see any on the Heller Jag. Using some 11/32 styrene tubing, I cut out and shaped a couple of "tunnels" for my model. I got the basic shape and now to cut them down further. McNally will return...

Noel, I will consider your apology. The Story McNally discovers that Johnny Wilson hans out at a dive bar called Rott Gutt. He goes into the bar and orders a cold beer and the bartender puts a luke warm can of beer on the bar top and opens it as if the Boston PI was disturbing his very busy day. He asks about Johnny Wilson and the bartender lights his cigarette and points to Johnny sitting in a booth near the front window. McNally goes over to Johnny and introducrs himself and says he's looking for the coin collection and Johnny says he doesn't know anything about a coin collection. McNally pushes the table into Johnny's stomach and says that if Johnny doesn't start telling him about the coins, he will do much worse to him. Johnny says he is a go-between for the collection and the seller. McNally asks what the seller wants for the coins and Johnny says $1,000,000. McNally says he has the money and where and when does the seller want the cash. Johnny says to meet him in the alleyway in Jamica Plain off of Camber St. at 11:00 AM. McNally says no funny business or somebody is going to die and it won't be himself. The Build I was looking at my laptop background which happens to be of a '61 Jaguar XK-E and I noticed something about the headlights. Something was missing and I looked at the instructions for the missing parts and the instructions show nothing! Zip, zilch, zero, nada! No tunnel buckets for the headlights! The tunnel buckets run from the headlights along the bottom of the headlight tunnel under the clear plexiglass. What to do, what to do? I have some 11/32 tubing and I will try to cut and shape a piece to fill in that open space in the hood. McNally will return...

Thanks David! I just realized that I took the pictures of the rear suspension upside down! Oops!

The Story As McNally drives back into Boston, his cellphone rings and he answers the call. The caller is Alexander Cannon and he would like McNally to stop by his house in Brookline, MA for a quick chat and the Boston PI heads to the Cannon Residence. He s escorted to the study where Cannon is talking on his telephone and McNally is greeted by Lila Stenna, Cannon's executive assistant. They talk for a few minutes until Cannon ends his phone call and turns towards McNally and Lila and he motions him to his large wooden desk. He points to a chair next to his desk and they start to talk. Cannon tells McNally about a phone call he got a call from a former associate who is still in the shady business of Boston's Underground. He wanted to know if Cannon could move a valuable coin collection and Cannon told him he doesn't do that sort of thing any longer. The associate who name is Johnny Wilson, wants to know why Cannon is not interested and he tells Johnny he has turned a new leaf and his in no longer interested in Boston's Underground. Johnny tells Cannon he'll look elsewhere and Cannon tells him good luck. Then, he called McNally since he heard he was searching to the coin collection. The Build I painted and assembled the rear suspension and the underhood structure. Both are ready for primer and paint. McNally will return...

Thanks Ben for the link! I appreciate it!

I have heard of some people saying that they had trouble detailing the taillights. I haven't though much about it yet. Basically, paint the back of the taillights with transparent red and then detail the front of the taillights. We shall see when I get to that bridge... I'm glad you like that idea! I use a pencil when I have faint moldlines that are hard to see and I also use the pencil to indicate other issues that may need fixing.

Thanks Jim! I have quite few stories written with many models to be built and I have tried branching out to stories not involving models. The coin collection? I'm not saying! Keep watching!

Noel, when did this become your thread about other makers of a Jaguar XK-E kit? I think that you should be asking that kind of question in "General Automotive Talk" and not in my build thread. If you want to comment on my build, I welcome it. But, asking about comments on your posting of Jaguar kits should be put somewhere else. There is a time and place for everything and this is not the time or place for that.

The Story McNally drives out to Ritchie's home in Concord, MA and Ritchie invites him in. He asks Ritchie for a tour of the house and grounds ending back in the foyer of the huge house. McNally asks him about the alarm system and Ritchie says he changes the password for the alarm every two weeks. But, he changes only one number and it is consecutive order. McNally makes him change his password to a completely different name and number since changing just a number in consecutive order makes the system easy to hack. Everytime he changes his password, it has to be something completely different and Ritchie finally understands why. And, all it took was a $3,000,000 theft from his home to make him understand. The Build I washed the body parts yesterday and let them air-dry overnight. This morning, I assembled the engine frame on the chassis and based on my research, this will be painted all one color...Tamiya TS-86 Pure Red. The interior will be a mix of different blacks and I might add some embossing powder for carpet. McNally will return...

Thanks Atin! Well, I do have to admit, adding decals to the tires and coating them with Testors Dull Coat work rather well. I like it so much I had to do a mockup with the body! More Mustang to come...

Thanks Tony! I keep telling myself that I've got to paint the body and it still sits on the stand in my paintbooth waiting for primer and paint.

I thought I had finished the chassis until I realized that I had not glued on the door panels. The wheels and tires looked like it was missing something and then I realized that the tires don't have any lettering on the sidewalls. I don't have any Continental sidewall decals, but I do have some Goodyear sidewall decals by Slixx and I used those instead. I'll let this dry a while and then I'll give it a coat of Testors Dullcoat. More Mustang to come...

The Story McNally stops and talks to the various pawn shop, coin collectors, and even some back room sellers that he knows. No one has seen any coin collections come by them. Not even individual coins from Ritchie's collection. Some have said that they heard of the break-in and theft, but they haven't seen anything come up for sale from it. He will have to look closer towards Ritchie's home for clues and to check out his alarm system. The Build My attempt at creating a distributor for the Jaguar 3.8 Ltr. engine failed, so I dove into my parts box and and found an 8 cylinder distributor. I sanded off the nubs, drilled it out and added my plugs wires and let the glue dry for a day. This morning, I routed the wires to the cylinder head. McNally will return...

Fantastic build Marcos! I have high expectations for the Mustang GT4 that I am building right now. Come on Tamiya! Produce a Factory Stock version!!!

Thanks Daniel! I can understand having too many kits started. I make sure that I have only 2-3 kits going at a time. If I get bored of one, I'll work on the other. You are correct as the Heller XK-E has the wipers molded into the windshield. I find that often on many other kits as well.

I removed the seat harness so I could apply the decals to the seat, so I swapped the straps around and reglued them to the seat. One of the things I had noticed was the white edge around the harness and I used a black Sharpie to mask the edges. The interior is now decaled and wired and while the wiring may not be totally correct, it does add something to the interior. I installed the dash after adding the decals to the center stack and I used a couple of PE rings for the instrument panel. More Mustang to come...

The Story McNally stops at Boston Police Headquarters and goes up to his old haunt, Burglary/Robbery Division and he talks to Lt. Rueben Ferris. He inquires about old coin shops and he finds out that Concord Police had asked BPD for assistance due to the value of Ritchie's Coin Collection. He gets a list of coin collectors and old coin shops that may deal with old coin collections and some that does business "under the counter". McNally thanks Lt. Det. Ferris for his time and he leaves the Burglary/Robbbery Division to go and talk to these people. The Build One of the first things to go was the distributor when I was going to add plug wires. I looked around for it, but it has disappeared into thin air, so I made one from a piece of part sprue. I added a black wash to the wire wheels and installed the tires. The 3.8 Ltr. engine is in progress. McNally will return...

More wiring added to the interior. I added the drivers seat with harness that I had cut out of the decal sheet since it would be too flat just using the decal alone. More Mustang to come...

I have sworn off the hard stuff years ago for many reasons. I might have a beer during the build, but nothing stronger.