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780 Delahaye 103 Bonneville Fire Engine


Chimpion

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I wish I'd posted this photo when I took it - it marked the high point of the build :

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Shortly after taking this I moved on to the side panels. The lower parts with the tool boxes weren't too bad, although the aluminium frames have been tricky, and I still don't have a perfect border. I might try a bit of panel line wash to see if it holds to the ridges and creates a straight line to distract the eye. The basic problem is that I couldn't get the masking tape to sit tightly because of the raised areas where the hinges are. 

The biggest problem was the upper panels. I noticed one of them was badly warped, but I'd already painted it with acrylics so didn't want to try and straighten it in warm water in case I stripped the paint. These panes were always going to be tricky, but just got harder. The instructions recommend attaching both sides to the dashboard first, but it seemed more critical to get proper alignment with the firewall, which I had put in position but left loose to allow it to adjust to the side panel positions. Unfortunately I'd already sprayed the sides, overlooking the fact that they get covered by these panels, so the first job was to scrape most of this paint off. I then used plenty of Revell cement to try to get a good bond along the length, and coated the edges of the firewall with the cement to attach it to the grooves at the front of the side panels. Once roughly in place I kept running Tamiya extra thin along all the edges to try to get it to bond firmly. There are very few points which can easily be clamped with the clips I have, and I didn't have enough hands to apply pressure to the whole length and the front together. The amount of cement needed eventually got to the paint, but as I left it the top was meeting properly in the middle and not too bad. I came back to find I hadn't kept the pressue on for long enough. I've now added the dashboard, which looked like being much more tricky than it turned out to be. I think once that's all set well I can try to level out the height by closing up the gap between the dashboard and the panel with extra thin and patient pressure. It'll need some putty, sanding and repainting. This is what it looks like now (it's not pretty) :

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I'll also have to deal with the broken windscreen frame. I'm tending towards leaving the kit chrome on as the radiator grill needs masking and painting which I've done without stripping the chrome. If it looks too bright I've found that a clear coat can dramatically improve the look. The fact that this is already broken along the bottom edge might make it less of an issue if the panels end up with a slightly raised surface.

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To finish for now here are two views from the back and side :

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Nice. Very nice. The kit is 40 years old and it's a Heller kit at that so of course it will put up a bit of a fight every now and then. I think you're doing great, don't get discouraged and keep up the good work!

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I've pretty much sorted the bodywork over the dashboard - it's not perfect but it's reached the point where there's a danger that if I try to improve it further I'll start to mess it up again. It'll be helped by much of it being hidden by the window frame.

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I've also got a coat of primer and aluminium on the ladder - I'll check tomorrow to see if I need another coat to cover any bits where I didn't get good coverage. It's not easy to tell while spraying as the grey primer and aluminium are very similar in colour. I decided to leave the ladder extendible, but paint it closed up, i.e. it will extend but that will expose unpainted sections. It seemed to be a good solution to the very tight fit.

I also tried to dry brush a light coat of Vallejo flat aluminium onto the aluminium of the body work to give it a bit more of a realistic look. It turned out the brush was still more heavily loaded than planned but I think it looks much better now. I still need to go up to the edges and the bits I missed with a smaller brush to complete the effect.

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Many of the other parts are almost ready for assembly now. The front grille had the frame masked and sprayed. The centre grille was brush painted and still needs another coat or two. The bonnet panels have had the chrome details done by masking and using a fine Molotow chrome pen.

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16 hours ago, Chimpion said:

it's not perfect but it's reached the point where there's a danger that if I try to improve it further I'll start to mess it up again.

Yep that is phrase that rings the same with me

It's looking really good though

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I'm calling this finished.


The pictures are in the gallery here :

 

Here's one repeated for this thread :

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Towards the end it was something of a battle. It looks fine from a distance, but I realised it had some faults that would stand out whatever I did to the rest of it so decided to focus on getting it completed. Theres a noticeable seam line from the mould on the headlights, for example, but to fix it would mean stripping the chrome, and then whatever I did wouldn't match the other chrome parts, so I'd have to do the same to them. It turned out that the warped side panels weren't the only warped parts from that sprue - the bonnet panels have the same problem. I might be able to force them to stay in place with enough cement, but then I wouldn't be able to see the engine detail. I've just left it resting (and poorly fiting) in place for now on the side visible above and have glued it in place on the other side. To do this kit well, the whole of the firewall, side panel, grille and bonnet need to be assembled in one go, ideally unpainted. Trying to paint it in place would be a nightmare masking job though, risking overspray of the engine and dashboard if not done properly.

The decals weren't too bad - I've had bad experiences with old Heller decals in the past. The main issues were the edges coming off (e.g. the silver lining of the "Delahaye" on the bonnet came away and was unsalvageable on one side. The rear number plate had a piece missing but I was able to use a piece of the black line around the decal sheet to fix it. Some of the decal identification numbers were so close to the decal itself that the decal has a small black part of the number on the edge. Whoever thought that was a good idea is an idiot.

Overall the fit is pretty good - at least I think it would be with unwarped parts. Much of the running gear is much too weak - it might be in scale, but to the end I haven't managed to properly fix the broken steering linkage. Often when fighting the bodywork the exhaust or some other part on the underside would pop out of place - the fixing areas were small and the parts flimsy.

I'm pleased to have got it finished. In hindsight, it was maybe a bit beyond my skill level and I didn't really do the kit justice. At least you all get to see what one looks like built. I'd be interest to see someone with better skills build one - please do tag me if you start a build thread!

Thanks to all those who have followed the progress and especially thanks for the encouraging comments which kept me going when I was tempted to put it on the shelf of doom at times.

 

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Well done for finishing this one. As can be expected of these old kits, it fought you but you still you managed to get a pleasing result! I think you should be happy with this, I know I would be. Classic Heller!

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That looks pretty good from where I'm sitting. The ladder looks especially delicate and to scale. Well done.

 

I can add a turntable ladder story to the thread, if you will permit me to  drag a few memories out from their dusty store.

 

I joined the London Fire Brigade in 1978 and after initial training got my first posting to B22 Lambeth, on the Albert Embankment. The station had a  new state of the art Hydraulic Platform at the time but when that was busted we sometimes got an old Merryweather  centre door Turntable Ladder in its place. It was a bit old, even then. The jacks were the same as on your build, hand cranked, straight down with no outward movement. The HP had huge hydraulic arm jacks that shot out sideways and made things far more stable.

 

One night shift, we had a call to scaffolding in a precarious position on a building site. There was a storm at the time and a load of tarpaulins had broken loose and were acting as huge sails, dragging the scaffold around and looking a bit dodgy. We had the Merryweather on the run that night and it attended the call with our Pump. It was decided to use the TL to cut down the tarps and we could then go back to our nice warm Fire Station. Being Junior Buck at the time, it was thought a good idea to shoot me up on the head of the TL and do the cutting. I clipped onto the head of the ladder, using the big belt designed for that, and got shot up only to find the head of the ladder waving about in a quite alarming fashion. Using the mike, I told the operator downstairs that I couldn't get to the ropes to cut them. In his broad northern accent he then told me to " Hold on Bonny Lad, I'll unwind the jacks. I forgot to put them down" There was no alarm on the old machine to warn the operator that the jacks were not down. At that point I thought my Mum was going to read about my demise in the morning papers, but we got away with it and I'm still here to tell the tale.

 

Thanks for giving me the chance to re-live a bit of the past. I had filed the memories away, right up until I saw the screw jacks on your build!

 

Tony.

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@TonyW I had no idea we were in the presence of a TV star, which character did you play in "Londons Burning" ?

 

I know you now live over in the East Anglian Highlands but just to give you a blast from the past see below...

 

 

All together now !

 

Cheers Pat

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Ah, jumpers for goalposts....

 

Sorry about the thread hijack, I got a bit carried away.

 

I'll bail out with a picture of what may well have been the TL on that night. I remember it as a centre door one, but memory can play tricks over the years.

 

It's a new looking machine in the picture. It's in the drill yard of Lambeth Fire Station, wearing the station call sign, B22, on its flank. 

 

The Lambeth Walk is a street or so behind the rear of the machine. It was a rather bleak  1960's shopping parade at the time. Not many tourists in evidence.

 

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It looks a cracking model to me, well done

You sound just like me and always know how to do a second one properly having found all the problems, hindsight is a wonderful thing😀

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