Unkempt Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 (edited) The Peugeot 403 was made by the French manufacturer in the 50s and 60s. They made over a million of them, apparently, but the only plastic kit I can find is the old Heller 1/43 scale. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that I've been watching a lot of Columbo recently. Lt Columbo of the LAPD is very proud of his car, which is also a Peugeot 403. Unfortunately, he's got the two door soft top coupe version. They only made about 500 of those, so it's not surprising that the Heller is the far more common 4 door hard top. Since I'm not a massive fan of vintage French cars but do like Columbo quite a lot, there's going to be a bit of surgery. The kit: What I'm going for: Here's what's in the box: It's a fairly crude kit and I don't intend to detail it very much. Most of the work is going to be in the conversion and 'weathering'. Basically I just want a little Columbo car on my shelf. I've found a decent profile pic of the soft top. I've also scanned the kit plans. I then outlined the kit plans, made it red and overlayed it to give a comparison: - so I've got what's in red and want what's in the photo below. The basic shape looks good. Differences I can see are: -no rear door -front door is longer and needs extending -take the roof off, obviously - the soft roof doesn't go as far back so the boot will need extending forward - oh, and make the soft top roof I haven't actually managed to finish a model this year so hopefully this'll get me back in the groove. Might be a bit slow, though, Edited September 13, 2018 by Unkempt sp. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 Good luck, should be an interesting build! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu_davros Posted September 11, 2018 Share Posted September 11, 2018 Good luck, this is a great looking car to build. Cheers, Stuart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted September 12, 2018 Author Share Posted September 12, 2018 Thanks guys. A bit of progress: There's a shelf attached to the back of the rear seats; that came off and I used a bit of that and some scrap plastic to fill in some of the rear forward of the boot. It looks like the soft top comes down just behind the rear seats at the back. Also tried to fill in the rear door lines... looks like more filling/sanding needed, then I can rescribe the front doors. Still, it's a start! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted September 20, 2018 Author Share Posted September 20, 2018 I've rescribed the doors and the boot. I foiled the hubcaps on the wheels. The seats looked very bare so I tried to reproduce the upholstery using putty, but it doesn't look very convincing; not sure whether to redo it or not. Still, progress is happening. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 The body looks fine, well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted September 21, 2018 Share Posted September 21, 2018 Ooh, now that is a cool mod! Nice work so far!👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted September 23, 2018 Author Share Posted September 23, 2018 Thanks chaps. A quick no-glue push together looks... not too bad: Still not sure about those seats but now I'm thinking I might put something in there to cover them up. He'd probably have some files or something in the back. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu_davros Posted September 23, 2018 Share Posted September 23, 2018 Very impressive. Columbo himself would be chuffed with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted October 8, 2018 Author Share Posted October 8, 2018 Slow going, but here's a bit of brass rod and superglue: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 Not bad at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted October 13, 2018 Author Share Posted October 13, 2018 (edited) And an attempt at the soft top. This is tissue paper (OK, it's bog roll) over the frame sprayed with varnish and primer. It's actually pretty solid but it still needs some finishing. Edited October 13, 2018 by Unkempt 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiny Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 It might only be bog roll, but to my eyes it's a pretty convincing representation of a hood. Looking good, even more so when you consider the 1/43 aspect. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknose156 Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Beautiful. well done ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansReggelsen Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 What a great build - can't wait to se it finished! Cheers Hans J ......ahhh.....just one more question. Do you plan on putting a dog in the back? () Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhouse Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 On 9/23/2018 at 2:32 PM, Unkempt said: He'd probably have some files or something in the back. A 1/43 raincoat would do the trick! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpnuts Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 Looking awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted October 21, 2018 Author Share Posted October 21, 2018 On 10/14/2018 at 12:48 PM, HansReggelsen said: What a great build - can't wait to se it finished! Cheers Hans J ......ahhh.....just one more question. Do you plan on putting a dog in the back? () Couldn't find a dog. Found this in a bead shop though. Seals are the dogs of the sea, right? Bit of filler Bit more filler, primer Et voila: Probably should have measured first, he's still too big and doesn't really fit in the back. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan R Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 12 hours ago, Unkempt said: Probably should have measured first, he's still too big and doesn't really fit in the back. Nah! He's just a very overweight Beagle... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unkempt Posted November 2, 2018 Author Share Posted November 2, 2018 Well I think I'm done. It was a nice idea but try as I might I cannot get the canopy to look right. It just doesn't fit and I'm not starting again at this stage. It doesn't look too bad from some angles... But from the front... Yikes. Maybe I'll go back to it at some point but that's it for now folks. Sorry! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeroenS Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 Still, it looks quite nice as a whole, especially considering the scale! Maybe you could try a top down version, the interior looks worth showing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HansReggelsen Posted November 2, 2018 Share Posted November 2, 2018 As I remember Columbo, he wasn't to wellkept himself, so your Peugeot is a true companion to him: In short - I love it! It's nice to see a screen-car that is something other than a Firebird, Jaguar, DeLorean, Aston Martin etc. Hmmm....the local hobbyshop actually has this kit......hmmm.... Cheers Hans J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kpnuts Posted November 4, 2018 Share Posted November 4, 2018 I think it turned out great and at least you didn't cheat like I did on my avant and do it top down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now