763 Citroen 15 SIX, Heller 1/24 (1978) *Finis*

[paul-muc]

 

The kit is from 1978, my boxing from 1979. It was a present of colleagues, when I left the firm in 1984. I wasn't very interested in this type of car as I prefer classic sports cars in an attractive design. So the kit rested in the stash. But at the moment I am reducing the stash and this is the opportunity to build the car.

 

DaveCov has built this model in a former Heller groupbuild in classic black. I have studied his buildthread if there are any traps that I may avoid.

 

So here are the sprues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I want to go with a colour scheme in green and dark green that I have seen some years ago at a meeting of vintage cars on an 11 CV.
The interior will be in beige, medium brown and dark brown (from top to bottom).

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24 by paul-muc
Finished

[2996 Victor]

Hi and welcome to the GB! This is such an elegant car, I'm actually quite surprised we haven't had any others yet - maybe your build will spur on some more  I do like your choice of colour scheme, it makes a pleasant change from the usual black.

 

Looking forward to watching your build progress.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[paul-muc]

I have built the motor, all in green, and prepared parts and cage for the front wheel drive and the parts of the rear axle. These will be added when the build is nearly finished.

 

 

 

 

Most of the time I have spent on filing, sanding, dry fitting floor and body again and again. The fit was perfect with an empty interior. But when I taped the side panels to the body and tried to insert the floor into the body it was impossible. The panels were preventing it. So I had to remove some material as marked in the circles on the floor as well as on the panels.

 

 

 

The roof was painted in lightened beige as seen between the doors, the floor got a dark brown. Now I have to paint the seats and the doors in medium brown as an impression of leather.

[paul-muc]

Some times it takes some time. That's where I am.

I wanted to paint the interior with brush, but then the brush strokes were too clearly visible and I used the airbrush as usual for another coat. The paint is matt. To get a light gloss on the "leather" the seats and doors got a coat of floor polish.

 

 

For the two-tone coachwork I used satin colours. The result is acceptable though there are some paint spots here and there. But, most important, when removing the masking tape I didn't remove particles of paint as it often happens with gloss paint. All green parts of the body will get a finish with gloss varnish.

 

 

 

 

 

[2996 Victor]

Lovely progress on the Citroen - the interior treatment is exceptional! Interesting about not getting paint lift with satin paint, something I'll definitely bear in mind.

 

Looking forward to seeing your next update.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[paul-muc]

I had glued the door panels into the body and after some hours of drying time I tried a dry fit of chassis and body. With a bit of convincing pressure the chassis slipped into place. The fit was perfect, no glue needed. But then I notice a very small spot of glue on one of the front doors. Sanding and polishing didn't help, made it even worse. I had to airbrush the light green again and divorced the just married body and floor for a respray. As the light green was a mix of very bright leaf green darkened with the dark green I tried to get the same colour as before, but nonetheless I masked the dark green and airbrushed all other parts in light green again.

 

Next step was inserting the windows. Some of them had scratches, though they have been in a separate bag. I used matt varnish (enamel) for glueing the clear parts. The front windows on he sides had a different shape. One left a gap in the top front corner. So I decided to show the window at the driver's side halfway open and shortened it at the bottom.

 

Then I inserted the dashbord I had completed before. There was a decal for the speedometer. But just before applying the decal it fell from my fingertip. I hadn't noticed it and then I didn't find it when searching. So I used a toothpick for some black dots. It looks very primitive.

 

Now again: the floor into the body. Meanwhile I had some exercise. But when I put the model back into the box I saw the the seat back of the back seat resting in the box. Simply forgotten. Same procedure as before and glueing it into the open body.

 

That's it for now. I will continue with the rear axle and then it is the more complicated front-wheel drive with motor. The windscreen will be added later.

[RossFMJ]

Very nicely done. Should look great when finished.

[paul-muc]

I have competed the engine bay and I've been waiting for the sun to take some photos. As the sun didn't come and I wanted to go on, I have used an LED torch to adjust the lighting. So here are some pictures with motor and the additional cover plates at the sides. There is a gap between body and plate but only the rear part will be visible after adding wheels and mudgards. I had tried to improve the fit and removed the left one before the cement had hardened and after sanding and cleaning the joining lines I had cemented the plate a second time trying to get a better fit but it's not perfect. I will try to fill the gap with the some green paint.

 

 

 

[paul-muc]

Here comes the sun.

 

 

She's on her wheels now. The fit of the engine cover lids doesn't hold them in place. I will fix them with masking fluid when I'm finished. I had glued the windows with matt varnish into the frames but that wasn' strong enough. They fell several times out of the frame when handling the model and finally I used glue. And that's what you can see unfortunately.

 

 

For some more gloss she's got an aditional coat of floor polish.

 

 

Now there is the exhaust system left and there are some smaller parts and then she's done.

 

Edited March 18 by paul-muc

[paul-muc]

Finishing

 

When I wanted to add the front bumper I realized that the arms of the sub-frame of the front wheel drive for them had a slightly different length and they were too short. I compensated that with pieces of the sprue.

 

 

Unfornutalely I had applied the decal for the license number before and when touching the bumper too often when glueing it to the frame somewhen I had a part of the decal at the finger, a part was gone and the rest was on the plate. So I removed it completely. I hope the driver won't get a ticket.

 

 

 

 

The final jobs were some small chrome parts and then she was finished.

 

 

 

 

 

When looking at the photos I noticed that I have to pay some more attention to the right wing of the hood (front).

 

 

[2996 Victor]

C'est magnifique!!!

 

Cheers,

Mark