There’s been a lot of new work and re-work on my 1:8 scale 1962 Briggs & Cunningham Jaguar E-Type Racing Coupe since my last blog. Test fitting of the front bonnet revealed fender well panels and the oil circulation port on one of the headcovers were preventing proper closure. It’s always painful when you have to tear apart nicely painted work. I accidentally popped the windshield wiper fluid reservoir loose while wrestling the oil hoses loose. Good thing is, I like the new circulation hoses better (even though I got the port angle backwards.)
The fabrication of a reasonably authentic roll bar was a real pain. What you see here is the fifth version I attempted. Getting the curvature right was the big challenge. I couldn’t get aluminum or brass tubing to bend right, and my 3D printer just couldn’t get the curves right. I ended up combining the 3D printed elbows with styrene tubes and a lot of putty to smooth things out.
Installing the roll bar system meant joining body assemblies in a different way than the stock kit was designed to join. I had to fabricate a semi-flexible flap and hinges to join the rear underside with the front underside so that there was a little give when it comes time to join the top with both sections of undercarriage.
The exhaust system had to be redone as well. The primer I used on the first iteration did not work well with the PLA 3D printed pipes. When I sprayed the silver topcoat, it warped the pipes. Once again though, I like the second versions better.
Next, it was time to paint the racing stripes. I took me awhile to find the right metallic blue color, but I located a great Tamiya match on eBay. Getting the masking straight was very challenging. I didn’t quite match the front bonnet to the body. My wife printed the circles and numbers on her vinyl cutter. I used masking tape to create a carrier mask to apply them.
The underside of the front bonnet needed some aging to look real, so I mixed a little cream-colored acrylic paint with Futura and airbrushed it to get that effect. Adding dirt was handled the same way: brownish acrylic paint mixed with Futura.
Foglight covers were especially challenging to fabricate. I found some bowlish-shaped parts from another model kit and adapted them for that.
Lastly, I modeled a wheel knock off nut in Blender and 3d printed four of them. It’s going to take a lot of work to smooth them out, but I think they will work.
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