Bengalensis Posted March 30, 2021 Author Share Posted March 30, 2021 6 hours ago, Hamden said: I seem to remember we had a couple of Floride's as well as Caravelle's come into the dealership for servicing that would be around 1968/70 ish. We only had new Caravelle's in the show room then as the Floride was discontinued by then. Your Dauphine is really coming together now and brings back great memories, have you decided on a colour scheme yet? The name thing is kind of strange with the Floride/Caravelle in the UK. I know I have seen reference that the Floride was called Caravelle also in the UK, but I can't see why that would be. In the US it was always Caravelle. Of course later when it became Caravelle (after the short spell of the Floride S) all over the world it's another thing, and also another car really, with the R8/10 chassis and the uglier bulgy roof on the hardtop versions. I'm planning a red exterior, just to celebrate the Airfix artwork. It's not my favourite Dauphine colour, but in this case it will be nice. The interior will probably be light greyish seats, but I need to look a little more at the options. 35 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said: I thought that in the UK the spare wheel was in the front luggage compartment. That was your crash protection. In the Dauphine the spare wheel was always under the luggage floor, accessible via the hatch under the front bumper. But indeed they made a large issue of it being such a good crash protection... In the predecessor 4CV on the other hand it was placed in the luggage compartment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in Lincs Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 4 minutes ago, Bengalensis said: accessible via the hatch under the front bumper. I forgot about that. It's been a long day. 😴 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesa Jussila Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 1 hour ago, Pete in Lincs said: I thought that in the UK the spare wheel was in the front luggage compartment. That was your crash protection. I think that period crash protection was drivers skull. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted March 30, 2021 Author Share Posted March 30, 2021 I have spent some time sanding, shaping and rescribing the front and rear sections, especially the lower areas where the separate parts joined the body shell. Airfix didn't do the best job in the world here, but with a little help I recognize the shapes quite well now. And a view with the bumpers fitted. The rear could do with some refinement still perhaps. I'll dwell on that. The front bonnet was missing the centre pressing. I'm trying to add this from stretched sprue and a bit of sanding after a fine line of CA glue on each side. And I very nearly drilled holes for the wipers as I'm used to see them, as on LHD cars. Caught it just in time. The "footsteps" under the rear doors where moulded in, but not that well. I removed them and sanded the sills to a better shape, then added them back using Evergreen strips that was shaped once dry. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted March 30, 2021 Author Share Posted March 30, 2021 2 minutes ago, Vesa Jussila said: I think that period crash protection was drivers skull. Quite right! Still the best. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted March 30, 2021 Share Posted March 30, 2021 Excellent progress Jörgen, that's coming on really well and very quickly! Keith 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 10 hours ago, keefr22 said: Excellent progress Jörgen, that's coming on really well and very quickly! Thanks Keith. I got more or less full days available at the moment, so best keep working while possible. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 The windows are problematic. They are filled with imperfections and distortions, and the mounting edge of the front windscreen has not been completely moulded, most of it is missing. I'm sanding it with 1200 to rid all issues. This is followed with 2000 and 4000, then polishing with Meguiar's 105 & 205. The plastic responds well. I think I can solve the mounting of it, but we'll see. The rear screen has more problems. There is an edge of bodywork below it that should not be there, and the roof lacks curvature down to the screen. It's also not curved enough around the ends. Here is what it should look like. The rubber seal (on most versions with an inserted chrome strip) sits against the bottom, no raised edge. It's almost like Airfix placed the whole screen too high. Maybe I can remove the edge below, moving the screen down and add material at the top to bring more curvature to the roof. It doesn't solve the problem with the short ends, but might be an improvement. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malc2 Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Hi Jörgen, As usual you are doing a great job on this. I did not know this Airfix kit existed! How about this for a bit of memorabilia? A Roy Cross Dauphine Airfix box art drawing! (I will attach the picture as well, so when the ebay link dies the picture will remain in the thread). https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AIRFIX-RENAULT-DAUPHINE-ORIGINAL-ROY-CROSS-ARTWORK/331422811295?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20180816085401%26meid%3Dda688d5afbee4e9aa88d02302c08a036%26pid%3D100970%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D331422811295%26itm%3D331422811295%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057%26brand%3DAirfix&_trksid=p2380057.c100970.m5481&_trkparms=pageci%3A999d9760-9221-11eb-898b-06c851888e22|parentrq%3A886275aa1780a7b1f20d6d7cffe0f96a|iid%3A1 Malc. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan R Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 18 hours ago, Bengalensis said: 18 hours ago, Vesa Jussila said: I think that period crash protection was drivers skull. Quite right! Still the best. I remember my driving instructor telling me that I was to treat all other road users as homicidal maniacs out to kill me and drive appropriately. In nearly 50 years of driving, I have had few accidents, even though I did dive quickly. Cheers, Alan. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwaters81tfw Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Just latched on to this. Not seen one of these for many years. Airfix almost made as a bad a job of it as Renault did. Others views may differ, but it was a dog. I loved the look of the Floride, shame it was a Dauphine underneath. p.s. that gearlever has far too much meat about it. They were the thickness of a knitting needle. I think they sold the concept to Skoda for the 100/110. I have some stories about those. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 4 hours ago, Malc2 said: As usual you are doing a great job on this. I did not know this Airfix kit existed! How about this for a bit of memorabilia? A Roy Cross Dauphine Airfix box art drawing! Thanks a lot. I've seen that artwork on ebay, but I wonder if it was ever used on a kit? 4 hours ago, Alan R said: I remember my driving instructor telling me that I was to treat all other road users as homicidal maniacs out to kill me and drive appropriately. In nearly 50 years of driving, I have had few accidents, even though I did dive quickly. See there, it still works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 Fixing the rear screen got more involved than expected. It had to become wider, so I sanded off the moulded in edges, except on the bottom section, and polished it back to clarity. Then I glued an Evergreen strip at the top, onto the screen itself to keep the height, then let it out over the edges on both sides to gain a little width. After some sanding and shaping I had this. It is much better, but not perfect. I also realised I had a spare windscreen left over from the Floride conversion and it turned out to be slightly better moulded, so I polished that one up instead. Some more work at the rear. The engine cover got a missing ridge along the centre line added from stretched sprue and filler, and a new handle was also made. While doing that I could no longer pretend that the too small and misshapen license plate light was OK, so I made a better one. It is now a separate part to aid painting. Next problem is the area around the door windows. It is completely flat and levels with the outside of the rain gutters, making the whole area a bit strange. As things have already gone overboard something had to be done. There is not enough plastic to allow just sanding the whole area down. I opted to scribe from the inside to separate the doors from the roof. The plastic is rather hard and brittle (due to age?) so care was needed. Then the window section was pushed in just the little bit, glued with CA, and resin sanding dust to fill the line, and sanded smooth. 0,25x0.5 mm Evergreen strip was the glued on its edge to form new rain gutters, and sanded down slightly once dry, and the doors rescribed. I'm quite pleased with this som far. The problem now is that the glass sections with their moulded in "sealing strips" now lets the whole thing down... 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malc2 Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 17 minutes ago, Bengalensis said: Thanks a lot. I've seen that artwork on ebay, but I wonder if it was ever used on a kit? No it wasn't, it was one of several sketches Roy submitted to Airfix (I believe he did this for all Airfix commissions), before making the final colour submission based on the chosen sketch. (That's why it has NO written on the top RH corner!) I think this below was the only Roy Cross Dauphine header, in the rain with what looks like some opposite lock action!! Malc. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 44 minutes ago, Malc2 said: No it wasn't, it was one of several sketches Roy submitted to Airfix (I believe he did this for all Airfix commissions), before making the final colour submission based on the chosen sketch. (That's why it has NO written on the top RH corner!) I think this below was the only Roy Cross Dauphine header, in the rain with what looks like some opposite lock action!! Malc. Ah yes, I've never noticed the "no" before. I really like this artwork from the second edition. Roy Cross knew his work well. Iconic. He almost managed R1093 headlights, at least on the right side 😎 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted April 1, 2021 Author Share Posted April 1, 2021 To make better side windows a missing thin edge of bodywork needs to be added first. I glued 0,25 mm sheet styrene on the inside. Then I cut the openings out, saving a thin edge. Now I can fit new windows from clear flat sheet, fitting from the inside. Looking at the rear window once again it no longer passed inspection. I had to lower the top edge and modify the roof to fit. We'll see how long this will survive. Having gone round all the windows there was little point in pretending the front windscreen would be OK. I changed the shape of the opening, mostly in the top corners, then I cut a new window from a piece with a better fitting curvature, a 1/24 Tamiya Alpine A110 rear screen, and glued the edge made from shaped 0,5x0,5 Evergreen strip. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 1 hour ago, Bengalensis said: I glued 0,25 mm sheet styrene on the inside. That is so neat - why I didn't think of that I'll never know (cos I'm thick probably...!! ) - one of the reasons my Airfix Mk1 Escort has stalled is that I was trying to neatly glue microstrip inside the side windows to get the same result and just kept mucking it up...!! I'll certainly be 'borrowing' your method now Jörgen! More really good progress on the little Renault! Keith 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted April 1, 2021 Author Share Posted April 1, 2021 3 hours ago, keefr22 said: That is so neat - why I didn't think of that I'll never know (cos I'm thick probably...!! ) - one of the reasons my Airfix Mk1 Escort has stalled is that I was trying to neatly glue microstrip inside the side windows to get the same result and just kept mucking it up...!! I'll certainly be 'borrowing' your method now Jörgen! Thanks a lot Keith. Please go right ahead; good modelling methods are meant to be copied/borrowed/stolen. It would be great if it got your Mexico Escort going again! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted April 2, 2021 Author Share Posted April 2, 2021 I formed a spiral from a 0,5x0,5 strip, and from that I cut curved pieces to make the door handles into separate parts. With the door handles separate I could then hollow out the important recesses under the handles. Should not be too far from spraying primer now. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesa Jussila Posted April 2, 2021 Share Posted April 2, 2021 Lot of nice small details. This is clearly not OOB build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted April 3, 2021 Author Share Posted April 3, 2021 The primer has been sprayed. There are a few smaller issues that have been pricked in manually and should sand off without problems. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyCrank Posted April 3, 2021 Share Posted April 3, 2021 33 minutes ago, Bengalensis said: The primer has been sprayed. There are a few smaller issues that have been pricked in manually and should sand off without problems. Superb work on the bodywork, Jürgens, I do love her 😍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr22 Posted April 3, 2021 Share Posted April 3, 2021 Yep, she's looking great - another build that you wouldn't believe comes from a pre-historic Airfix kit! Keith 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted April 3, 2021 Author Share Posted April 3, 2021 3 hours ago, CrazyCrank said: Superb work on the bodywork, Jürgens, I do love her 😍 Thanks a lot. It's so easy to fall in love with the Dauphine shapes, it's one the most happy and loveable cars I have dealt with 1/1 so far, and they are not few. 24 minutes ago, keefr22 said: Yep, she's looking great - another build that you wouldn't believe comes from a pre-historic Airfix kit! Thanks a lot Keith. Airfix did capture the basic shapes quite well, a bit rough around the edges, but not bad at all. It just needs a little help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted April 4, 2021 Author Share Posted April 4, 2021 The little Dauphine is now red. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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