Heller/Airfix 1/24 Peugeot 905 Evo 1...

[AntPhillips]

I'm a bit late posting these pics this build actually started about 3 years ago, however whilst doing a bit of a clean up amongst the kits stashed in the garage I found the started project tucked away, the kit box was long gone, the decal sheet looked wrecked, but at least all the parts were there.

Among the car modelling fraternity this kit has a bit of a reputation for being a dog, I will not dispute this, but that being said with this being my first car kit in a very long time it has been a challenge but I think with a bit of forethought, could be a nice model.

I have another in the stash that I will one day build, and armed with the knoweledge gained in this build and some detail photos, I intend to give it the works and detail the engine bay too.

Here's where its at right now.

I still have a couple of details to finish, the drivers seat (with belts which the kit does not include) the inner radiator ducts and some finishing touches, aerials, windscreen wiper etc.

The engine cover is removeable, but as the detail is a little sparse I'm thinking of fixing it down.

Thanks for looking, and apologies for the poor pics these were taken with my phone, I'll try to take some more in natural light over the weekend.

Ant

Edited April 30, 2010 by AntPhillips

[PHIL B]

Very nice work Ant. It may be a bit of a rough kit but it certainly scrubbed up well in your hands. Its also a lovely car which no other manufacturer bothered with.

Phil.

[Obi-Jiff Kenobi]

That certainly doesn't look like it was made from an unbuildable kit.

Obi-Jiff

[CliffB]

Among the car modelling fraternity this kit has a bit of a reputation for being a dog, I will not dispute this, but that being said with this being my first car kit in a very long time it has been a challenge but I think with a bit of forethought, could be a nice model.

I bought one of these at a charity kit auction last year - I wondered why it was so cheap!

Ant, it would be great to hear what the problems are (and your fixes).

Thanks

Cliff

[AntPhillips]

Its also a lovely car which no other manufacturer bothered with.

It is indeed, it's always been a favourite of mine, I'm a huge fan of F1, but I love the look of 1970's Group 6 and 1980's Group C cars, they nearly all have a charisma that F1 cars rarely achieve, in fact the cynic in me thinks that the FIA killed off Group C because it was on the verge of becoming as popular as F1, not only with the car manufacturers but with Joe Public too, the Jaguar vs Mercedes vs Peugeot vs Porsche battles attracted a lot of media coverage at the time.

That certainly doesn't look like it was made from an unbuildable kit.

Maybe the word unbuildable is an overstatement, I've certainly built worse fitting aircraft kits, partly I think it's just that the car modelling fraternity is used to the quality of Tamiya, Hasegawa and Fujimi.

I bought one of these at a charity kit auction last year - I wondered why it was so cheap!

Ant, it would be great to hear what the problems are (and your fixes).

It is essentially just the way Heller have broken the parts down, little things keep cropping up, little mismatches between mating parts, in fact I removed the locating pins off anything that was made out of multiple parts and just aligned them with the good old Mk1 eyeball, saved on the filler and sanding after joining.

The way Heller have moulded the body work is also a pain, they have broken the upper bodywork into 3 sections (upper nose and side panels, upper monocoque, and engine cover) I originally intended to have the front and rear removeable as Heller have made a cracking job of the actual monocoque, and I fancied being able to show it off, but getting the nose part to fit to everything else was a pain, so I ended up gluing the nose directly to the monocoque after painting, hence the joints still visible. I'll do the same on the next one, but with that one I'll fit it all together before painting and make a better job of blending it all together.

The rear suspension is tricky, this time a lot of the joints are almost butt joints, you have to mock it all up to work out how it goes together and then sand everything to improve the fit. There is no attempt to model the spring dampers you merely get a pin attached the the top of the pushrod, ok if your going to leave the engine cover on I guess.

If you build the engine as the instructions would have you, the engine inlet duct sits too low to the rear engine cover, it needs to be raised about 2 mm, I used a short length of rod at each corner to space the duct above the top of the engine, works a treat and doesn't look out of place.

The exhausts go together OK, they need some filler to blend them into 1, but the location into the engine block is almost non existent, I've actually left mine off as with the engine cover on you cant see them anyway.

On the whole the kit seems to have been rushed into production, there are some real nice touches here and there, but modelling skills are definitely required. I'm sure my second one will be much easier to build as I've already found the traps, I'd really like to give it the works, and do some of the plumbing and wiring, as well as adding some carbon fibre decals.

BTW, the decals in my Airfix kit had a lot of milky residue under the carrier film and I've read this on another site too, but I checked my Heller kit yesterday and they appear to be much better, shame the Heller kit only has the option for car #5 & #6 (Dalmas & Rosberg or Alliot & Baldi) , whereas the Airfix one has extra options for car #1 (Dalmas & Warwick).

Here's a pic with the engine cover off, showing the exhausts and rads in position, these are only placed for the photo and have yet to be finished, I may well remake the radiator ducts from plastic sheet as they are a bit short in my opinion, the radiator inlet and outlet stubs end up alongside the monocoque, whereas in reality they should sit behind the engine bulkhead.

Heres a pic of the real thing for comparison (pic from www.ultimatecarpage.com a couple of other useful ones over there too).

Hope this helps.

Ant

Edited May 2, 2010 by AntPhillips

[AntPhillips]

Some more pics added

[keefr22]

It is indeed, it's always been a favourite of mine, I'm a huge fan of F1, but I love the look of 1970's Group 6 and 1980's Group C cars, they nearly all have a charisma that F1 cars rarely achieve, in fact the cynic in me thinks that the FIA killed off Group C because it was on the verge of becoming as popular as F1, not only with the car manufacturers but with Joe Public too, the Jaguar vs Mercedes vs Peugeot vs Porsche battles attracted a lot of media coverage at the time.

That's a widely held view Ant - and its also said to be the reason that they killed off the original World Touring Car Championship !!

That's a very nice build of the old Airfix Pug. I must admit to not taking a whole lot of interest in the many threads I've read about it over the years, but I'd always had the impression that it's reputation was due to it not actually looking much like the car its meant to represent? (which I always thought was strange as it was originally done by Heller, & I'd have thought they'd have got a French Le Mans car right?!)

Keef