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It was recommended to me years ago when I got into this hobby that if I was going to do any of the Jordan Products kits that I do more than one in a row. There's a mindset that one needs to get into when building these little guys. I've found that it does help, in fact, to stay with the flow. These are inexpensive injected molded plastic kits with a terrific amount of detail for their size. Steam era guys love these models and they've been around for a long time. But building them correctly takes a good deal of patience and a steady hand (lay off the coffee for the day). I don't build them like the directions say to and my methods of painting them is not what most do either. I recently acquired several so let's walk through the process sans in-progress shots unfortunately (sorry!).
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The first step is to look at the directions and familiarize yourself with the parts. Once you have a good general idea of where and how everything fits, clean off any flash and parting lines. I use a #11 blade to cut and scrape the parts clean from the sprue. This may be the most important step you take with these and great care must be taken not to damage anything during this process. Now, a good styrene plastic solvent glue is probably your best bet on these since some of the contact points are so tiny. Solvent glue actually welds the parts together where an ACC (super glue) would not give the strongest bond. Once entirely cleaned of excess plastic and pieces are shaped to what they need to be, a simple washing of the parts helps for a good strong connection at glue joints. I simply drop pieces in a cup with alcohol and pull them out as I go. They dry quickly and the alcohol seems to cut any mold release and oils from my fingers. It also washes away the fuzzies created by the scraping with a gentle scrub with an old, out-of-use toothbrush (emphasizing "old, out-of-use" here please).
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Kit bashing these Jordan pieces are quite easy. The tanker body from the Model AA fits handily on the Model TT and the Model TT stake bed fits just as easily on the Model AA and so on. The Model TT has a nicely done flat head engine that can be exposed merely by leaving the sides of the hood off and can quickly be adapted for the Model AA. I also found that to change the look on these models may be a simple as cutting the doors off. The cab interior is detailed enough to make them quite presentable in this manner.
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I glue sub-assemblies up such as the chassis with suspensions, or intricate bodies. And never attach wheels to anything until the very end. This is where I differ from the directions. They would have you gluing the entire model together and hand painting the details. I find the raw plastic to be (for lack of a better word) translucent looking. So I paint the sub-assemblies before final assembly careful not to get paint where gluing would be necessary for the final attachments. Again for instance, where the wheels attach to the axles or where the body connects to the chassis. This is difficult if you use an airbrush like I do for a lot of painting. There are several ways to avoid getting paint where you don't want it. I use a product called "blue tack" which is a very sticky putty. I pull a small chunk of it off and will mold it around axle ends. For areas like the top of the chassis where bodies connect, I will put a dab of rubber cement that can easily be pulled off after painting to reveal the raw plastic. I will now paint bodies and such with the airbrush. Wheels are usually painted by hand. I should mention that almost every model I build anymore will be painted with a coat of a dark brown color first, everything! My favorite choice of color is the acrylic PolyScale RR tie brown and yes it is difficult to airbrush but keep in mind that total coverage is not usually necessary at this step in the game.
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Let these enamels dry well. Since not a lot of paint has been applied, there should be no fear of lifting the acrylic brown undercoat and drying times are cut down as well. When dry, you can start final assembly. Peel off the masks you used and begin to detail paint by hand. I paint the radiators and anything else that one would call bright work (chrome) the RR tie brown. A little trick I learned from the talented Rod Reilly is to then use a soft graphite to give these areas the metal look. After painting the tires a dark gray (never black) I use a pencil to color the rim where it meets the rubber. Hit the radiator, door handles, hinges on tailgates, gas caps etc., any part that is to be bright metal with the pencil. It is so much easier to control than trying to paint silver and the look is that of aged chrome. The only exception for this technique is the recess in the headlights which I do paint silver. Caution should be taken from this point on not to touch these areas since the graphite from the pencil will easily be rubbed off. In fact during the process of applying washes much of this look disappears but retouching again afterwards is easy. I do not use the clear headlight lenses provided with the kit but place a drop of white wood glue carefully in the recess provided on most of the lights in their kits. I should add at this point that
this technique of doing headlights applies to models of all types.
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At this stage you may have a very respectable model. But I can't leave well enough alone and feel the need to age the models even further. These next steps can be used with just about any kind of model here. So I start with a series of washes. My first wash on any color other than black is a panel wash with inexpensive craft paints (Folk Art, Ceramcoat, Apple Barrel) in a black mixed with windshield washer fluid. These dry completely flat which is a plus for the next phase, that of chalking. Often I will seal with dullcoat (again only misting) between coats of washes so the subsequent wash doesn't lift or mix with previous ones. Next color wash would be burnt umber followed by the final wash of raw sienna. I have several of the small plastic trays that Preiser figures come in that I use when doing washes. I fill each com
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Barely noticeable in most of the photos is a texture on the roof areas of the Model T's. This can be accomplished one of two ways. First and easiest is when you paint the roof (I prefer PolyScale Grimy Black) while the paint is still wet (move fast, remember this acrylic stuff dries fast) sprinkle some dark
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Lastly, I will do turn signals (virtually non existent in the era most represented by the Jordan line but worth mentioning here) with yellow food coloring mixed with wood glue and red food coloring used for brake lights. I go back and check bright work with the pencil and touch up areas that have disappeared and wait for everything to dry and the models are ready to be photographed.
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2 comments:
Outstanding! I really appreciate you taking the time to explain your techniques (progress photos would have been very nice though). Very nice work. I might reprint your post on my blog if that's cool with you.
Dandy
http://dan-d-sparks.blogspot.com
Your models look very realistic. I also build these kits and would like to share them, however I am not sure how to get the pictures on this site , john
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