196 - 1/43 Renault 30 TS

[Bengalensis]

With a project in this GB that is already demanding more attention than I can probably gather to finish in time, I do not need to start another project. So that is precisely what I do...

 

I'm getting very inspired by the many lovely builds of Heller 1/43 scale cars we already have. However, the best car, with the possible exception of the Alpine A310, is still missing, and we cannot have it like that. So, I add the fantastic Renault 30 TS!

 

 

First issued in 1976 as #196, reissued in 1979 as #163 with the black box art, as my well beaten up sample is. I think I got those numbers right. The content is in much better shape than the box. Moulded in bright yellow it differs from the first issue that used to be moulded grey.

 

 

I have never properly built this kit before. 27 or 28 years ago I did however rescued and restored a very crude glue bomb that my younger brother first mashed together as a kid from the first issue. I finished it as a replica of my own 1980 R30 TX 5-speed I drove back then, still got it BTW, waiting for work some other day.

 

 

 

This one however will be finished as an early R30 TS. The kit depicts the very first years of the R30, with the odd door handles and visible fuel cap, that were replaced for the '77 models. So a 1976 R30 TS it will be, probably in green metallic with brown interior.

 

[fightersweep]

Great work on that TX, and really looking forward to your TS build. Just know this is going to be outstanding. I do like a lot of the French cars from the 70s. I wonder if Heller will ever re-release them (and the Leyland stuff). One can dream.

 

Steve

[JeroenS]

Ooh nice one! Great to have another one of these little gems in the GB, good choice!

[JOCKNEY]

Really great to see you have built a replica of your actual car, and even better that you still have it.

 

I can't remember the last time I saw one of these on the road which is a real shame as they always looked a lovely car.

 

Best of luck with this one. 

 

Cheers Pat 

[Wez]

I love the Renault 30, my step uncle who worked for the local Renault dealership had one for a short while, it went like off of a stick!  Mega fast for the twisty, windy roads of the Isle of Wight! Scary bloody stuff!

 

Good luck with your build, looking forward to how this turns out.

[CliffB]

A great choice Jorgen and I like the colour of your original R30.  It's not a colour a remember from here in the UK.

[Bjorn]

Too seldom seen in Sweden, lovely to see this beauty here!

 

[Bengalensis]

16 hours ago, fightersweep said:

Great work on that TX, and really looking forward to your TS build. Just know this is going to be outstanding. I do like a lot of the French cars from the 70s. I wonder if Heller will ever re-release them (and the Leyland stuff). One can dream.

Thanks Steve, I hope I can do the TS justice. It would be good to see them reissued, but I guess it's mostly us who have come to some age that would appreciate them. But then again I guess it's mostly us buying models anyway.

 

16 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Ooh nice one! Great to have another one of these little gems in the GB, good choice!

Thanks Jeroen, we just have to have the R30 in here.

 

15 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Really great to see you have built a replica of your actual car, and even better that you still have it.

 

I can't remember the last time I saw one of these on the road which is a real shame as they always looked a lovely car.

 

Best of luck with this one.

Thanks Pat. I always try to build a replica of cars I own or used to own, or my fathers/friends, if models are available. Yes, sadly not that many on the road these days.

 

15 hours ago, Wez said:

I love the Renault 30, my step uncle who worked for the local Renault dealership had one for a short while, it went like off of a stick!  Mega fast for the twisty, windy roads of the Isle of Wight! Scary bloody stuff!

 

Good luck with your build, looking forward to how this turns out.

Thanks a lot. It's a great car and it was reasonably quick for it's time. Actually my TX was still reasonably quick even in the mid 90's, and comfortable as few as well.

 

6 hours ago, CliffB said:

A great choice Jorgen and I like the colour of your original R30.  It's not a colour a remember from here in the UK.

Thanks Cliff. I love that dark brown metallic, it suits the car well I think. If my memory is correct it only became available with the introduction of the fuel injection TX model in 1979. I don't know if you got the TX in UK?

 

6 hours ago, Bjorn said:

Too seldom seen in Sweden, lovely to see this beauty here!

 

Thanks Björn. Indeed very rare over here today. It never sold in very large numbers and was quite expensive too.

[fightersweep]

7 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

Thanks Cliff. I love that dark brown metallic, it suits the car well I think. If my memory is correct it only became available with the introduction of the fuel injection TX model in 1979. I don't know if you got the TX in UK?

 

It seems as though the TX was available in the UK, as there is a UK TX brochure currently for sale on eBay. I sure I remember seeing a couple of TXs here way back, and as for that lovely metallic brown, it really suits the car. I do love the styling of 1970s cars!

 

Steve

[CliffB]

18 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

Thanks Cliff. I love that dark brown metallic, it suits the car well I think. If my memory is correct it only became available with the introduction of the fuel injection TX model in 1979. I don't know if you got the TX in UK?

 

2 minutes ago, fightersweep said:

It seems as though the TX was available in the UK, as there is a UK TX brochure currently for sale on eBay. I sure I remember seeing a couple of TXs here way back, and as for that lovely metallic brown, it really suits the car. I do love the styling of 1970s cars!

 

Sadly, all I could afford in 1979 was a five year old 12TL (my first car in fact) 

[malpaso]

I don’t even remember such a thing as the 30, though your pictures suggest it was a modern follow on from the R16?

[Bengalensis]

1 hour ago, fightersweep said:

 

It seems as though the TX was available in the UK, as there is a UK TX brochure currently for sale on eBay. I sure I remember seeing a couple of TXs here way back, and as for that lovely metallic brown, it really suits the car. I do love the styling of 1970s cars!

You're right, I remember actually seeing such a brochure myself on eBay. The 70s are growing a lot!

 

1 hour ago, CliffB said:

 

 

Sadly, all I could afford in 1979 was a five year old 12TL (my first car in fact) 

Not a bad car at all, quite the opposite. My father had a few R12 Break in the 70s, they served the family and the business very well indeed.

 

1 hour ago, malpaso said:

I don’t even remember such a thing as the 30, though your pictures suggest it was a modern follow on from the R16?

Sort of, the R30 was launched in 1975 as a step up in market for Renault, and drew a good deal of ideas from the R16, that continued to live on for several years still. Though the oil crisis had turned the market around a bit in -75, and the R30 V6 (which had already been cut down from a V8 early in the project, hence the 90° V6 layout) almost immediately had to be complemented with the R20, using the R30 bodyshell but a 4 cylinder derived from the R15/16/17. The R20, although weak in power, very much became the heir of the R16, especially when the better 2 litres TS version arrived.

[Bengalensis]

Work started in the afternoon with gluing the wheel halves and the excuse of the engine, very much like the other Heller 1/43's where nothing of the engine blob will be seen.

 

 

I also cleaned up all the other major parts. The interior is very basic, but I will just paint it quite well and leave it, focusing a little more on the exterior. I still have some work to do to make the glass fit well. I will also cut front and rear sections from the floor part and fix to the body shell, partly to improve the fit and shape of the front and rear, and partly to make painting easier. I also must go into my car storage and measure the real sun roof, to scribe a closed one into the roof.

 

 

The mould lines on the chromed bumpers are very well placed in the middle of the rubber strip to be painted black, so perhaps I could save the chrome? Not so, the front bumper has ejector pin marks right at the most visible top section. To fill, sand and repaint...

 

 

When it comes to paint I think this green metallic will be a reasonable match.

 

[Jinxman]

Is the paint from a spray can? If so will you decant it?

[Bengalensis]

41 minutes ago, Jinxman said:

Is the paint from a spray can? If so will you decant it?

Yes, a spray can, and yes, decanting and using the trusted airbrush. Finished with thin coats of 2K clear.

[JeroenS]

17 hours ago, Bengalensis said:

I also must go into my car storage

Ok, now you got me curious... This sounds serious :-)... How many cars are in there? 

[Bengalensis]

1 hour ago, JeroenS said:

Ok, now you got me curious... This sounds serious :-)... How many cars are in there? 

Oh, it's not so bad. About 12, I think, in total. Or actually 14... 🙄😎

[JeroenS]

23 minutes ago, Bengalensis said:

Oh, it's not so bad. About 12, I think, in total. Or actually 14... 🙄😎

Oooh ok, that's not bad at all 😉 

 

Well, it would have been worse if you had said that you sometimes find a car in there that you forgot you had 🙂 

[Bengalensis]

3 minutes ago, JeroenS said:

Oooh ok, that's not bad at all 😉 

 

Well, it would have been worse if you had said that you sometimes find a car in there that you forgot you had 🙂 

Oh, well, I didn't say that has never happened... I had 20+ in the 90's... but I'm on increase again I'm afraid, I have more needs... 😎

[Bengalensis]

So here's the real sun roof. It measures 93x51 cm, and starts about 15 cm back from the wind screen trim.

 

 

930x510 scales down to 21,6x11,9 mm, but that looks just a little large on the model. When I rescued that old glue bomb years ago I just eye balled the sun roof, and it ended a little small. A compromise was needed in this case, so I trimmed a little more off my template before rounding the corners. I even found the tool I made all those years ago to crash mould the smoked wind deflector.

 

 

The template was trimmed to give an opening of 20,5x11 mm, stuck to the roof with double sided tape and then the hatch was scribed. I also drilled for the highly necessary roof antenna and added the missing roof trim strips from Evergreen 0,5x0,25 strips.

 

 

I had to trim away quite a lot of material from inside the body and from the top of the glass part to obtain an OK fit.

 

 

I think this will do.

 

[JeroenS]

Nice work! I think they'll look pretty good together!

[Bengalensis]

3 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Nice work! I think they'll look pretty good together!

Thanks, I hope they will. The TX will have the better interior, since most of it comes from other sources, but I think the exterior of the TS will become superior. Unless I screw it up...

[Bengalensis]

I have never been quite convinced of the way Heller shaped the front of this kit. It's a bit too much of a "wall" and the lights are placed ever so slightly low I think. The real car has quite a slim front end. I separated the grill/light section, drilled (very carefully) out the holes for the lights (still surprised I didn't brake it), to make them sit at a more accurate depth, and sanded the thing down to a height reminding of the real car. This will be a separate piece I can fit after painting. The lower section was glued to a 2 mm thick piece of styrene to give me material to work with.

 

 

New bottoms for the lights to rest on have been glued to the back of the grill and the depth of the lights adjusted. It's hard to see, but the lights are dry fitted here.

 

 

The lower parts have been basically shaped and glued in place, including the piece cut from the floor section. The grill/lights is roughly fitted with tape and the bumper held with blue tac, so it's a bit rough, but it's getting much closer to what I want. I need to make the end section of bumper slimmer, and there's a good deal of sanding work to do on the lower section. It has also consumed a good deal of time I could have laid on the Citroën... Oh well, it all is what it is...

 

[Jinxman]

Very convincing work - I have to ask if you spend as much time on the 1:1 scale projects? 😉

[JOCKNEY]

Ok I'm curious, what other automotive delights cohabit with your TS that you teased us with in the above photos ?

 

It looks like it's not just kits that are forming a stash 

 

Cheers Pat