Harry P. Posted April 11, 2015 Author Posted April 11, 2015 The grille shell support rods were made of piano wire, to replace the kit pieces. Piano wire is perfectly smooth and has no mold seam lines like the kit pieces do...
Twokidsnosleep Posted April 11, 2015 Posted April 11, 2015 Oh my, that is superb work there on the windscreen, standing ovation!!! The build is taking on your wonderful classic look
bobthehobbyguy Posted April 11, 2015 Posted April 11, 2015 Very nice work. Very clean as always. Great color choices.
bbowser Posted April 11, 2015 Posted April 11, 2015 More outstanding work from our fearless leader. Looks great Harry.
Harry P. Posted April 11, 2015 Author Posted April 11, 2015 The hood folds open like the real thing. There are metal hinges supplied in the kit. The first step is to use a Dremel with a grinding bit to rough up the surfaces of the hood panels and the hinges where they will be glued together: Then I used CA to glue the hinges and panels together:
Harry P. Posted April 11, 2015 Author Posted April 11, 2015 Ok, gang... here's a little bit of scratchbuilding trickery... The kit supplied top boot/tonneau is molded perfectly flat and straight, there are no ripples or wrinkles or anything molded in to suggest that the boot is made of fabric. All the edges are perfectly straight, and it's much too shallow top to bottom to actually be able to cover the folded top. I don't like the looks of it, so I'll scratchbuild my own, First step is to build the frame, or "skeleton." For this I used silver beading wire (found in the jewelry making aisle at HL). This wire comes in different diameters and is very useful for all sorts of modeling applications. It's soft enough to easily bend to shape with your fingers, but stiff enough to hold its shape. It's somewhere between aluminum rod and solder as far as flexibility. I used CA to glue the pieces together, but as you can imagine this results in a very fragile assembly due to the very limited gluing area. So I reinforced the glue joints with 5-minute epoxy. The trick here is to not get everything perfectly straight... I want slight ripples and imperfections in the skeleton because I want the boot to ultimately look like it's soft and flexible (not like the kit piece!). Here is the kit piece and my scratchbuilt replacement... And testing for fit... Looks good. On to the next step...
Harry P. Posted April 11, 2015 Author Posted April 11, 2015 Once I had the skeleton built and was satisfied with the fit on the body, I covered it with pieces of newspaper, using dabs of CA to glue the paper to the frame. Again, I'm purposely not trying for perfection here... I actually want slight ripples and waves in the surface:
Harry P. Posted April 11, 2015 Author Posted April 11, 2015 Finally, I gave the boot several thick coats of acrylic craft paint. When dry, I added contrasting piping (leftover rigging line from a wooden ship model). I attached the piping with tiny dabs of CA, then when all of the piping was attached I "locked" it all down with a coat of Future. Here is my scratchbuilt top boot. Notice the wrinkles and ripples that happen when you paint the newspaper with the acrylic paint. It gives a pretty convincing approximation of a soft fabric boot:
Foxer Posted April 11, 2015 Posted April 11, 2015 That looks great, Harry! And a fine little tutorial on how you did it .. filed away for a future use. ")
Krazy Rick Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 Your a real master craftsman Harry, every time you post these in progress builds; it's a true adventure - always enjoyable
Belugawrx Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 I like the texture of the canvas?.. but that thread,..braided,,..mmm nope Looking great Harry,.. so far Cheers
LaughingIndian Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 I like the texture of the canvas?.. but that thread,..braided,,..mmm nope Looking great Harry,.. so far Cheers I'll bet the modeling cops would let Harry free on the braided thread since he's holding an artistic license ... it juxtaposes well with the other colors and style. Your original "embellishments" are always a great treat Harry!
Harry P. Posted April 12, 2015 Author Posted April 12, 2015 Actually the texture of the thread is pretty much invisible when you look at the model with your own eyes... but the camera lens sees all! Anyway... here is the boot installed. The hardware is made of thin brass wire and sheet aluminum, "chrome plated" with Spaz Stix, and the straps are made of painted paper.
Harry P. Posted April 12, 2015 Author Posted April 12, 2015 Pretty much all that's left is painting the hood, installing the headlights, and a few minor details... then it's on to "Under Glass!"
Twokidsnosleep Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 Great boot recovery. That is one area Skip had noted was weak in the kit She looks really good Harry
Ramfins59 Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 Harry, this is just as entertaining and enjoyable as all of your WIP threads..... and also educational and informative. You're a good teacher with all of your various scratchbuilding tips and techniques. Thanks for that.
sjordan2 Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 The tie-down hardware on the gas tank is very nice. Your extra touches that you haven't mentioned include the wires from the tail lights to the tank and a proper breather coil on the top right of the tank. Killer.
Paul H Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 Looking fantastic! One quick thing - whilst inaccurate in finish, the kit part for the folded roof is in fact pretty much the correct size - see here for a period reference photo. Almost certainly a single layer top, hence why it can be folded so tightly. There were a few production cars in this era that even had fully disappearing tops - click here for pics of an example. Oh, and the marque is actually 'SS' - at this point, Jaguar was simply a model name, so the correct name for one of these is a SS Jaguar 100. No prizes for guessing why the SS name was dropped in early 1945...
sjordan2 Posted April 12, 2015 Posted April 12, 2015 (edited) Looking fantastic! One quick thing - whilst inaccurate in finish, the kit part for the folded roof is in fact pretty much the correct size - see here for a period reference photo. Almost certainly a single layer top, hence why it can be folded so tightly. There were a few production cars in this era that even had fully disappearing tops - click here for pics of an example. Oh, and the marque is actually 'SS' - at this point, Jaguar was simply a model name, so the correct name for one of these is a SS Jaguar 100. No prizes for guessing why the SS name was dropped in early 1945...No offense, but through all my communications with Harry, he knows every nut-and-bolt detail about this car....and chooses to go his own way as he feels it I don't know what you're adding here. The "fully disappearing top" is a Riley, not a Jag Plus, your other link shows the factory prototype -- the only one with "the Leaper" radiator mascot that came from the factory (also known as the Prince William) Harry has hundreds of reference shots. I know, because I gave them to him. Edited April 12, 2015 by sjordan2
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