799 - 1/8 Citroën 15 Six Traction Avant

[Bengalensis]

First thing in the morning was to spray the 2K surfacer on the front wings and rear hatch, undersides masked off. I also sprayed the base coat on all smaller parts related to the bumpers.

 

 

Then I want to do a little assembly work, so I fitted the bead trim along the rear wings, using the black electric wire I had planned. Nervous work to glue in place with CA, but it worked with almost no problems, working with care closing out the clock and the rest of the world for a while.

 

 

Rear lights installed onto the license plate holder. But I'm going to wait with the gluing of the whole thing onto the rear wing, there's far too much handling left in this build yet.

 

 

The fuel filter is assembled, and I couldn't resist adding a little detailing, even if it will not be visible at all in the end...

 

 

Here the filter is installed. It remains to fit the cover, and then it will not be seen. Oh well...

 

 

"Now you know what just passed you.

There's little idea in trying to catch up.

Especially as the road ahead is full of corners..."

 

 

The headlights have also been assembled.

 

 

I have also started work on the license plates in 3D. In this large scale I want to try and get some levels into the plates instead of only using decals. We'll see if it's worth it.

[JeroenS]

Even the headlights look pretty darn amazing. What a nice shape, and really nicely finished with the yellow bulb.

[Bengalensis]

22 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Even the headlights look pretty darn amazing. What a nice shape, and really nicely finished with the yellow bulb.

 

Thanks Jeroen. I never really thought about it, but they are actually a quite nice design by themselves.

[Bengalensis]

Black base and clear coat was sprayed during the day, after sanding the surfacer. A few days curing and then some small imperfections to polish out before installation.

 

 

Smaller parts have been sprayed Alclad Chrome and Highly Polished Aluminium.

 

 

I also finished off the 3D-models for the license plates, an older style metal S-sign to be screwed onto its own mount somewhere on the rear bumper, and the "Motormännen" (like the British AA) metal sign for the front grille or front bumper. This is now sent off to Shapeways for printing.

 

 

Heller made no locating points at all for the rear bumper against the body. As I was test fitting and planning ahead I realized I had made a dumb mistake. Not only the rear wings are fitted with screws and that black bead in the joint, but also the rearmost lower panel under the bumper. That's a glue joint in the kit, and I made it smooth, but should have rescribed it to accept the bead. Now I had to save the situation by fitting the bead on top. It's not perfectly ideal, but will work. Pay attention to research...

 

[TonyW]

The Devil is in the details. The licence plate will be a subtle yet very distinctive addition. 

[Bengalensis]

8 hours ago, TonyW said:

The Devil is in the details. The licence plate will be a subtle yet very distinctive addition. 

He sure is. I just hope the printing will come out ok, it's on the limit of acceptable thickness.

[Bengalensis]

I have been thinking about the bonnet hinges. There's nothing externally visible on the real cars, so I can't add something like a typical piano hinge, and as I understand the full scale construction it won't be possible for me to make that on the model. I begin to understand Heller's choice of the vinyl piece as a compromise, but it's too thick and too hard in my world. I have toyed the idea of using some very thin higher quality rubber material. Maybe a strip from a nitrile rubber glove?

 

 

I built myself a little test prototype. It hints at a possibility. There will still be need for a gap of about 0,4-0,5 mm, but given that and a gentle rounding of the hood edge it may actually work. Food for thought.

 

 

Still waiting for paint to dry I started work on the doors.

 

 

The smaller details and windows where cleaned up and prepared, and work on the outer and inner sections started. With this I can officially declare that all parts are now off the sprues. I have run out of sprues.

 

 

The door interiors come completely plain, except for hints to locate the opening handles and window cranks. The last page of the instructions deals with how to add some threads (not included) for the earlier version or using a pencil to draw the stitching for the later models.

 

 

The inner sections look like this. And here is my main problem with the doors. The interior cards are moulded as one with the inner section of the door. This gives two problems. The smaller problem is that also the interior part must be masked and sprayed in place. The major problem is that the outer and inner sections cannot be glued together before the windows are fitted, and that I do not like at all. I'm thinking I may glue the inner and outer sections and when dry cut out the interior leaving the frame, sand down about 0,3 mm and make new cards of 0,25 mm sheet styrene. Theoretically I could then slide in the windows and add the finished interior cards. Perhaps...

 

 

The smaller door parts have been sprayed gloss black enamel, most in preparation for more Alclad Chrome. I'm now totally out of gloss black enamel, save a few drops, and I need my mail delivery to finish the bumpers. Else I will have to do some hours of driving to do some traditional shopping, which I don't quite have the time for right now. It is what it is.

 

 

Heller provides a plaque to help present the finished model. It actually looks quite nice in all its plasticity. I'll throw some paint on it while I'm at it.

 

[Bengalensis]

Not much time today, but I've sprayed a little paint.

 

 

I also bought a cheap piece of 1 mm "rubber" with the front mud flaps in mind. Of course it's some sort of modern "rubber" and far too glossy and plastic feeling. Given that I thought it might be affected by some thinner, and with a good rubbing of a thinner drenched piece of cloth it looked a lot better. I'll give it a try.

 

[JeroenS]

You're actually going to finish this thing during the course of the GB aren't you... that is quite the achievement. 

[Bengalensis]

2 hours ago, JeroenS said:

You're actually going to finish this thing during the course of the GB aren't you... that is quite the achievement. 

 Mmm, if I can. But there's a lot of work looming in the horizon again...

[rob Lyttle]

Just had a nice catch-up on this epic project. It's a real delight to watch.😊 

Good luck with the bonnet hinge trials. 

 

🌠"Bengalensis.... Man on a Mission ‼️" 🌠

[wimbledon99]

Modelling mastery at it's finest!

[cherry268]

Continues to be stunning modelling

Its like restoring a real car

[Bengalensis]

On 07/01/2021 at 23:05, rob Lyttle said:

Just had a nice catch-up on this epic project. It's a real delight to watch.😊 

Good luck with the bonnet hinge trials. 

 

🌠"Bengalensis.... Man on a Mission ‼️" 🌠

Thanks a lot Rob. I guess I'll need all the luck there is with the bonnet...

 

On 08/01/2021 at 15:54, wimbledon99 said:

Modelling mastery at it's finest!

Thanks a lot, you're most kind.

 

On 08/01/2021 at 15:58, cherry268 said:

Continues to be stunning modelling

Its like restoring a real car

Thanks a lot.

That's what I really like with this kit. Heller did very well back then.

[Bengalensis]

More work on the mud guards.

 

 

The rear hatch and spare wheel cover polished, and the chrome detail sprayed.

 

 

Front wings also finished and ready for final fitting.

 

 

Fitting and gluing was quite straightforward after the preparations done earlier, even if a bit time consuming. It's all surprisingly rigid. All brake drums are also now fitted.

 

 

The beading along the joint has also been fitted.

 

 

500 photos, I never thought it would come to that...

 

 

The finished underside after all gluing and paint touch up done. The brackets for the mudguards are also fitted.

 

 

Assembly of the rear hatch started. Testing the handles and locks here, working very well. The glossy black body is unforgiving in showing off all work dust from certain angles...

 

 

The hinges are first glued to the hatch and left to dry.

 

 

Test fitting the finished spare wheel cover with the spare wheel underneath.

 

 

Test fitting the headlights to ensure the electric wiring will enter the pots and that I can reach a good alignment. The final fitting will wait until the bonnet is all finished.

 

 

The rear hatch hinges are now glued to the body and aligned with the hatch locked in place. I'm leaving it like this to dry over night. Tomorrow morning, in an ideal world, it should be possible to open the two locks and simply swing the hatch down. We'll see how ideal the world actually is...

 

[Bengalensis]

The world this morning was ideal, thankfully. Just turn the locks and open the hatch. Sigh of relief.

 

There is a vinyl squid part in the kit for the strap that stops the hatch from falling down too far. I made a new part from two pieces of Evergreen strips and soft metal fishing wire. I think all full scale cars have sort of a scissor construction, I've seen a few different ones.

 

 

I don't know if the on board tools were just left rattling round when you took delivery of your new 15 Six in 1950, but I can't find any references. For now, that's how it is.

 

 

Attention then had to turn to the bonnet halves. Getting a good fit requires quite a lot of work reshaping, thinning, cutting down and even adding material. No wonder considering the complex build up of the front end. I started with the right side.

 

 

Followed of curse by the left side. At this stage I have a very good fit all round, but still have the hinge section at the centre to deal with.

 

 

The gaps to the centre strip is ok up front, but far too large at the back, both halves are about a mm short.

 

 

Not much to dwell on. I glued a 1x1 mm Evergreen strip to each bonnet half. Then sanded smooth outside and inside, before tapering down to zero up front while leaving the full width at the back, checking for straight lines as I worked.

 

 

In the end I had what looks like pretty much equal gaps back to front. We'll see later on if it's any good.

 

 

A good coat of 2K surfacer was then sprayed. I included the bumpers as I have done a fair bit of adjustments to them to make them fit reasonably well.

 

[Bjorn]

Details amazing as always! The set of tools is just that kind of details that I love! Great to see the final steps of this totally fantastic work, I was not sure if it was possible to build this kit at all - so what you have made is really brilliant!

Edited January 11, 2021 by Bjorn

[fightersweep]

I'm speechless. No really, I am! 

[Bengalensis]

21 hours ago, Bjorn said:

Details amazing as always! The set of tools is just that kind of details that I love! Great to see the final steps of this totally fantastic work, I was not sure if it was possible to build this kit at all - som what you have made is really brilliant!

Thanks a lot Björn. I'm actually surprised how buildable the kit is. Not easy, not at all, and it benefits from a few modifications, but nothing too major. I had expected it to be much more problematic than it actually has been. Of course I'm not finished yet...

 

19 hours ago, fightersweep said:

I'm speechless. No really, I am! 

 

Thanks a lot, you are most kind. I hope it can provide some inspiration.

[Bengalensis]

Work started on the new door cards. I think this will be the best way to treat the doors. 0,25 mm felt way too flimsy in this size so I'm using 0,5 mm, which will also be better as I'm probably going to do some light scribing for the seams. It will be important to reduce the thickness of the door inner frames with the same amount once they have been opened up.

 

[ElectricLightAndy]

Stunning work here, having done loads of fabrication work on 2 Peking to Paris citroens, I can say that this kit really captures nearly everything on the real car, quite remarkable for Heller with the tooling limits of the day. Airfix Bentley is another vintage kit that captures (though not quite as refined) the real car well. It's a shame both companies haven't done more, like Airfix with a 1/12 phantom or Heller with a 1/8 Citroen SM... or even Airfix with a modern 1/12 2021 Bentley Continental to go with it. 

 

It's always a great pleasure watching your builds, I've been hooked since the yellow submarine 🙃

 

Andy.

[JOCKNEY]

Wonderful catching up with this build, always something new to marvel at. 

 

As for the tools, they would have been in a canvas tool roll, with pockets to slide the individual tools into, then rolled up and tied off with the drawcords attached to the roll.

My MGTC still has all its original tools in the tool roll, they would make a lot of noise clattering about loose. 

 

Cheers Pat 

[Bengalensis]

12 hours ago, ElectricLightAndy said:

Stunning work here, having done loads of fabrication work on 2 Peking to Paris citroens, I can say that this kit really captures nearly everything on the real car, quite remarkable for Heller with the tooling limits of the day. Airfix Bentley is another vintage kit that captures (though not quite as refined) the real car well. It's a shame both companies haven't done more, like Airfix with a 1/12 phantom or Heller with a 1/8 Citroen SM... or even Airfix with a modern 1/12 2021 Bentley Continental to go with it. 

 

It's always a great pleasure watching your builds, I've been hooked since the yellow submarine 🙃

Ah, the Battle of Pepperland, that was a quite fun little project. Thanks a lot Andy.

 

I agree completely, Heller did an impressive job with this one.

 

9 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Wonderful catching up with this build, always something new to marvel at. 

 

As for the tools, they would have been in a canvas tool roll, with pockets to slide the individual tools into, then rolled up and tied off with the drawcords attached to the roll.

My MGTC still has all its original tools in the tool roll, they would make a lot of noise clattering about loose.

 Thanks a lot Pat. I would also expect something like a canvas roll similar to that, but haven't seen any photos in my (rather limited) research. I might make one up later.

[Bengalensis]

The door cards have been finished, at least for the moment, with scribings for the seams. We'll see if some adjustments will be needed when test fitting the assembled doors.

 

 

The door parts also needs trimming, mostly in reducing thickness. The fit is rather tight in some places and allowance for a bit of paint needs to be taken into account as well. The outer skins are a bit warped but conform well to the inner sections that are better. But there will be quite some work to do when glue has fully dried.

 

[Bengalensis]

In between the door work the surfacer on the bonnet halves were sanded and I sprayed the insides.

 

 

All four doors assembled and dried and ready for some more serious fitting work.

 

 

And some serious work is indeed required to make them fit... Things happen when the inner and outer sections are glued, no matter how carefully the work is done. I started with the front left door. It took a lot of shaving and sanding of the inner section, and some skewing of the whole thing, to make the door sit with a good fit in the opening without any force applied. Now I need to open the inside and adjust to the new door card. Or I will probably bring the other three doors to same finish first. It feels like it's getting harder the closer to the finish I get now...