Deux Chevaux (1/24 Revell Citroën 2CV Charleston kit)

[Scargsy]

So once I get rid of the backlog of aircraft I plan on building this...

Not really something that's my usual "tasse de thé", I got the kit as a present.

I'm half planning on doing something like the 2CVs I knew as a child - growing up in a rather moist Yorkshire through the 80s let's just say they had a fair amount of oxidisation! So a bit of a test in doing rust and other weathering, however looking over the instructions it's a very nicely detailed kit (plenty of engine detail, etc. out of the box) so I'll see where things take me.

Sprue shots, etc. to follow once I get started!

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Ooh another 2CV, don't think it gets more French than this. 

[JOCKNEY]

Delighted to see another 2CV joining the GB, apart from the Eiffel Tower I can't think of anything more French, unless it comes with a string of onions a stripy shirt and a beret !

 

Good luck with this one.

 

Cheers Pat

[Wez]

8 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Delighted to see another 2CV joining the GB, apart from the Eiffel Tower I can't think of anything more French, unless it comes with a string of onions a stripy shirt and a beret !

 

You forgot a Mirage III

 

A latter day 2CV, this is how I remember them from the 80's.

 

Good luck with it.

[RidgeRunner]

5 hours ago, Wez said:

You forgot a Mirage III

and the LeO 45, the Amiot 143, Sud Caravelle, CM170, hte Jodel, etc, etc, mate :).  They are in a leugue of their own!! 

 

Martin

 

[JOCKNEY]

Hi @Scargsy

How's the 2CV progressing ?

Any progress ?

Cheers Pat 

 

[Scargsy]

Not yet started, the Mustang build has taken most of my time (then the SAS Jeep but that didn't make the deadline). Mustang paint issues mean it's currently sitting in a bath of isopropyl alcohol.

I've opened the box and taken a look at the parts, wondering if I'm going to risk attempting a modified build or not, probably will try and lower it somehow at least.

I'll post some sprue shots soon and hopefully get cracking!

[Scargsy]

OK so I did a few sprue shots and couldn't help myself but start assembling!

Quite a few parts, the wheels and tyres on the bottom right are 'aftermarket' in that they are from another kit, I'm going to see if I can shoehorn them in!

The parts come in two colours (bagged by colour) with separate internal bags for the clear and chromed parts. The bodyshell was just loose in the flimsy cardboard box but seems to have survived.

Engine parts seem quite detailed, there's even some very thin ignition wires in there - getting them off the sprue in one piece and cleaned up maybe a challenge - though maybe not as they're so thin they are flexible.

Instructions are a black and white booklet (not the latest Revell colour style) but seem detailed and clear enough.

I started by removing the parts that will be body coloured, so I could get them cleaned and painted early, then removed a bunch of the main pieces (suspension, chassis, interior floor/tub) so I could do some test fitting and work out whether going with the modern boy racer wheels and attempting to lower the car would be an easy job or a complete headache.

The kit seems well engineered in that all the pieces seem to fit together quite nicely with lots of large locator slots / bars / etc. The suspension arms at the rear fit via a long tab and it looks like if you simply glued that end down the part would flex giving the model a little suspension with the rotating part being sandwiched between the interior and chassis components, however I noticed I'd stress the plastic slightly when forcing it where it meets the 'axle' part.

The front suspension arms are a bit more rigidly mounted via a slot into the chassis.

Where the rear suspension mounts the instructions show it just being a bar but the moulding had more of a + shape which stopped the tang reaching the bottom of the chassis, I cleaned the shorter sides down to allow the suspension to lower as far as it could easily, this seems to make it appear more even height front/rear even with standard everything. I also glued along the mounting rotation parts as I want a strong bond, given I was concerned about the stressing plastic.

One thing that's nice about this era of Revell kits is they show completed model pics on the side of the box, handy for when you can't work out what the painting guide/instructions are saying. The instructions say the front inner wings should be body coloured but looking at their example that's only on the interior engine side, with the exterior being black, also it showed their build version riding a bit high so these few mm drop should be helpful even with standard wheels.

So onto the modifications - it looks like these Fujimi wheels will fit onto the mounting posts easily enough (small amount of play but should be able to use epoxy or Milliput to get a good tight fit, they won't rotate but that's fine with me.

The fronts I can squeeze on, there's not much room with the parts (exhaust, steering pins fouling the wheels before melting down) but plenty enough space under the arches. I fixed up the front suspension and glued it all solid, since it wouldn't be able to steer much with these fat wheels anyhow.

The engine block halves were also assembled to test fit, since the drive shafts piece keys into it, I wanted to check I had it orientated the correct way for the small notch.

Fitting the rear wheels will be a lot more difficult - firstly they foul on the floorpan piece to the rear but more worryingly they also foul quite badly on the inner arches. Seems I might have two options though:

a) Do some extensive plastic surgery to the arches

or

b) I test fitted the supplied tyres on the wheels, which fit with a bit of a stretch - I might simply shave down the rear wheels so they're much thinner matching the width of the supplied tyres, which will hopefully then fit under the arches.

 

Anyhow - that's progress so far, hopefully I can get some priming and start of the body panel painting over the weekend. I've still not decided on colour.

Style wise I think I'm going to go for some kind of distressed bodywork to contrast the flashy wheels, I might see about home printing some 'graffiti' style decals for the body too, though I have seen there are decals you can buy in that vein.

At least the style is sorted, had I more time I might be tempted to do something like the 2CVs I've been looking at on the internet - some pretty crazy stuff out there, hot-rodded versions with the front wings removed or completely slammed to the ground ones.

 

[JOCKNEY]

Great stuff @Scargsy 

 

Cheers Pat 

[Scargsy]

So I made a start on the body shell - a coat of red-oxide primer, then added some patina with various brown and rust colours

I wasn't sure if I'd go for hairspray chipping or try salt chipping, but since hairspray is effectively water soluble glue I figured I could maybe use it to attach the salt...

After that dried I gave it a coat of Tamiya Sky-Blue, before chipping it by wet scrubbing and sanding.

I'm not sure if much of the patina shows and I've burnt through the primer in places but not to worry I can touch it up later.

The fine salt seems to have done a good job of making the paint appear to blister where it's stuck under the paint coat as opposed to the big crystals.

 

 

[CliffB]

That's a pretty dramatic paint finish Scargsy!  Great stuff!

 

Cheers

[Bertie McBoatface]

This has the makings of a classic.

[Scargsy]

Small update - got the decals applied (Green Stuff World, some of their train/urban graffiti stuff)...

They need sealing with a clear coat and then some weathering in.

 

[Scargsy]

So a lot has happened in a fairly short space of time (amazing what happens when you don't have multiple builds on the go).

First I attached the lower floor pan to the chassis and primed, this however was a bit of a mistake as it made fitting the inner wings later a bit of a tight squeeze (should have followed the instructions order) - I was more concerned about how easily I'd get the fat front wheels (from a Fujimi Nissan Silvia kit) on, so was building up the varous front suspension parts.

Squeezing the wings in wasn't too much of an issue but there are connecting pieces (part of the subframe?) that go from the engine through the wings, so a lot of parts to try and align up at once.

One of the issues I faced with these wheels is that there just isn't enough space for the fat tyres and wheels under the rear arches, I could have maybe cut out the arches but instead I opted to thin down the wheels, the supplied kit tyres fit on with a little bit of a stretch so I got out the razor saw and it soon made light work of them - I like to cut a bit in one area, then rotate and cut in another to make the groove run all the way round. I kept the tyre on for this to help as a guide (it did get a bit of trimming/roughing) but all went well. A small sand afterwards and the rear wheels were good to go, at half the width!

A quick testfit and it appeared that everything would work...

I did consider lowering it further but that would mean either removing the lower suspension arm on the front or cutting a slot in the front wheels for it to sit into, in the end I decided not to push my luck with this build!

 

Next up the seats and interior door cards, etc. were built up as well as the engine bay.

I have to say the kit supplied engine is nicely detailed - battery, wiring, etc.

The fan housing actually has a clear part on it where you attach decals to simulate the mesh grill - word of warning, they're separate pieces for each of the segments rather than a large piece with clear sections between. I managed to get them on but I feel the clear part was a bad idea given the reflections -the kit does come with plenty of extra mesh so I could have used that instead potentially.

The wiring - I did manage to snap one of the flying wires (the top most one in the picture) but luckily got it glued back together once in position.

 

Next on went the wheels, so I didn't forget to fit them before fitting the body shell (otherwise those rear ones might have been a pain to get in!

One thing of note - the bonnet clips in with a little attached piece with 'hooks' on it, when I test fitted I couldn't easily free them again (so it's been on all the way through painting), I may have attached this the wrong way round? Also there is a little extra strip of plastic that fits into the body to stop the bonnet detaching, however with that in place the shell wouldn't sit properly as it was catching, so in the end I ditched it (bonnet seems secure enough - though annoyingly it doesn't lay flush down - sticking up a bit at the front).

The chrome parts were stripped with household bleach.

The roof and previously chrome bits were given a coat of Mr Surfacer 1500 Black (thinned a little with Self Leveling Thinners), I have to say this is the first time I've used this stuff and it's impressive - think I've found my new go-to black primer, it leaves a lovely semi-gloss finish, so much so that I decided I'd leave it as the final coat on the roof (makes it look like a new shiny plastic roof). I had been tempted to try and emulate that weird mossy green growth you get on soft-tops but there's little texture on the piece (though some lovely moulding of the stretching of the fabric).

 

The grill, front light parts and bumpers were given the same black primer then oversprayed pretty quickly (within a couple of mins) with Alclad Airframe Aluminium followed by Alclad 'Light Sheen' Clear (semi-gloss), again I didn't wait overly long for the metallic to cure - the problem with the Alclad metallic coats are they don't stand up to handling, so the sooner I can seal it the better. I did get a few runs on the front light part, so once dried brush painted the light housings with Tamiya Flat Aluminium.

 

With most of the main pieces on it was then time to install the glass, then roof. One interesting thing is that this kit has the rubber window surrounds moulded into the clear parts, I should have probably painted these before installing! I should have also coated the clears with my usual dip and drip in clear floor polish as you'll notice I did manage to scratch a couple of the windows!

 

 

I had painted the coloured clear pieces on the rear, however they didn't really stand out, so once attached I gave them another coat on the outside of the various colours.

The headlamps look a little disappointing, they probaby need a silver disc inside (rather than the large void that doesn't reflect well).

 

Number plate and GB decals were added, the kit comes with a variety of national markings, I opted for the UK ones as they read 'FUN' which is a good reminder to me that I should try and have more fun modelling rather than obsessing over minutiae, plus this is a fun rather than serious build.

 

The final detail bits were added (door handles, wing mirror, boot handle) before a few touchups on the rust here and there and a dark black acrylic wash to try and define the door lines - didn't work too well as they're quite soft detail, I should try and do some scribing next time!

 

FIN!

 

Here's a few shots of it looking moody after the rain...

 

 

 

 

 

[TimJ]

That turned out great. I like the wheels and graffiti decals. 

[CliffB]

That's brilliant Scargsy.  Congratulations!

 

Cheers

[Colin W]

The number plate says it all. Cracking little job and certainly a fun build!

[Hewy]

Looks like you had a lot of fun on this ,its a great looking chariot scargsy, very well done, it made me smile when i saw it in the gallery,👍

[Ned]

Love the pictures. Straight out of a custom car magazine

 

[Nytram]

Thanks for this detailed commentary, which helps me do my 1965+ 2cv. Yes the bonnet hinge retainer does foul the scuttle on assembly, and I discarded it.

Making both front doors open, (lots of scribing) and trying to model 2cv hinges for them. Had to cut a bit to make room. The steering lock is impeded by the track bar, so I inverted it, which works. The motor is a delight, and it depends how much patience and scratch building you want to do, really. Fun, yes. Pity to put the hood/bonnet down.

I want to have a real cloth roof, from an old, (clean!) hanky in brown. Now,  can you open the boot? Working lights? Can I get to grips with posting images? Nothing wrong with trying for detail, just need one of those magnifier headsets to view it.

[su27rules]

Congratulations!!!

[Nytram]

While looking for some very thin, but insulated wire I hit on some Scart cable. Most people are chucking Scarts so they are in dusty boxes in charity shops. Shame to waste all that resource. I'm saving pics on Flickr, now so may be able to upload. How did I ever find time to work?