2x 1/16 Citroen DS19

[Bengalensis]

I'm making an attempt on the famous, or infamous, kit from Heller of the Citroen DS19 in 1/16 scale. It's been around quite a long time and has also been released as a Chapron cabriolet. You hardly ever see them built though, and the build reports are never kind, varying from very difficult and ill fitting to completely unbuildable. Features like opening doors and resulting weak body shells is no help. I've even seen them binned in frustration half way through the build...

The kit was recently reissued by Heller and in conjunction to the DS celebrating 50 years last year Heller also released a special issue containing both the standard and cabriolet kits in one box, for only a little higher price. Despite already having an original issue (and seeing its potential problems) in my stash I couldn't resist getting this one when it became available.

If you have bought this kit you will find that Heller failed to include one of the last pages in the cabriolet's instructions, but you can find it here: http://www.super-hobby.fr/zdjecia/0/1/6/1321_2_hlr80796_11.jpg

I decided to start working on them soon after I got my delivery, so the build started back in January actually. I took a lot of pictures but never started a build thread as I wasn't sure it wouldn't stall for a long time due to other commitments. I now know with 100% certainty that's not happening, so here the build will follow.

My intention has only been a straight from the box build with no added detailing, just some modifications to try and make them more buildable, possibly. I prefer 1/24 scale and it will be more interesting to put a better effort into the new 1/24 DS19 kit by Ebbro. So, just as a relaxing excursion, how hopeless can the build of Heller's 1/16 DS19 kits really be? Can they be finished into good looking models at all?

This is what you get in the 50 years box; it's quite full of parts.

In fact the box is so full that the fragile body shells have difficulties surviving. My cabriolet was broken in two halves. Not the best of starts.

Here we have the rest of the content.

Here's a closer look at the broken cabriolet body, same problem on both sides.

I used the Dremel to carefully remove material so I could reinforce the repair with steel pins.

I used CA in the joints and then filled the cavities around the pins with resin sanding dust and CA to get strong fully filled joints.

I also glued the broken off sprue back temporarily to make the body stronger while working on it.

After sanding the repairs it looks a bit more hopeful.

This is a lot better.

I'm not very interested in opening doors and such; I much more prefer smooth fitting panels, so even since I got my first kit I've had the plan to glue the doors and front wings early on to get more complete, rigid and well fitting body shells. This will be the main difference in my build from the instructions.

On the cabriolet front wings the openings for the chromed outlet grilles must be cut, they are marked on the back side.

To build up the body shells like this a few more parts need to fitted at this early stage.

To be able to glue the doors in I added Evergreen styrene strips on the back.

This makes it necessary to test fit and adjust the door interiors to avoid problems later.

With the doors glued in place the whole thing becomes much more manageable to work with.

The work involved is the same for the cabriolet.

When done this way the doors fit quite well on both versions. It would probably be a very different story if following the instructions and building hinged doors as Heller intended it.

A little bit of filler was needed on the cabriolet. The front wings are the same for both versions, meaning that they are missing the moldings for the chrome strips on the cabriolet. Heller provides crude separate parts only for lower molding. I made my own from Evergreen styrene strips sanded to correct shape.

Cleaning up seems and sanding continued. The bonnets needed minor adjustments to get a good fit.

All panel lines are very faint and I had to rescribe everything as I worked further.

The glued door joints also need some work to make nice smooth lines.

But in the end I had two pretty nice and smooth complete body shells with separate bonnets. It remains to be seen if there will be any unforeseen problems during the rest of the build when I have made it this way.

[triumphfan]

I'll be watching with interest and because I am one of the rare individuals who has managed to build this beast and keep my sanity.

You have made a very logical decision to glue the doors shut, this should make the build much more manageable. The doors come off far too easily when built in the opening method, the hinges are just loops into which a pin sits. If you turn the model upside down the doors fall off, incredible.

The engine detail is quite good oob but does cry out for some wiring to be added due to the size of the bonnet opening.

Good luck with the build, there is a superb looking model waiting at the end.

Atb, Steve.

P.S. If you haven't got any large mouth clamps, buy some before you start!

[arni]

Very interesting,I have a DS in 24th and will be following along.

[ElectricLightAndy]

Aw-yeah! this is going to be good, already a nice smooth neat job

Andy.

[MetroRacing]

I think I'll tag along for this too. I like to see people build 'unbuildable' kits. You always learn something new lol.

Personally I don't like the looks of the DS, but the cabrio makes it work somehow lol. I hope Ebbro will release a cabrio in 1/24 one day.

Ashley

[bhouse]

Personally I don't like the looks of the DS

That's you off my Christmas card list 🤔

[MetroRacing]

That's you off my Christmas card list 🤔

Don't worry. I'm weird. I think the best looking car ever made was the Volvo 480. Or i could be bias as I own one too hehe

Ashley

[bentwaters81tfw]

I'll have to keep an eye on this, I bought the double boxing too.

[Admiral Puff]

Don't worry. I'm weird. I think the best looking car ever made was the Volvo 480. Or i could be bias as I own one too hehe

Ashley

Just keep taking the pills ...

I must be a serious masochist because I have three (count 'em) of each kit, including two of the 50th Anniversary set, plus an Ebbro kit to keep them company. But then, for me the DS19 is in a class of its own, and still one of the most gorgeous cars ever to turn a wheel. I've been after a 1:1 scale example to restore, but they're few and far between down here. Those that are around are either jealously guarded by their present owners, made of unobtanium (going by the prices) or so seriously clapped out (particularly due to the dreaded tin worm) that they're not worth considering. Needless to say I will be following this thread with avid attention!

[Bengalensis]

Thanks for the interest guys; I hope you will enjoy the rest.

Steve; you're a brave and skillful man to build this kit with opening doors; and keeping your sanity, especially if you managed good fitting opening doors. Yes, the hinges are not impressive. But I must praise Heller for at least trying to put the hinge and pivoting centre in the right place; i.e. inside of the front wings, rather than the doors swinging wide outwards.

Having said that, my doors won't open at all... But they do fit smoothly now.

Well, work continued from where I left off. With the body shells done to primer stage I started preparing all the other parts and building up sub assemblies. Here we have engines and gearboxes, radiators and dash boards. A bit of filler was needed to sort some ugly sink marks on the dash board tops.

The next step wasn't terribly interesting, just a lot of cleaning up mould seems and attachment points and dry fitting, and some minor gluing. All to ensure the parts will have a good chance of fitting together when it's time for final assembly. In the end I had all parts for both cars ready for painting. There were no surprises, just working through the lot.

I primed the body shells with 2 part automotive primer to get a good base for final sanding. I gave both a few good coats as I knew there was a good chance for problems to show up. I didn't have to respray anything after sanding, but it was close in some spots. It was starting to look hopeful.

It was finally time for paint. The colors were decided long ago. To me one of the most beautiful colors on a DS is black with a white roof, so that's what it had to be. And the cabriolet is always looking good in a bit darker wine red color.

I used automotive lacquer spray cans decanted and sprayed with an airbrush and a slight amount of retarder mixed in so they don't dry to fast. When fully cured I just sanded and polished some minor issues. No clear coat of any kind as I just want the glossy paint without the thick modern wet gloss look. I's quite happy with the result.

The chrome and bright work was done with BareMetal foil; chrome for most parts and aluminium for the roof pillars.

I also painted all the parts. I mainly went by the instructions with just the occasional look at reference photos. After all it's just supposed to be an out of the box build. The basics were airbrushed with final detail brush painted. I don't know where the engines were at this stage, but not in the box where I thought they would be.

At least they were safe, and here the assembly had started, at last. As Steve says the engines are quite good and could do with a bit more detailing. I'm however more interested in the wonderful exterior shapes of this fantastic car, so I didn't add anything.

At this stage the instructions wants you to glue the exhaust to the engine, but I was quite sure it would never line up when everything would be fitted in the engine room, so I left those parts off for a while longer.

[triumphfan]

Great progress Jorgen. The method of gluing the doors in place is inspired and may encourage many more people to try building this kit?

I love the colours you have chosen, I too went with black for the saloon but my build is single tone black.

It looks like you are having a great time with this double build !!

Atb, Steve.

[Bengalensis]

Thanks a lot Steve, that's exactly the main thing I was hoping for with showing these builds; that others would see that there is actually hope to finish the kit in good way.

It's quite enjoyable, but then I have always liked Heller a lot during all my years of modeling, despite some issues here and there.

I quickly built up the interiors according to the instructions. This would later lead to some interesting discoveries, partly due to Heller being Heller I suppose, and partly due to me not building the body shells according Heller's sequence. The interiors are very visible and would respond well to a bit more sophisticated painting than my simple approach.

I realized I would have to follow Heller's instructions and fit the rear wheels at this early stage, as it would be impossible to get them in under the rear wings. I really don't like to fit wheels this early as I never trust they will sit correctly under on the finished model. Wheel placing and alignment is to me one of the most important aspects of a well built car model, far too often over looked. But with little choice I did some test fitting and then gave it my best effort... The tires require some careful cleaning up by the way.

The interior was fitted into the sedan body and the windows as well. It all was a surprisingly good fit. I had to trim a little off the B-pillar part where it meets the front door part, but not much. I also cut off the bottom piece of the B-pillar that extends below the sides of the interior floor. They are never visible with the doors shut and looked like a possible interference problem when joining the chassis to the body.

And here we have the cabriolet with its interior parts fitted. At this point the door windows are not yet glued as they need to be aligned with the raised top, if you want the windows raised as I choose to do.

I don't plan to display the cabriolet with top closed, but I still wanted it to fit. The raised top really spoils the beautiful lines of the car and Chapron could have done a much better job I think. I could see a different version in my mind; no rear seat, lowering the roof height, leaning down the rear window, adding a small side window after the door to get the lines flowing...

Never mind, with the two rubber seal parts fitted to the inside of the top it could be dry fitted to the body and the door windows placed correctly and tiny amounts of CA used to glue them.

It all then came to the scary moment of fitting the body shells to the chassis... This moment could no longer be avoided...

[MetroRacing]

I agree with your views on the cabrio totally. To me the normal DS isn't a thing of beauty. On the other hand the cabrio is but is let down by the roof. I think ergonomics came before aesthetics here.

Your build looks great. Can't wait for more

Ashley

[ElectricLightAndy]

These are looking gorgeous, that blue you have chosen for the fabric seats is spot on

Andy.

[Bengalensis]

Thanks a lot guys! I should have shown more already, but there are so many distractions...

Well, I suppose it was to be expected there would be problems somewhere, sooner or later. This happened first, and it's not due my altered building sequence or gluing the doors. When mating the body and chassis there was simply no way to pass the shelf behind the rear seat over the rear wheels wells already glued under the body. And this was built according to the instructions. But then it's not the first time, Heller's Renault 4CV has a similar issue. So the rear seat had to come off again. I hadn't glued it very firmly, so it was quite easy and didn't require much touching up.

I removed the mounting tabs for the seat bottom and tried to mount the separated seat into the body. It fitted very well.

Then the chassis could be pushed in place, actually with relatively minor force. Better than I dared hope. It was tacked in place with CA while holding the critical fits in place, and then I used small amounts of epoxy to glue the full length of the rather small gaps.

That wasn't bad at all I thought. Even the rear seat seems to meet up very well with the floor when viewed through the windows. And the rear wheels looked well positioned under the rear wings. This would have been a good point to finish the session of the day at...

But I didn't do that. Spurred on by what seemed like a small success I tackled the cabriolet. It was immediately clear there was no way the chassis would go up into the body. I had glued the small extension parts that form the rear of the door openings against the interior. According to instructions, but now it's my fault as I glued the doors and door interiors to the body. These parts had to come off again, but I also realized they were totally unnecessary as they aren't seen unless the doors are open... So off they came, and the paint was later touched up.

That only helped a little though. Next the sides of the rear seat were an impossibly tight fit against the edges inside the body. Had I not build up the rear seat section correctly? No, the parts were as well and tightly fitted as possible. So I had to remove a few tenth mms on each side of the edges, closer to 0,5 mm actually, before it would slide nicely over. More paint to be touched up.

With that done though, the chassis more or less fell in place. Just add glue where needed and that was it. Again the rear wheels looked well positioned. At that point I didn't dare push my luck further and choose to end that day's work on a high note...

[Codger]

Beautiful problem solving and meticulous work Jorgen. You will have two spectacular models when done.

[roymattblack]

Just lovely.

The cab is my favourite.

I'd be inclined to find some fine sand coloured cotton or even satin type fabric, concertina fold it and fix it in the space behind the seats to represent a top that's down.

It's almost crying out for it.

Lovely work.

Roy.

[Bengalensis]

Thanks for the kind words.

There is a part for the folded top, or actually the cover that goes on top of the folded top, supplied in the kit that will complete the look of the car with the top down. I realise I haven't pictured it further so far, it can just be seen amongst the painted parts in the box higher up.

[Billydick]

Inspirational work as usual Jorgen !

BillyD

[Séan Pádraig]

The are great cars and there are truly iconic cars... the original DS is peerless and your builds are doing them justice... great stuff all you need now is to find a DS19 Safari in 1/16

[roymattblack]

There is a 1/8 scale Citroen DS partwork but it costs funny-money.

It's almost tempting after seeing your epics.

Roy.

[The Cameraman]

Hi There,

beautiful work, as ever.

I visited the Isle of Man transport museum last week and found this beautiful combination, in case you fancy building another one!

Go on, you know you want to!

[bentwaters81tfw]

My double boxing is a loooooong way down my build list, so if anyone is tempted?

[Bengalensis]

Oh all those distractions... I was done just after my latest post and should only write up the last posting with all remaining photos... Well, loads of work needed to be done, and I had to organize collecting and transport of my latest acquired 1/1 scale project from across the country, and getting it done over the weekend on two trailers, then this week I had to get the old Lotus into a workshop for professional chassis settings, and more work was pouring in of course, and on top of that the water supply for our hose (private water well) broke down early in the week, and had to be fixed, by me... I need a break, but then I can't blame anyone else...

 

Never mind, it's only the final assembly left, time to wrap these two up. First thing was to get the engines and gearboxes in place. That was not possible straight away. Again it's my fault as I glued the front wings with the inner wheels wells early on, not following the instructions. I had to cut off a small section of the still (at this point) loose steering racks, which were added back after installation.

 

 

With that done the engine assemblies were soon dropped in place.

 

 

Then I added the exhaust parts. As I expected it was a good move to wait with all these parts until now to be able to align them all. The windscreen joints were quite lacking at this point, so I decided to paint a black joint line to tidy things up a bit.

 

 

The windscreens looked better like this. The rest of the parts in the engine rooms then just fell in place. The front suspension and wheels didn't provide any problems either. Suddenly both cars were on four wheels all pretty nicely aligned. I had not quite expected that to honest. They did both get a spare wheel in the end.

 

 

As you can see there's a lot of room for detailing if one would wish.

 

 

The rear bumper and lights was next. I used photo etched nuts from my scrap box to add the nuts holding the rear wings in place as they were completely omitted in the kit. Another thing missing was lenses for the rear indicators above the rear screen. It really looked like something was missing. I used some bright aftermarket 3 mm lenses painted clear orange.

 

 

The cabriolet didn't suffer any missing details; it was just a matter of carefully fitting all the parts well aligned. I also added a dark wash in all the panel shut lines.

 

 

Here is the convertible top cover mentioned before installed.

 

 

I would still prefer a two seat version, but I wouldn't mind this interior either...

 

 

The last parts to go on were the headlights, of course with yellow bulbs installed. They both need a good dusting off and some polishing now.

 

 

And that's the two DS completed. I must say I didn't have very high expectations, but in the end they turned out way better than I thought. And it was a quite enjoyable build as well. I'll get some better photos for the RFI section, but here they are.

 

 

 

Now, as I mentioned I still have an old kit of these in my stash, and I can't completely get the idea out of my head to create a "familiale" or "safari", depending how you know the estate version... I'm still trying to resist though, not now...

[Admiral Puff]

On 16/09/2016 at 3:42 AM, Bengalensis said:

 

Now, as I mentioned I still have an old kit of these in my stash, and I can't completely get the idea out of my head to create a "familiale" or "safari", depending how you know the estate version... I'm still trying to resist though, not now...

Go on, you know you want to! We certainly would like to see it!

 

Seriously, I'm truly grateful for this article. It has given me a lot of useful information about how I should approach mine, particularly as to what to do and when. And if mine turn out to be even half as good I'll be more than pleased!