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Renault Estafette High Roof 'Stella'


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Here's my WIP for the 1/24 Heller Renault Estafette. As you may notice it's more or less together and painted as I'm juggling several projects and time is precious and so I post when I have a spare minute. After a slightly heavy handed coat of rattle can lacquer [note to self don't used that again] I rubbed it down then went through the colour coat in a couple of places and so today it has been resprayed, a mix of Gravity Olde English White and Tamiya LP Flat Earth. I'm also convertimg it to a high roof using an aftermarket resin product from... oh I'm not allowed to say! This along with the wheels and bumpers have been sprayed Halford's Italian Racing Red, about the fastest thing on a 45PS powered van 😃. However, the real thing has white bumpers but they looked a bit anaemic and so I've used artistic licence.

 

This will be finished in another alcohol themed livery to add to my collection. I'm not sure how quickly this will progress from here as it's back onto something else this afternoon.

 

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Thanks Marco, it's another excellent kit from Heller, full of Gallic build charm.

 

19 hours ago, Bengalensis said:

Nice to see another Estafette! It's a good bonus Heller included the top rear door for the high roof.

Thanks. I did produce my own rear door to go with the high roof but decided to go with the Heller kit item on this build.


Hopefully I can get a clear coat on today.

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Following Bengalensis note in his Estafette build about the driver door sliding mechanism I have added a strip to the lower edge, this just needs painting. I have also cut a strip for the side door sliding runner but I am holding off fitting this as I want the door in its open postion and need to see what, if any, issues this may have for fit.

 

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I have applied a clear coat of Tamiya LP-9, one whole bottle, and, being my first use of this, I think some more practice may be required. It is good enough to apply the decals to and then I just may go back to Alclad Gloss Kote.???

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i decided to ad a bit of light weathering, stage one done. A bit of dry brushing and pastel 'dust' to apply and then finish the detail painting prior to assembly.

 

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Edited by mbdesignart
typo
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The engine and chassis weathering is done and is now ready to mate with the body, don't tell David Attenborough! It's a pity the engine won't see the light of day again but it's been a good practice exercise.

Thanks for looking in.

 

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Yesterday I managed to drop back onto this during the last meeting of my local club The Yorkshire Black Sheep Modellers, although progress wasn't as much as I had hoped for due to laughing too much. Anyway the chassis and body are together along with adding the interior controls. The wheels have been fitted but need a bit of dust applying. Having decided the seats were too shiny I wanted to add some fading but thought the flat plastic wouldn't take any weathering effects well so I tried some Micropore tape as an experiment to mimic fabric. I think it's turned out not too shabbily, but the photos don't reflect the subtleties.

 

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Engine well and truly hidded, never to be seen again.

 

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L/H image, Micropore applied to painted seats.              R/H images - Seat on the left is with a grey dry brushing, seat on the right is flat black onto the Micropore. as you can see creases can be added so this may be ideal for tonneau covers and more.

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20 minutes ago, Marco F. said:

Good idea with this Micropore,  I'll keep it in mind

Me too. Thanks.

BTW, Black Sheep, we deliver a lot of that!

Here's one of our newly painted wagons, a nice challenge for you :laugh:

 

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23 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Me too. Thanks.

BTW, Black Sheep, we deliver a lot of that!

Here's one of our newly painted wagons, a nice challenge for you :laugh:

Nice livery, now if I could only get hold of the artwork?😉

 

Marco, Spiny, galaxyg  Happy to help with the hints & tips, it's what make the hobby. Micropore always comes in handy when you slice your fingers too.

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The Micropore seat cover looks great.

Another one I used a good while back, is lint bandage to represent car floor carpeting. Glue the bandage to the plastic and then tear it off once the solvent has set. It leaves a flock type deposit behind which can be tinted.

 

Colin

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  • 4 weeks later...

Another small update... the cab interior is in and the roof on. In Heller's inimitable fashion the radiator is a nicely detailed separate item as part of the engine assembly which, as I may have mentioned, gets hidden one the body goes onto the chassis. Now wouldn't it have been easy to cut a hole in the front panel and make the grille see through so that the rad can be seen? Obviously not, but I've done the best to replicate the rad by masking and painting a solid grille centre section and dry brushing the surrounding mesh. I know there is an aftermarket PE grille available, before an angry mob descends on this post. Whilst on the subject of detail, the wipers are the usual sad excuse of two flat bars so a those have been upgraded too. Better to my eye than using PE parts which always seem a bit 2D, not withstanding all the metalwork involved. It may not be too long before this finally gets finished.🤔  Thanks for dropping by.

 

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I think this will be the final post in this section. A final mod to the rear door stay to lengthen it and a nice stretch of Belgian Pave, to make the beer nice and fizzy, which just needs painting. Most of the small detail bits were added at the last local model club meeting at our local library, where one of the front sidelights pinged off the tweezers and ended up in the fiction section. I know you couldn't make it up could you? Anyway a scrap section of clear sprue was utilised for a replacement. Oh and the decals have been applied too.

 

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Your Estafette is getting nicer and nicer. 

These grey bricks (?) ....can we hope for a nice and interesting small diorama at the end?  Can't await to see what you're creating for us 

Marco F 

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