Bengalensis

I used some old left over photo etched parts and strips cut from wine bottle foil to make up a four point harness. The left fixing point on the roll cage finally had to be moved and the paint touched up, there was no longer any way to pretend I would get away with it off centred from the seat as it was... Detail parts fitted to the front end. The rear end parts were also glued in place. It was a bit fiddly with the photo etched license plate holder fitted to two small bent photo etch brackets. Soon the bottom and top halves where joined together, the minimal exhaust system fitted and the wheels on their axles glued with epoxy and aligned while curing. With weighted flats applied to the tyres after everything had dried solid I'm much more happy with the sit on the ground surface. There are no more parts left to fit, I think this one may be finished.

Thanks a lot Steve! The decals where a bit trying but they happily was OK in the end.

The bodyshell moulding has always been a little wide over the sills, but due to the very thin roof and not least roof pillars I never dared using any heat to correct it. Instead I put a thin bead of epoxy on each sides recess where the sills meet the bodyshell for the final fitting and clamped the whole thing together while the epoxy cured. This looks way more dramatic than it was; I planned and carefully rehearsed this stage before the final move with glue applied and it didn't take that much force. With that step behind me and the two sections permanently joined I did the last fine tuning of the weighted tyre flats. The last details could then be added. Air intake trim, wipers and the short antenna stub. The aft exhaust sections where added underneath, then the rear bumper and license plate. The styling is quite special, but Robert Opron knew what he was doing! SM The rear view mirror. I decided early on that I would probably only fit the driver side mirror, so I filled the other side's locating point before painting, but still finished both mirrors in case I changed my mind. But I still think I will leave it like this. And at last the front end could be fitted. This is the current state of the underside. The paint is drying on the centre muffler as it had to be repainted after the two end section joints had been blended in. I might do some exhaust rust and light weathering, but I might also just leave it as it is and call it done. When real cars are turned upside down like this they don't have flattened tyres anyway

Thanks a lot for your kind praise! Thank you very much Michael! Wow, good you got to drive the SM while your dad still had it. Yes, a good Citroën specialist nearby probably made life easier for the every day driver in those days. Nice memories, thanks for sharing. Many thanks! The interior is probably my favourite piece in this build. Thanks a lot Dan! No problem at all, the natural choice for me under usual circumstances would have been to present this model on period correct beautiful black French Paris region plates, unless I would have built a replica of a car I happened to own myself. The current Ukrainian plates isn't the first thing to expect. Thank you very much Pete! Indeed it's a very nice touch by USCP to include the interior light in the mould.

You're doing good work and good progress indeed!

Reinforcing the front suspension was very easy with my low ride height setting; just a little bit of epoxy on top of the tyres. The smaller details fitted to the interior parts, all ready to be installed. When the windows started to go in I could at last make up the photo etched wipers and get them painted. This is one of those rare occasions where the kit maker has supplied wiper blades that actually fit the curved windscreen. Plus points. The dash board was a little too tight a fit against the windscreen and needed a bit of sanding (followed with black paint touch up). All windows fitted as well as the sun visors. The small painted square for the rear view mirror attachment is drying. The seats have been glued in place. To get as tight fit as possible for the rear shelf I folded a piece of paper to act as some sort of a spring, pushing the shelf up against the once again temporarily fitted bodyshell while the epoxy cured. Here we have the finished interior, ready for the bodyshell to be permanently fitted. Ready for a thousand miles of high speed super comfortable cruising... A bit of dust cleaning needed before it's too late. Apart from that I'm quite happy.

I started putting together the first few sub assemblies yesterday. Window fitting started with the front and rear screens. That was the easy part and went pretty well. The side windows needed more work. The supplied templates seemed a fraction small for my needs, so I cut them slightly oversized, one side at a time, and test fitted as I went on. The rear ones were quite easy as I could glue them from the inside. The fuel cap also found its location. The door windows had to be placed edge to edge, centred in their frames. That meant some very careful trimming little by little and finally gluing with Kristal Klear applied with a 5/0 paint brush. Not much of that is visible here though, except that the dashboard and rear view mirror has been fitted. Not even that is very visible... A view from the inside where the door cards have also been glued. The steering column has been glued and bent to its correct best position against the dashboard. Test fitting, test fitting... Then the seats could be glued. Next a set of seat belts have to be made up.

Thanks a lot Jeroen! It was quite booring in plain white... Not even Michelotti's designs survive plain white, very few do actually... Thank you very much Vesa! Thanks a lot Keith! Many thanks Trevor!

Thanks a lot Jeroen! I do have great help from some good USCP base parts. The console is my favourite sub assembly too, it's a lovely piece in the real SM interior and the parts are very well made. Thanks a lot! I hope I don't break your popcorn allowance Many thanks Vesa, again the USCP parts make life easier. Thank you very much Trevor, you are most kind as always! Thanks a lot Dan! And not to worry, I know the French plates, at least reasonably well. But as Jeroens says, these are Ukranian plates, of current date. I'm quite upset by the current Russian agressions, and I wanted to build a nice conditioned SM, very well preserved or very well restored, as owned by some imagined Ukrainian enthusiast in our time. It just felt right, working from the Ukranian produced kit.

Nice foil work! It really adds to the interior detail.

A little more done today. Fitting and aligning wheels is something I usually do as late as possible, but with a car like this it has to be done much earlier, meaning a lot of test fitting back and forth. The suspension parts in the kit have allowance for various ride heights, but for the very lowest parked setting I want, they needed a bit of cutting and adjusting. Here the glue is curing in the final position. The bodyshell is thin over the rear wheels, but of course still far thicker than true scale thickness, so it's necessary to grind material off from the top of the rear wheels to allow for my low parked position and still keep the correct track width. The front suspension parts also needed some cutting. Again the epoxy glue is curing here. The glue joints are a little weak so I left it like this for the day and I might add some glue tomorrow when this has settled firmly. The iconic front end was assembled and is ready to join the bodyshell. The centre console finished from a surprising number of parts that all went together nicely producing a good result. Very nice work from USCP. The same goes for the dashboard. All the several parts went together perfectly giving a crisp result. With the addition of our own oval shaped steering wheel.

I found a little time in the morning to start some assembly. First the tires were fitted and glued to the rims. I also got the rear bumper with rear lights ready.

It's a bit slow progress right now, but it's coming along, slow but steady. Thank you very much Poul!

The decaling session of a race car is usually one of the stages in a build I enjoy the most, but today has been quite tense. The decals were very slow to release from the backing paper, quite hard and a little fragile and very slow to respond to softeners. The red stripes took me the better part of the morning and all the way to lunch, but in the end they were beaten into submission. This is after mixing a suitable red paint and touching up several small cracks and damages. In the afternoon the other decals were a little more relaxed, or, well, everything is relative... But with some minor touching up with black paint I'm happy with the result.

Looks like those guys in the workshop are making progress, Looking promising

Thank you very much gentlemen, you're comments are most kind! So another week filled with distractions have passed with only a little modelling here and there. The sills are dressed in brighter sheet metal covers and after some deliberation I choose Alclad dark aluminium, not that they are aluminium but it was what looked reasonable under the bodyshell. Basic detail painting done on the underside. It's very hard to see in the light on this picture, but the chrome foil work has been done on all window surrounds and some other small details. The foil work was followed up with some black detail painting and panel lines. The bodyshell was then finished off with basic painting on the inside, quite simple but enough. Today I printed the license plate decals I came up with in Photoshop earlier in the week. If I have done my homework correctly we have here a car owned by some Citroën SM enthusiast in Kyiv Ukraine, on current plates. Everything should now be ready for some serious assembly work.

Looking very impressive so far! Nice subject from a great Dakar era.

Thank you very much gentlemen. Weeks filled with distractions have passed, but this one is now ready for decals. I'm a little nervous about that as they seem a little sensitive, but we shall soon see... And after some more careful studying of period B/W reference photos tonight, the steering wheel rim is now black...

No. Never. Not even new...

Very nice and excellent choice of colour!

Looking very nice and tidy under a uniform coat of colour!

Nice progress indeed!

It's looking very good to my eyes!

Beautiful work on the Bullfinches, very nice painting! I did build them myself a few years ago and found it very enjoyable. I have the rest of the Airix bird kits in my stash, need to give them priority...

Getting the low stance more or less sorted with the new wheels opened up for some more progress, and a little has been done on and off during the week. First some of the parts got a coat of 2K primer surfacer. Then all parts were pinned and spraying of the basic colour coats started. The seats and door cards first got a coat flat brown that looked OK as a base. Then a coat of gloss varnish was sprayed, followed by a dark brown wash in all seams which gives a bit too much contrast. This was toned down by spraying another thinned down coat of the basic brown, followed by spraying some highlights of a brighter brown mix and finally a coat of semi gloss varnish. A little detail painting and thin strips of Bare Metal chrome foil on the door cards finished them off. More Bare Metal chrome foil work on the front and rear lights. Alclad chrome sprayed on some of the parts. The bumpers needed some fine sanding and a second coat of base gloss black. Here we have the wheels after a light cotton cloth buff and black detail painting. Some photo etch parts prepared. The centre console top and the dash board part are sprayed with Alclad pale burnt metal and their raised strips scraped back to metal. The other parts with raised bright detail were sprayed black and then sanded back to reveal the detail. The mirror glass, door handles and bonnet air intake were sanded with 1200 grit and then worked over with a metal polish paste. The boring photo makes them all look a bit bland... After another round of gloss black base the Alclad chrome was sprayed on the front and rear sections today. These now need a light cotton cloth buff to bring them to life. I found a reasonable match for a beige gold metallic in my stash of old automotive base paints that I sprayed yesterday. Today I sprayed the 2K clear coat, and it was one of the most difficult clear coat sessions I've had for a while. With this base colour it was impossible to see the progress of the clear coat build up at first, it just sort of disappeared from my sight, so I was spraying blind first. It got better after some thin rounds and in the end I could see the surface developing so I think it's OK now. It will now be left to cure for a day or two.