1/24 Citroën 2CV6 RHD UK conversion...

[Spiny]

That dash looks good to me, certainly better than something I would produce from scratch. I think the important thing to remember when doing close-up shots is that how rubbish items look is often related to how close you get to them with the camera.

[bigbadbadge]

8 minutes ago, Jonners said:

Leopord skin seat covers! Nice!! When I was young my dad had a white Mk2 Escort with fluffy zebra pattern seat covers... As for "Vroom, vroom" noises, I took the car into town yesterday to make real "vroom vroom" noises instead...or at least what passes for "vroom" in a 2CV but actually sounds more like a sewing machine.

Managed to get some time out in the Fastie at the weekend, lots of smiles per gallon.  

The Leopard skin fur is just the centre sections of the seats hence tastefully done😉 

I remember the jacked up Escort Mk1s bombing round with fur interiors too!!! 

Chris

[Jonners]

A quick update, just to show that I haven't been completely absent from the desk - first, the dashboard is nearly finished, plus I've made some 1:24 'accessories' - a local area OS map, a 2CV Haynes manual and an August 1988 (the car's registration month) National Geographic. Yes, I'm afraid it still looks really rough in a close-up photo:

 

 

Second, the rear sear back section is still very much a work-in-progress, but it's getting there:

 

 

That's it for now as work beckons.

Jon

[Jonners]

Slow progress on this project due to work and Real Life, but it's about time I put up another post to show that it hasn't been abandoned!

 

The wings have been masked and the body shell has been given a couple of coats of Halfords Ford Frozen White inside and out. Once it's properly hardened it will need some rubbing down with fine wet 'n dry paper to remove some blemishes, then it will get some more paint:

 

 

I've made some basic front and rear door cards from plastic card sprayed with aerosol satin black; once the body shell painting is done these will be fitted and the rest of the door interior details added. The dashboard has been quite heavily modified from the kit part and will be fixed to the completed and painted body shell along with the door cards. I also found that the pedals in the kit are too long, so I've shortened them and will add them to the floorpan once they are painted:

 

 

The floorpan itself is proving to be very awkward to paint, mainly due to my own 'bodgery' (okay, I just made that up) but it's getting there. Repeated touching up seems to be the order of the day. The centre panel currently in grey primer is the top of the galvanised chassis on the real vehicle, so I'm in the process of masking it so I can paint it a dark, dull greyish aluminium:

 

 

Finally for now, I'm making progress with the back of the rear seat. The real seat has the lateral wires held in place with black rubber O-rings which are stretched taut; I've just used short sections of stretched sprue to represent these. I was feeling fairly happy with the result until, once again, I took the close-up photo below (with the seat dry-fitted on the floorpan) which makes the whole thing look completely rubbish:

 

 

Oh well. I might try to tidy the seat back up a little bit, but I won't be spending too much more time on it as I'm sick of looking at it!

 

Thanks for looking in,

Jon

Edited February 24, 2022 by Jonners

[JeroenS]

I don't think that's rubbish at all Jon, but a fairly good impression of something not easily modelled in this scale.

[bigbadbadge]

Don't get too hung up on the back seat Jon , it's a lovely representation of something that is in the real vehicle  made by you and looks good.  As Jerons said it's certainly not an easy thing to model.

The dash looks great as do the accessories,  great job.  Good luck with the paint. 

Chris

[Jonners]

Hi folks,

More slow but sure progress. I've glued the door cards to the door interiors and added small bits of scrap plastic, foil and tape to represent lock bodies, straps, window catches and door hinges:

 

 

The RHD dashboard has been fitted, complete with fire extinguisher and local Ordnance Survey map:

 

 

It's really more of a suggestion of the real thing, rather than a precise replica, especially as I've realised that the 'frame tube' is actually slightly overscale, but I'm fairly happy with it all:

 

 

(That's a stray wisp of plastic card 'swarf' lurking on top of the front passenger door card...)

 

After two rounds of fill 'n sand on the front passenger seat to try to remove the kit's deeply-engraved diamond pattern, I painted it only to find that thd diamonds were still obvious. So, it was out with the filler for a third cycle which, after a coat of primer, seems to have done the trick. 

 

All the seats still need work; the white stitching will be tricky and I need to add the rear lapbelts, plus the wall-mounted front seatbelts will need to be made and fitted. The Revell kit does provide these, but they aren't quite the same as those fitted to my car so I'll probably scratchbuild new ones:

 

 

So, I need to finish the seats, make the seatbelts, fit the steering column, modify the steering wheel to a 2-spoke version, fit a fabric 'parcel shelf', make the catches etc for the folding roof, paint the wheel arches...at which point I might be ready to fit the chassis, floor and body shell together! That's a lot to do - I think I'd better check my 2CV Haynes manual:

 

 

I'll get there eventually!

Jon

[longshanks]

Good progress up hill 

 

Kev

[Jonners]

5 minutes ago, longshanks said:

Good progress up hill

Thanks Kev - that's a comment that isn't often applied to the 2CV....

[Marco F.]

Great process 🤩

I love this WIP,  i had 2 in original and it was great and big fun riding a 2cv

Marco F 

[bigbadbadge]

Interior is looking good, cracking job

Chris

[nearsightedjohn]

Thank you Jon for coming up with an actual word for what I sometimes engage in on my bad days on the bench….bodgery! 

I am thoroughly enjoying this Citroen WIP that you are so brilliantly documenting. And that is the BEST seat underside spring and strap detailing that I have ever seen on a scale model auto. Even if it’s not viewable on the finished build, you, I, and the other readers here will know it is there and the memory of it will forever be in our brains (until of course when we transition to the memory care facility….). Much thanks! John

Edited March 4, 2022 by nearsightedjohn
Added missing word

[Jonners]

18 hours ago, nearsightedjohn said:

I am thoroughly enjoying this Citroen WIP that you are so brilliantly documenting. And that is the BEST seat underside spring and strap detailing that I have ever seen on a scale model auto.

Wow, thanks for such generous comments, John. I can only apologise for such slow progress (I'm currently wrestling with near-scale white seat cover stitching).  To be honest I'm completely outside my modelling comfort zone with a 1/24 car!

Jon

[Jonners]

I can't believe that it's been over 3 weeks since my last post on this thread - which basically means it's been over 3 weeks since I last did any meaningful modelling. This 2CV, or at least its constituent parts, has been looking accusingly across the desk at me for all that time while I try to pluck up some enthusiasm in the tiny spaces between Real Life.

 

I have been trying to reproduce the white stitching on the dark blue vinyl seats. Front:

 

Rear:

 

First I tried masking and painting stitches in white paint, but that was a fool's errand that resulted in seats which looked as though they had been badly 'sewn' with half-inch white cord:

 Yuk.

I repainted the seats in overall home-brew dark blue and went to root out my pack of white decal stripes. In the decals folder I found red, yellow and black...but no white. So, a couple of days later, a sheet of Xtradecal white stripes arrived in the post and I got busy with the narrowest stripes. After nearly losing the will to live I finished the front seats, then left it for a week or so before finding the willpower to crack on with the rear seats. After much cursing and an almost complete enthusiasm failure I have this:

 

 

The effect is still quite heavy-handed, but it's better than the previous effort.The rear seat will need lap belts, which will break up the barcode affect, and a coat of satin varnish should leave a suitably vinyl-like finish.

 

The body shell has been masked - okay, nearly masked - for the last fortnight ready for the green trim, but opportunities for breaking out the airbrush have been almost as limited as my enthusiasm for doing it! I haven't found the right paint match yet, but I suspect Humbrol 90 will be quite close:

 

I'm usually a one-at-a-time modeller, but I'm tempted to make a start on another kit (back in my aircraft comfort zone) to keep my enthusiasm levels up; hopefully that will help to keep me enthused by this project. The masochist in me keeps eyeing up this recent acquisition (please forgive the cross-genre pic):

 

As for the real car, I took it to work in the sunshine a couple of days ago and it covered the 60-mile return journey with its usual ease. I like to think that my colleagues' smiles were from a sense of nostalgia rather than ridicule 🤔. 

 

Right, I'm off to the medicine cabinet to dig out some mojo tablets!

 

Jon

Edited March 26, 2022 by Jonners

[Quiet Mike]

On 3/26/2022 at 9:12 PM, Jonners said:

I'm usually a one-at-a-time modeller, but I'm tempted to make a start on another kit (back in my aircraft comfort zone) to keep my enthusiasm levels up; hopefully that will help to keep me enthused by this project. The masochist in me keeps eyeing up this recent acquisition (please forgive the cross-genre pic):

 

Jon

 

Was this on ebay? I was watching it too, and wondered where it went to! I was seriously tempted, and though it would make a good stable mate for the Stranraer, but I suffered from an attack of common sense and didn't bid. I'm glad you got it!

 

 

[Jonners]

3 hours ago, Quiet Mike said:

Was this on ebay?

It certainly was, Mike - I was very surprised that I was the only bidder! Common sense has prevailed for me too, as I've decided to leave the Scapa and restart a different project. I'm in the process of refurbishing my airbrush setup, after which I expect that mojo will have been restored and the 2CV will be treated to some finest green.

[Quiet Mike]

2 hours ago, Jonners said:

It certainly was, Mike - I was very surprised that I was the only bidder! Common sense has prevailed for me too, as I've decided to leave the Scapa and restart a different project. I'm in the process of refurbishing my airbrush setup, after which I expect that mojo will have been restored and the 2CV will be treated to some finest green.

 Yes, it was a good price, that was what was tempting! I'm glad I didn't bid against you though! I made the mistake of looking on here to see how difficult they were to build ...

[bigbadbadge]

The seats look good Jon , interested in getting some stripe decals too for pinstriping.   Looking forward to seeing more paint go on the 2CV body.

Chris

[Terry1954]

Some inspiring modelling going on here. I love what you are doing to this beautiful old 2CV.

 

Some years ago (2009 as I recall) we took a 14 day road trip down to the French Riviera. When we reached Cannes we were delighted to discover a 2 CV road rally taking place. Scores of them in all different colours. I must try and dig out some pictures!

 

Terry

[Terry1954]

Hi @Jonners. I managed to have a root around and found all the pictures I took of the 2CV rally in Cannes. It was 2010, not 2009 as I first thought. Here is the link to the Flickr pictures, 45 in all. Just click on the picture and it will take you to all 45 pictures. Happy days, enjoy!

 

 

 

Terry

[Jonners]

Cheers @Terry1954, that's fantastic! They all look immaculate. Not entirely convinced by the bright pink one, though...

 

I'm optimistic that I might be able to resume progress on the model soon, as Real Life might give me some gaps. In the meantime, tomorrow will be the Federation of British Heritage Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) 'Drive-It Day' so you might well see some classics out and about. My 2CV will be joining a road run with my local classic car club and the weather is set to be good, so I'll be grabbing the grease gun this afternoon and topping up those kingpins in preparation!

Edited April 23, 2022 by Jonners

[heloman1]

Wow Jonners, your making a meal of the Two Pony car. I like the door card treatment along with the seat spring, never to be seen again. Great build. I'll follow with interest.

 

Colin

[TempestV]

Did you get any further with this? I have just picked up the same kit and plan to do my Dads red '72 LHD import

 

[Jonners]

6 hours ago, TempestV said:

Did you get any further with this? I

 Err, no...it has been sitting in the cupboard of doom for nearly a year and a half following a catastrophic interest failure! It is, however, waiting very patiently for my enthusiasm to return, which your enquiry might just have given a bit of a kickstart.  I've joined my local model club since my last post above, so I'm thinking that maybe it would surprise the car modellers if I turned up to show something with 4 wheels instead of 2 pairs of wings, especially if the 1:1 version was to be parked outside...

 

Thanks for the gentle nudge!

Jon