Jaguar XJ220 "Martini" - Tamiya 1/24

[DerXL]

Hi everybody.

For years and years I've had this kit lying around in my stash. At the time of buying I thought this was one hell of a beautiful car. Now I just think, what was I thinking back then???

But while checking out some on-line stores looking for after market parts I stumbled upon a decalset by scaleproduction.de on the MediaMix Hobby internet site.
With this decalset it was possible to make the Martini-sponsored GT Racing car of the Jaguar XJ220. The car that was raced by Gianni Giudici in the 1993 Italian GT championship.

And that is the end of it really. I was instantly hooked. Any car looks great in Martini-livery and especially this one. Suddenly I got a real desire to start building this car.
I immediately ordered the decalset and started searching for reference material. Some of you may already have seen that I've been working on this one (it was in my sig, some time back). Gionc even sent me a PM about it.
This build has been suspended for some time, while looking for some parts. I've found them in the meantime and I hope to make more and quicker progress now. So, a good time to show you what I've been up to with this one so far.

I found a lot of good pictures on the following site (all images of the real car in this thread are copyright of Tim Dunlop):
http://www.dunlopix.com/XJ220 Martini.html

So, what does this GT car look like?



And I'm going to (well at least try to) make it from this kit:



Here's a picture of the decalsheet and the new BBS wheel I ordered directly from scaleproduction.de.





When doing a mock-up I noticed a few problems.
The main one was that the BBS wheels from scaleproduction where way too small. Strange really as I thought they would be big enough. Luckily I had a BMW 635 CSi from Tamiya lying around. As it is a spareparts kit (botched paintjob and decalsheet destroyed through my own stupidity) and the wheels from this one where just the right size. (Tamiya below, scaleproduction on top)



Time to get started.
First I split the clear part for the roof and window into two separate parts.



Before I could glue the roof onto the body I first had to repair some damage. One of the A-pillars had been bent. With the use of a hairdryer and some friendly persuasion I got it straight again.



Than I glued the roof onto the body and after the glue had set, I sanded the roof flush with the body.



I also did some work on the rear of the car.




The light pods have also been taken care of.
The model has working pop-up headlight covers. But I didn't need those for this build, so I filled the openings for the moving mechanism (in the lightpods and the floor).



The nasty ejector pin mark was covered with some styrene sheet cut to size.



A lot of work has gone into the wheels.
The wheels from the BMW could not be used as they were. For the BMW the front and rear wheels are identical. But for this car, the front tires have a less deeper dish. So I cut out the central part of the front wheels with a scriber and glued them a back less deep. I made a jig for proper alignment.





The keen observer will notice that there's still some work to do to remove the ugly lip that's present on the front wheels...

Finally I made some shims for the wheels, to get the correct position of the wheels in the wheelwells.





More to follow.
A more thorough WIP of this build can be found on my site (see sig).

Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome.

[TurboGuru]

The timing for this thread could not of been any better....

I have recently tried to get a friend into model making, and he's always wanted to build the Tamiya Xj220 - so today he finally bought one off ebay for £10....BARGAIN.

I also have been meaning to build one, but I couldn't decide what colour.... I had no idea you could get the martini decalset for the XJ220!!!!! It looks gorgeous!

Is the decalset available on ebay I wonder?

Will keep a close eye on this thread, great stuff so far!

Ps. will check scaleproduction.de now.

[Mikezibit]

HI

nice project, this model is still on my "to-do" list

The aluminium wheels are a set for M1 or 635.

@Turbo: the decal set is sold out, it was only a small edition with 50 decals

I hope the decals are still ok





Mikezibit

[da_ashman]

What an awesome Project, the XJ220 seemed to be a huge let down to so many people, Concept car had a V12 (with turbos i think) 4WD & all the bells & whistles, Sadly Jag let everyone down with the production car, I read somewhere that customers who paid depoists on the concept car version sue'd Jag for ripping them off & not giving them back there money.
The Jag looks awesome in the Martini Livery, Im gonna watch this one!!

[tuned.by.twenty]

I've never seen the GT version before, it looks amazing!

[MidMazar]

Sweet, this reminds me of the older need for speed games. Great progress.

One thing i have to mention is, i spray painted this kit a few months ago and have been having a bad paint reaction with this kit. It might be because the paint, but tryed it on other kits and no probs. Not to scare you or anything.

Keep us posted.

[Tim25]

Originally Posted by da_ashman

What an awesome Project, the XJ220 seemed to be a huge let down to so many people, Concept car had a V12 (with turbos i think) 4WD & all the bells & whistles, Sadly Jag let everyone down with the production car, I read somewhere that customers who paid depoists on the concept car version sue'd Jag for ripping them off & not giving them back there money.
The Jag looks awesome in the Martini Livery, Im gonna watch this one!!

Little did they know that 20 years down the road it would still be quicker than most "supercars"... (don't believe me? Check out Top Gear's test of past and present supercars)

Great subject, looking forward to the finished build.

TIM

[MidMazar]

Anymore progress?

[gionc]

Yessssssssss, very nice indeed. My to do pile start to seems a modeling shop but... yes, it is in my to do list

[AmazonSprite]

Originally Posted by da_ashman

What an awesome Project, the XJ220 seemed to be a huge let down to so many people, Concept car had a V12 (with turbos i think) 4WD & all the bells & whistles, Sadly Jag let everyone down with the production car, I read somewhere that customers who paid depoists on the concept car version sue'd Jag for ripping them off & not giving them back there money.

The problem was that a recession kicked in between deposits being taken, and delivery commencing. In many cases, the difference in specification was just an excuse. There were even situations where those who had put down deposits never actually had the full asking price, but instead intended to sell the car on for a profit (this was at the height of the 1980s classic / exotic car boom) before they took delivery.

[godfather23]

That is one hell of project. Fantastic and I´m sure you´re going to make a fine model of this one.

I´ll follow with big interest.


Robert

[Outamyhead]

This looks like it will be a great finished model, cannot wait to see the end results.

[DerXL]

Hi all.

First of all thanks for the comments and the nice words.

@Outamyhead

This looks like it will be a great finished model, cannot wait to see the end results.

I'm afraid it might take some time till I finish this model, so I guess you'll have to be patient.
I'm a notoriously slow builder. Just to give you an idea, I first started work on this kit in November 2007...

@MidMazar
There is some progress, like painted parts, which I will show in a future update.

But there are still some hurdles to take.
Like the fact that I'm not sure about state of the decals, like Mikezibit mentioned. Also, I've noticed that the decals seem not entirely correct (more about that in a future update).
And the rear tires are too small. As I used the tires from a BMW 635 CSi racing the rear and front tires are the same size. But on the Jag, the rear tires are noticably larger...
But I'm afraid I won't be able to solve this (easily).

Finally:
@TurboGuru
I bought this set from MediaMix Hobby. Maybe it was the last one. I've noticed they don't list it anymore. And like Mikezibit mentioned, they were only printed in limited quantities... Sadly.

[TurboGuru]

Originally Posted by DerXL

Hi all.


Finally:
@TurboGuru
I bought this set from MediaMix Hobby. Maybe it was the last one. I've noticed they don't list it anymore. And like Mikezibit mentioned, they were only printed in limited quantities... Sadly.

I've been searching since you made this thread and yes your right, you did get the last one, I hate you...... only kidding ..... look forward to seeing the finished model, so the decals don't fit properly?

[Mikezibit]

Originally Posted by DerXL

Like the fact that I'm not sure about state of the decals, like Mikezibit mentioned. Also, I've noticed that the decals seem not entirely correct (more about that in a future update).

yes I know, its time for a better version

what I meant, hopefully are the decals still ok for the processing and
what I forgot, the decals for the mirrors


here are more pics from the XJ220









Mikezibit