JeroenS Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 We're being spoiled here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinxman Posted January 22, 2021 Share Posted January 22, 2021 Every time I see that black finish I start shaking my head - it looks amazing, and provides the perfect background to the rest of the work that has been done on this model - wonderful stuff indeed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 22, 2021 Author Share Posted January 22, 2021 5 hours ago, JeroenS said: We're being spoiled here. I'm happy to provide 😎 3 hours ago, Jinxman said: Every time I see that black finish I start shaking my head - it looks amazing, and provides the perfect background to the rest of the work that has been done on this model - wonderful stuff indeed. Thanks a lot. Black is lovely. To me, a Citroën Traction Avant must be black. After a black one I may consider some other colour next time. Maybe. But most likely not. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 22, 2021 Author Share Posted January 22, 2021 Bumper horns, spare wheel cover and registration plate panel with rear light fitted. Also trying out the bracket I had started for the S-plate. As UPS continue to not wanting to do their work, criss-crossing between excuses of "bad weather" and calling my well known and perfectly working address "incorrect address" I still have to use printed templates instead of awaited 3D-prints... Yes, I'm not happy with UPS now. I might even buy my own 3D-printer (something I had hoped to avoid) just to get rid of UPS carrying a tiny 10 gram parcel... Then I turned to the front end and fitted the bumper and then the fog lights and horns. The exact location of horns and fog lights varies quite a lot between cars, so I choose what looked good (to me) and is plausible judging from different photos. It remains to connect the wiring. I will also fit some small photo etch nuts for the horn and fog light brackets. The S-plate bracket fitted after it was cut to length and had a coat of Alclad Stainless Steel sprayed. At last the wipers were also fitted. And the problem with a glossy black finish = dust once again clearly shown. It's time to finish off the last work, hopefully last, on the underside. I placed the same supports I used when building the exhaust system (it's very good to have photos of the build to look back at) and then glued the flanges to the exhaust manifold with epoxy. It will dry firmly like this before I do the rear fittings in front of the rear axle. Those are provided in the kit as soft vinyl parts, but first they are too long and secondly I need something more firm than vinyl, so I cut two strips from sheet styrene that was painted. Actually I cut those long ago, why I haven't painted them is another question. The final test fit of the mud flaps revealed I had to cut them a bit differently, so the paint had to be touched up. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightersweep Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 Incredible, jaw dropping work! What am I going to do once the Citroen is finished? I look forward to this every day. I'll feel lost without it. 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 @fightersweep Thanks. It's an easy solution though, relatively at least. The kit is to be reissued soon, or it just was, so you have the chance to build another one 😎 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 2 hours ago, fightersweep said: Incredible, jaw dropping work! What am I going to do once the Citroen is finished? I look forward to this every day. I'll feel lost without it. Well Steve you treat yourself and build the same kit in the forthcoming french fancy GB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 2 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said: Well Steve you treat yourself and build the same kit in the forthcoming french fancy GB A perfect suggestion! 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightersweep Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 3 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said: Well Steve you treat yourself and build the same kit in the forthcoming french fancy GB What? And try and follow Jorgen's build. Not on your Nellie! 🤣 I'd just embarrass myself. That'd be like asking me to follow a Stewart Copeland drum solo using nothing but biscuit tins and Tupperware. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 Congratulations @Bengalensis what you have achieved with you build is truly inspiring. If your 1:1 size work is the same I will need to speak to you about a potential project ! Cheers Pat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 1 minute ago, fightersweep said: What? And try and follow Jorgen's build. Not on your Nellie! 🤣 I'd just embarrass myself. That'd be like asking me to follow a Stewart Copeland drum solo using nothing but biscuit tins and Tupperware. Oh no, don't try to escape so easy. everything can be bettered or at least equalled. Or just build and enjoy, that's good enough. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 2 minutes ago, fightersweep said: What? And try and follow Jorgen's build. Not on your Nellie! 🤣 I'd just embarrass myself. That'd be like asking me to follow a Stewart Copeland drum solo using nothing but biscuit tins and Tupperware. For the drum solo, I believe ability is directly proportional to the alcohol consumed previously. Karaoke being the prime example of this ! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 The rear fittings for the long exhaust pipes are done. The whole assembly is now much more precise and rigid. Then the rear pipe was fitted. I scratched a new bracket for the rear fitting I made earlier when the pipe was prepared and glued that to the body. The wiring for the horns and fog light were routed and connected, good to at last get rid of those loose threads sticking out up front. Some bolt and nut detail was also added. Fitting of the mud flaps completes the underside. A little bit of paint touch up remains on the ridges of the three channels, but that will wait until it's all done and will not rest on the bubble wrapped box any more. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 I take it that's a beach towel, you have got it sitting on ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightersweep Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 37 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said: For the drum solo, I believe ability is directly proportional to the alcohol consumed previously. Karaoke being the prime example of this ! That's very true indeed and also provides the perfect solution. Enter the Citroen into the French Fancy GB, and build it entirely whilst drunk. It'll look fab with the beer goggles on. @Bengalensis The underside is every bit as stunning as the top side. Any plans on how the Citroen will be displayed? A nice mirrored base maybe? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 The brake pipes make the undersides for me. They just look perfect. Something about the colour of them adds so much to everything going on around them. Tony. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 1 hour ago, JOCKNEY said: Congratulations @Bengalensis what you have achieved with you build is truly inspiring. If your 1:1 size work is the same I will need to speak to you about a potential project ! Thanks a lot Pat. Well, I like to work things through and do them well. Maybe I can provide a future slot... 1 hour ago, JOCKNEY said: I take it that's a beach towel, you have got it sitting on ! Yes, indeed it is. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 1 hour ago, fightersweep said: The underside is every bit as stunning as the top side. Any plans on how the Citroen will be displayed? A nice mirrored base maybe? Thanks a lot Steve. I haven't thought that far actually, I'll have to get a feel for it once it's finished and see what might be suitable. 31 minutes ago, TonyW said: The brake pipes make the undersides for me. They just look perfect. Something about the colour of them adds so much to everything going on around them. Thanks a lot Tony. I was a bit worried about the brake pipes with the compromise of keeping parts of kit squids and only doing new pipes, but I think they do their job. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 To avoid loading the exhaust system I placed two 10x10 mm plastic profiles under the bubble wrap. Sorry Jian Xue, it won't be too long now... The whole thing turned upright again. Not much missing now. The end of the exhaust system looks ok from the normal angle as well. For the time being at least I placed the onboard tools like they are in the boot, using very small dots of Kristal Klear. Should I want to revisit this it won't be a problem. I should make a box or two of wine bottles, but haven't come round to searching for any French wine box artwork... I now had to attend the last work on the doors. First task was trying to open them. Carefully I tried one after the other, they all worked, so far, and none fell off. I reinforced the repaired rear door lower hinge from inside with small amount of CA, and some paint touch up was done on all hinges. There was however one more work to do. There are two rubber parts, often call dove tail blocks, to be fitted to each door. They should enter the corresponding notches in each door pillar. I have feared that these parts would be too thick and foul the fit of the doors, but some testing showed there was enough clearance. But they have to be correctly located on the doors. There were some rough markings moulded in the door parts, but I have sanded all away during the door construction and I didn't trust them anyway. I thought I'd first put small pieces of tape on the body with the location marked. Then close the door and place two corresponding pieces of marked tape. Using glue that would be sticky but give a little working time I then glued the rubber blocks to the door and immediately closed it, forcing any eventual misplacement to correct itself. Repeat four times. So here we are right now. Four doors finished that can be opened and closed with the door handle locking them. So far so good. Now having said that, they all do feel very fragile and neither locks/handles nor hinges provide a lot of confidence. These doors are not something to play around with on a daily basis. Treated with a lot of care they may work OK for what displaying might come around. But that is far more than I dared hoping for... 10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 So near now. The fit and finish of those doors is amazing. Perfect reflections in mirror smooth gloss black. Quite incredible. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 38 minutes ago, TonyW said: So near now. The fit and finish of those doors is amazing. Perfect reflections in mirror smooth gloss black. Quite incredible. Thanks a lot Tony, you are most kind as always. In 1/1 scale I would have had to work more on the fit of the doors, both gaps an skewing, but here I'm very happy as they are. Gloss black is rewarding, even if unforgiving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 Fitting wheels is the next major task. First I'm checking all four corners to see that they will sit reasonably well inside the arches. They will end up one or possibly two mm higher when all is loaded, but there should be a good amount of air left on a fresh suspension on a happy and alert car. It seems that will be the case. There is one huge reason why I have waited all this time to fit the wheels. That is to make a test letting the car carry its full weight through the four hubs, to see what stance it would have without further (very troublesome) suspension work. I have built the shock absorbers with the option of making them solid, to better take the weight of the car, but I didn't trust what that would provide in the end. In case I would have to perform major surgery to the shock absorbers or suspension it would be horrible to have the wheels already fitted. This is the result, and it's a huge relief, to say the least. Again, old school Heller surprise me. So it's time to actually fit the wheels. Once again things have been going fairly smooth through all tasks today, so I'm not going to stretch it. I've cracked open a good bottle of wine and there's some tasty dinner coming up, so fitting wheels will be for tomorrow... Sorry, I didn't have any 1/8 scale jack stands, that would have been nice. It's also a pity UPS can't be bothered to their work so the license plates are still missing. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather Kay Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 Seeing the car poised on the Tamiya pots really give a proper sense of scale. I haven’t any words left to praise your work here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted January 23, 2021 Author Share Posted January 23, 2021 8 minutes ago, Heather Kay said: Seeing the car poised on the Tamiya pots really give a proper sense of scale. I haven’t any words left to praise your work here. Thanks a lot Heather. I didn't really think of it, but you're right, the pots are quite small under there... The thing has a good deal of presence, but I have gotten a bit used to it during the work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cherry268 Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 I have run out of superlatives to describe this build so I'll start again Absolutely stunning 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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