| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| AVRR-PA |
Posted - 11/26/2011 : 5:49:54 PM
I own a foot-high stack of Jordan kits - some that I bought, some that I received as gifts. I started one years ago, ran into trouble, and have been afraid of them ever since. It's sort of a styrene version of Westerfear.
As I've mentioned, one of the rules in acupuncture (which I've never tried - but I like the rule) is "Move toward the pain." So I have decided to build a bunch of the little buggers.
Moving on so I can edit. |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| AVRR-PA |
Posted - 02/07/2012 : 3:24:03 PM
OK, everybody line up for the group picture!
Here's the whole collection. The ones in the front row plus the HOn3 critter were built by Karl Osolinski - and it shows. The rest are my work.
Don |
| AVRR-PA |
Posted - 02/07/2012 : 10:36:37 AM
quote:
Originally posted by jschumaker
So what's next, Don?
Jeff S.
Hi, Jeff --
No more Jordans for a while. I am actually going to focus on finishing the builder's model (inch to the foot) of the Nutshell Pram, which I started a VERY long time ago. That's part of my strategy for working my way up to the scratchbuild of the Frederick J. Lovatt.
Model railroading - I'm building two Ambroid kits for the current challenge and I'm doing a bunch of City Classics company houses (with a fair amount of kit bashing) for the model railroad club.
No shortage of things to do, that's for sure.
Don |
| jschumaker |
Posted - 02/07/2012 : 08:41:58 AM
So what's next, Don?
Jeff S. |
| AVRR-PA |
Posted - 02/07/2012 : 08:35:57 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Marken
Rick, they are not hard to build. Just have to dry fit each piece and sand with an emery board as needed before gluing.
I also prefer Floquil solvent based paints as the craft paints are just too thick.
Frustrating...sometimes...but not hard by any means.
Yeah, right...[:-boggled] |
| AVRR-PA |
Posted - 02/07/2012 : 08:34:21 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Dutchman
Don,
My initial reaction to the bus when I saw it was 'hey, that looks great'!
The brass wire for the front lamps seems to be a great solution, and I'm sure that you will do it at some point.
In the meantime, I added to my stack of Jordans this week by ordering a 1940 Ford sedan. I still haven't built any.[:-ashamed]
Hi, Bruce - thanks for the encouragement. Regarding your recent purchase; as somebody here on rr-line said, "buyin' for the estate sale, eh?"
Don |
| djdutch |
Posted - 02/07/2012 : 02:04:37 AM
like your bus Don I most of the time I brush paint it with an acrylic paint in the same time of asamble and after put it together I give it a little toutch up
DJ |
| AVRR-PA |
Posted - 02/06/2012 : 9:10:45 PM
Hi, everyone --
Oh, I'm not all that unhappy with the way the bus turned out. It certainly passes the 3 foot test. If I were to build a second one (not impossible), knowing what I now know about the fit issues, I could sail through it pretty easily.
I still like KarlO's painting method - spray with primer (I like Tamiya) and then brush paint with repeated coats of thinned acrylic. But that yellow Tamiya rattle can paint sure went down nicely.
I picked up some Tamiya masking tape and some masking fluid. Maybe when I decide to build another one, I'll try masking some of the areas that I would otherwise have to scrape after spraying. I don't think any amount of practice will make me able to to do polychrome paint jobs like KarlO, freehand with a brush.
Back to building the Ambroid 1 of 5000 Western Union cars and the builder's model of the Nutshell Pram.
Thanks for all the comments!
Don |
| Glen Haasdyk |
Posted - 02/06/2012 : 8:40:25 PM
I agree, it is a good job on the bus. That's another that I have on my gotta get/to do list. |
| Orionvp17 |
Posted - 02/06/2012 : 8:34:41 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Marken
Rick, they are not hard to build. Just have to dry fit each piece and sand with an emery board as needed before gluing.
I also prefer Floquil solvent based paints as the craft paints are just too thick.
Frustrating...sometimes...but not hard by any means.
And I've found that liquid styrene cement (Tenax, etc.) has a tendency to help things warp in the wrong places, especially on the chassis, so I now use CA for this stuff.
Don -- nice job on the bus! Sorry it was frustrating; I built one twenty-odd years ago and it was a fun little build.
Pete
in Michigan |
| Marken |
Posted - 02/06/2012 : 8:12:57 PM
Rick, they are not hard to build. Just have to dry fit each piece and sand with an emery board as needed before gluing.
I also prefer Floquil solvent based paints as the craft paints are just too thick.
Frustrating...sometimes...but not hard by any means. |
| Rick |
Posted - 02/06/2012 : 7:34:01 PM
Don, despite all the challenges I think you did a good job on the bus.
I've got a stack of Jordan's to build and haven't built any of them.
I'll have to build one for the HO club I belong to just to see how hard they are to put together. |
| Dutchman |
Posted - 02/06/2012 : 7:17:32 PM
Don,
My initial reaction to the bus when I saw it was 'hey, that looks great'!
The brass wire for the front lamps seems to be a great solution, and I'm sure that you will do it at some point.
In the meantime, I added to my stack of Jordans this week by ordering a 1940 Ford sedan. I still haven't built any.[:-ashamed] |
| AVRR-PA |
Posted - 02/06/2012 : 6:46:32 PM
See... I wasn't kidding. 
Nutshell model with 3 Jordans |
| AVRR-PA |
Posted - 02/06/2012 : 5:03:06 PM
Hi, everyone --
I've finished the schoolbus - at least for the moment. It can only operate during the day - no headlights - and it's faintly possible that I will get motivated to do something about that - but not for a while.
Why no headlights? Well, the headlight assembly is just impossibly delicate - at least for me. No doubt it would be a mere bagatelle for KarlO. Here's a picture of it after painting but before I attempted to install it:
School bus headlights
Let's see - one of the headlights broke off the bar. I glued it back on. Then the bar broke in the center. I glued it back together, which was no fun. Then I discovered that the hole locations in the front fenders were wrong and it would never fit unless I figured out new locations and drilled new recesses. At that point, I decided to store the pieces until I was ready to make a new bar from brass wire and do the job right.
In my opinion, this kit is a pretty mixed bag even by Jordan standards. Some parts - like the main body - fit together very nicely. Here are a couple of finished pictures:
School bus completed lh side view
School bus completed rh side view
As you can see, the seams fitted together nicely.
On the other hand(s) - the wheels have stupidly-designed attachments to the axles. The wheel-axle assemblies are badly engineered and won't fit in the wheel wells (front or rear) unless you add styrene bits at the attachment points. The radiator shell won't fit without a lot of filing - which, of course, I discovered after painting it.
The interior detail, on the other hand, is quite cleverly designed and goes together easily and looks good:
School bus interior
But...the decals pretty much fell apart. The kit appeared to be quite new - bright white box and plans - so I didn't expect problems with the decals. Silly me. That's why it has different names on each side. The "school bus" decals on the front had to be pieced together in spite of having pretty much disintegrated because I didn't have any substitutes.
The doors are posed open because (1) it looks cool and (2) because they fit ridiculously badly. Which the instructions frankly admit.
Here's a couple more photographs:
School bus completed left front view
School bus rh front view completed
School bus rear view completed
So - have I overcome Jordan-o-Phobia. Well, yes and no. I'm not afraid of them - I just don't like them very much. At least not this afternoon. I still have an awful lot of them but I think I'll let them sit for a while.
I will toss out one observation which I hope others with more experience will comment on:
If you want to do a multi-color paint job, you have a choice of two approaches, and both are difficult:
-- you can build the entire model before painting, which makes gluing easy but makes painting pretty maddening if your brush painting skills are only so-so.
-- you can paint some or all of the parts before assembly, as I did on the school bus. This makes for nice neat color separations but means you spend a lot of time scraping paint off places where you want to apply glue. I don't think that approach would have worked at all on the stake body of the Packard truck.
One other observation - Tamiya rattle-can paint is great stuff.
Now I think I will go work on a wooden model of a boat. A large model...
Don |
| djdutch |
Posted - 01/17/2012 : 6:00:04 PM
I like this kit for sure, you can put al lot of detail inside childeren or making a mobile home.
can't wait to see what you do with this one.
DJ |
