Revell 1/8 Jaguar XK-E

[Ro3bert]

Erik

Just a thought but I am taking pictures as I go along so I will try to incorporate your advice and method with your OK. I'll pay close attention the the panel gaps and what to do about them. Looking at the model from the beginning I was unaware, as most people must have been, of the delicate nature of the seams.

If I can come up with a good fix I'll let the posts know.

Robert

[Ro3bert]

I'm back, finally. I was waiting for some paint bottles to arrive before I continued though I shouldn't have waited. Unfortunately, as someone has said, life gets in the way on occasion.

So I'm back at it, just hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew.

I should never compared this model with the Tamyia Carrera 10 as the quality is not up to Tamyia standards of manufacture. Too, I made the mistake of looking at a build of a Ford model T made of brass. It made me want to make some changes in the Jaguar.

 

Also I browsed around the web for images of the E type Jaguar and found many. One in particular showed the top of the head painted (or powder coated) in a yellowish gold color. I decided to to the same along with painting the block black. The rest of the car will be painted in as nearly normal colors as I know how. Those items that are aluminum painted to resemble that metal. Steel will be colored with an iron color, and Chrome probably with Alclad Chrome.

 

To that effect I decided to remove the acorn head nuts to make them chrome. Unfortunately they are extremely small they measure about 0.015” across the flats.

 

I have a Unimat 1 that I set up to mill the acorn head bolts in styrene using a horizontal mill set up. I milled a number of them but found they tapered too much at the length I was trying. I thought I was thinking ahead but found I needed to put much more thought into how I was going to make them.

 

Finally I decided to take them all off at the bottom, add whatever amount needed to get them to the right height. That hasn't worked.

 

So here is where I am now. You can see where I removed one nut (on the opposite side where you can see where I had to fill a hole I drilled in the head). It is hard to see but I used a Gyro saw blade to begin removing the rest of the nuts. It's a pretty ragged cut since I held the Dremel by hand. There was some trouble with melting the plastic since at slow speeds the saw gets bogged down and melts the plastic rather than only cut.

 

 

Pictures I took of the top of the head after removing all the nuts and part of the head itself haven't come out as clear as I hoped so I'll have to re-do them. (apparently my picture taking skills are not up to snuff).

 

It turns out I have no choice but to make the nuts rather than reinstalling them after the chrome is added. I've already spent a couple of hours milling hex rod lengths using a horizontal mill setup but the plastic is so soft the ends furtherst from the chuck bent down so were larger than they supposed to be. This time I will be using a vertical mill as opposed to horizontal. I've tried it and it seems to work ok. So I have to make 14 head bolts so tiny I can only pick them up with tweezers.

 

Here is an image of the engine after removing all the bolts and incidentally part of the head itself.

 

 

I used a circular saw in the Unimat but it did as much melting as cutting. It was a mess, had to sand, file and cuss to make a flat surface to add the nuts to. Of course I have to make the nuts before I can go any further.

 

I've set the Unimat up for vertical milling.

 

These are the original nuts I milled. The top one is actually taken off the head then I added a piece to the bottom to later shape to the flats. This didn't work out as I hoped after cutting to the flats.

The lower nut is one I originally milled then cut the bottom shaft to fit into a hole I drilled in the head. The problem here is that the nut was too big to fit as it was supposed to. You can see the difference in size between the two.

 

So it's back to square one milling and shaping 14 nuts of the approximately correct size. I am assuming the 1:1 nuts are 9/16' which makes the models .015" across the flats. I don't think the originals were Whitworth measurement (across the points) as some of the older British cars and motorcycles had.

More headaches to follow.

[Ro3bert]

I've been beating myself over the head about the head bolts to the extent I've neglected everything else about the model so today I took a step back and looked for other things to do so went through the instructions deciding what colors I wanted things to be. Seems the instructions want mostly glossy black and what really is Ferrari Red and while I like red on a Ferrari not so much on a Jaguar. Haven't decided what color it should be so have been giving it some thought about some sort of "Candy Apple", Blue or Turquoise or possibly BRG (British Racing Green) but that is only a distant possibility.

Did get the steering wheel painted (mostly that is), still have a small area to do where the clamp is holding it. Too, the first coat want on the throttle bar. (Images later).

So tomorrow I expect to begin shooting parts then assembly after the paint cures a couple of days, if not more that is.

Meanwhile I'll keep fighting the engine. I think I've mostly licked the head bolt problem but it is still going to be a messy job. Once that situation is solved the rest will be easy. Thank xxxx for the Unimat 1, makes things easier.

Robert

[sjordan2]

On 4/22/2018 at 11:17 PM, Ro3bert said:

I've been beating myself over the head about the head bolts to the extent I've neglected everything else about the model so today I took a step back and looked for other things to do so went through the instructions deciding what colors I wanted things to be. Seems the instructions want mostly glossy black and what really is Ferrari Red and while I like red on a Ferrari not so much on a Jaguar. Haven't decided what color it should be so have been giving it some thought about some sort of "Candy Apple", Blue or Turquoise or possibly BRG (British Racing Green) but that is only a distant possibility.

Did get the steering wheel painted (mostly that is), still have a small area to do where the clamp is holding it. Too, the first coat want on the throttle bar. (Images later).

So tomorrow I expect to begin shooting parts then assembly after the paint cures a couple of days, if not more that is.

Meanwhile I'll keep fighting the engine. I think I've mostly licked the head bolt problem but it is still going to be a messy job. Once that situation is solved the rest will be easy. Thank xxxx for the Unimat 1, makes things easier.

Robert

My favorite E-Type color combo is a dark gunmetal with a crimson red interior. I believe they called the color opalescent gray.

 

[Ro3bert]

Sounds interesting Skip, I'll put that one in the pot for consideration.

[Ro3bert]

You may not see it but I've created a monster I cannot control, every time I make a change in the build sequence something down line reaches out and bites me. It's my own fault for not planning ahead or planning at all.

A for instance, the kit has a metal bar for the rear axle that means the rear end is fixed rather than articulated. I wanted to make the wheels rotate independantly so decided to add a differential with U jointed axles. Therein lies the problem since the brake rotors are supposed to be glued to the rear end with the metal axle going through them. Too, the metal axle meant the rear end could not be made to move up and down. So it goes on, one minor change begets more and larger changes/problems down the line.

The only solution is to stop making changes before considering the consequences. So the only solution is to plan ahead and that means planning for the whole build even if it means making drawings and deciding exactly what changes are wanted and doable.

That means I am going to stop any further building then start from the beginning of the instructions, decide what changes I want and incorporate into the build. I've never done that before as I just followed the instructions making only minor changes in color or very minor changes in shape, things that wouldn't have any effect on other parts.

So I won't be posting for a while, not until I have a complete plan written out with the what's and how to's including materials needed and all that jazz and restart building to the plan.

Caio for now, Robert