1/20 Modeler's Jordan J199 Multimedia WIP
Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2019 7:55 pm
Hi everyone!
Well after a full TEN odd years I'm finally posting another WIP, and I must admit I'm feeling pretty good about it! After a rather significant break from building I'm finally picking up my (MANY) half-finished kits and burning through them to get them completed and on the display shelf. I've also been lurking on the forums more consistently over the past year or so and it's great to see a few familiar names still going strong!
So, the Modeler's Jordan... as with so many other kits I've started I hit a snag that potentially set me back some weeks/months and caused me to shelve it in frustration (at least I didn't boomerang the damn thing!). That was literally ten years ago. Here's some shots of the progress being made prior to putting it back in the box for a decade...
The box (I paid more for it than what that price tag says though...) and some Zero Paints. I could only get the J198 yellow at the time as there was no J199 version available. It's extremely close though and I've already painted a lot of the parts so I'm not going to change colours now even though the J199 yellow is available.
Getting rid of excess molding, initial painting, and applying carbon fiber decals to the floor including some mongrel pieces that just wouldn't take properly...
The body finally getting some attention, lots of minor filling, priming and sanding, and the black under the nose going on, and going on extremely well (makes a nice change when things just 'work'...!)
And then the issue that caused me to shelve the darn thing... I must admit that working on it up to this point was a bit of a chore and this was essentially the last straw. Admittedly also, ten years ago I was way too serious about my builds and trying to perfect EVERYTHING. These days I'm just happy to be building, don't care about perfection as long as the finished model looks good, and it's a much more enjoyable experience all round. In fact I haven't felt the need to frisbee a model for quite a while!
Here's the offending problem and the start of the latest progress pics - I found the primer/paint on the body started to lift in about five different section of the car after I was well into applying the yellow top coat, and below you can see one of these sections, as well as the top of the engine cover where another of the lifted sections had been sanded back...
After having ten years to get over the annoyance of the lifting paint (I'm only JUST over it dammit!), and while work to fix this was underway, I kept going on the suspension, brakes and other odds and ends...
I LOVE how this carbon fiber is coming out. It's Scale MotorSport 1/20 black/pewter twill-weave CF decal, with a top coat of Tamiya Smoke.
And finally the current state of the body after a few weeks of getting to it whenever possible. The lifted paint is all sanded back and successive layers of primer are going down, being polished in between so that everything comes out as smoothly as possible. Having said that, I'm really taking the approach of 'close enough is good enough', simply so that I don't drive myself crazy. To be honest I know that I've got enough years of doing this under my belt now that the finished product will come out to a high quality even if I don't chase perfection, so I'm just going with the flow and enjoying the process rather than fighting it like I used to...
So that's the build as it stands now, ten years in the making so far haha. This build has gone from one of massive frustration to one that I'm thoroughly enjoying. The parts are all well moulded and the cleanup of them isn't overly onerous, and the decals have been a dream to work with even though they're probably not far off two decades old.
If there's interest I'll keep the thread going over the coming weeks (and maybe months) to show you all the good and the bad of this particular kit, and hopefully I do this outstanding livery justice!
All the best everyone!
Mark
Well after a full TEN odd years I'm finally posting another WIP, and I must admit I'm feeling pretty good about it! After a rather significant break from building I'm finally picking up my (MANY) half-finished kits and burning through them to get them completed and on the display shelf. I've also been lurking on the forums more consistently over the past year or so and it's great to see a few familiar names still going strong!
So, the Modeler's Jordan... as with so many other kits I've started I hit a snag that potentially set me back some weeks/months and caused me to shelve it in frustration (at least I didn't boomerang the damn thing!). That was literally ten years ago. Here's some shots of the progress being made prior to putting it back in the box for a decade...
The box (I paid more for it than what that price tag says though...) and some Zero Paints. I could only get the J198 yellow at the time as there was no J199 version available. It's extremely close though and I've already painted a lot of the parts so I'm not going to change colours now even though the J199 yellow is available.
Getting rid of excess molding, initial painting, and applying carbon fiber decals to the floor including some mongrel pieces that just wouldn't take properly...
The body finally getting some attention, lots of minor filling, priming and sanding, and the black under the nose going on, and going on extremely well (makes a nice change when things just 'work'...!)
And then the issue that caused me to shelve the darn thing... I must admit that working on it up to this point was a bit of a chore and this was essentially the last straw. Admittedly also, ten years ago I was way too serious about my builds and trying to perfect EVERYTHING. These days I'm just happy to be building, don't care about perfection as long as the finished model looks good, and it's a much more enjoyable experience all round. In fact I haven't felt the need to frisbee a model for quite a while!
Here's the offending problem and the start of the latest progress pics - I found the primer/paint on the body started to lift in about five different section of the car after I was well into applying the yellow top coat, and below you can see one of these sections, as well as the top of the engine cover where another of the lifted sections had been sanded back...
After having ten years to get over the annoyance of the lifting paint (I'm only JUST over it dammit!), and while work to fix this was underway, I kept going on the suspension, brakes and other odds and ends...
I LOVE how this carbon fiber is coming out. It's Scale MotorSport 1/20 black/pewter twill-weave CF decal, with a top coat of Tamiya Smoke.
And finally the current state of the body after a few weeks of getting to it whenever possible. The lifted paint is all sanded back and successive layers of primer are going down, being polished in between so that everything comes out as smoothly as possible. Having said that, I'm really taking the approach of 'close enough is good enough', simply so that I don't drive myself crazy. To be honest I know that I've got enough years of doing this under my belt now that the finished product will come out to a high quality even if I don't chase perfection, so I'm just going with the flow and enjoying the process rather than fighting it like I used to...
So that's the build as it stands now, ten years in the making so far haha. This build has gone from one of massive frustration to one that I'm thoroughly enjoying. The parts are all well moulded and the cleanup of them isn't overly onerous, and the decals have been a dream to work with even though they're probably not far off two decades old.
If there's interest I'll keep the thread going over the coming weeks (and maybe months) to show you all the good and the bad of this particular kit, and hopefully I do this outstanding livery justice!
All the best everyone!
Mark