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Old 05-29-2011, 03:30 PM   #16
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

Well, it has been quite a while since last update on this huge Citroen. Apologies for the long waiting.

The promissed etching experiment is taking up a bit more time than I thought it would (but it will be done definitely). In the meantime I took a month off to travel, and I have been finishing up another project to get some things off the workbench.
So here we go with the next step in the instruction handbook: the front suspension engine housing.

First some kind of harness has been assembled. This is not as easy as it looks on the pictures, since all joins are (as we call it in Flemish) "cold weld". That means that you don't have any guidance pins or marks which make sure you do assemble straight, correct and in the right place. Not here: start wrong and there is no way back but to disassemble and start all over again.
Off course this adds in realism, since on the 1/1 car you will never find this guidance aids, but the modern kit builder is not used to work like this anymore.
Here and there it can get a bit fiddly to get your things together, but in the end it is not that bad once you get used to it.
The reward is that you end up with some fine looking assemblies, working just like the real thing!

On the photo's you can see the harness sprayed in some primer for part verification. In addition the suspension arms have been added. These are still to be sprayed with primer before further detailing. You are looking at no less than 60 parts already, and it is still not half-way, this front bay.










Enjoy!
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Old 05-29-2011, 03:44 PM   #17
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

Nice. Good to see progress being made on this. Is this a pre-build with white glue to test the fit?
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Old 05-29-2011, 04:16 PM   #18
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

Quote:
Originally Posted by CrateCruncher View Post
Nice. Good to see progress being made on this. Is this a pre-build with white glue to test the fit?
No, the central harness has been glued together. It will need some tidying up here and there, but the assembly is final. The swingarms can still be removed if required.
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Old 06-09-2011, 04:25 PM   #19
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

We finally managed to get something etched !! The result is - in my humble opinion - quite satisfying, considering this is the very first attempt to have have a complete run from design until end product.
I would like to thank my partner in crime and the guy who has bombed us with valuable information, always patiently listening when we asked some stupid questions over and over .

We decided to have a go on something easy to start with, so I have some connectors drawn. The largest (and most oddly formed) part serves as an attachment plate for some springs on the gearbox side cover. It is to be sanded smooth, upgraded with a few bolt heads, painted in green and obviously a bit weathered.





The others have been folded twice and then soldered to the ends of a brass pipe. This way I have built 2 pull bars which will connect levers for the gearbox selector. They will replace the nylon ones provided by Heller. Nothing wrong with them, except for the fact that you will not get them straightened because of the material in which they have been manufactured. Also this will allow me to detail the connections a little bit more.







The front suspension parts have been sprayed in matt black, as they should be. Later on they will receive a matt varnish to seal the paint. Nothing special to mention here so far.



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Old 06-13-2011, 04:30 PM   #20
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

The self-produced PE-parts have been built in. As explained in my previous posts they form a kind op plate holding springs on the gearbox cover, and the attachments for the gear selector levers. In the pics you will find the additions pointed by arrows and red circles:







Then on the other side of the engine I mounted the in- and outlet manifolds. The outlet has been painted in rust colours, just like the real thing, which was red rusted before the car even reached it's first buyer.

The inlet manifold is placed in between the outlet, and just above this set of pipes you will see the carburetor, nicely protected by a heat shield.

When looking at the pictures I found a few spots which will need some extra attention, certainly around the inlet. It looks far less dramatic in real, but things will be camouflaged a bit. Not much will remain visible once the engine has been built into the chassis, but still...




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Old 06-13-2011, 05:34 PM   #21
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

Wow you are putting a lot of work into this engine! Great work so far!!!
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Old 06-16-2011, 04:47 PM   #22
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

You guys are very kind, I am just trying to build a nice looking model. Being in scale 1/8 it gives all oppurtunity to detail and highlight some aspects of the car. That's all.

Today I built in the waterpump. The "flexible" waterhose did not really convince. It is made out of rubber, but not a good quality of it. I didn't succeed in cleaning the parts decently (2 halves glued together), and the moulded-in clamps were not exactly nice looking either.
So I decided to replace the whole thing. I cut a piece of copper tube to size and fixed 2 AcuStion PE clamps.



When built in and connected between waterpump and engine block, it looks like this:





When looking at the pictures, the "enormous" seam is standing out. This will need to be addressed. It is not as dramatic in real life, as on this macro-photo, but still.
I am also thinking on replacing the belts, as they are too thick, too stiff and tend to break. So I think they will be discarded andr replaced by something more suitable. If I can find something, that is ...
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Old 06-16-2011, 10:47 PM   #23
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

I´m scared just by looking at the sprues! I´ll be following this major project.
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Old 06-24-2011, 03:13 PM   #24
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

Quote:
Originally Posted by Marianitem View Post
I´m scared just by looking at the sprues! I´ll be following this major project.
Don't be scared, it's only plastic.

I did not understand how the torsion bars needed to fit, since there was no way that I managed to create tension. The building plan mentioned a very specific method in fitting and twisting the nylon bars around before finally having them inserted in the harness. After some thought I found out that I missed a very tiny remark in the instruction sheet, and now they seem to be working perfectly. And yes, it does look and sound horrendous, but if done with care it works.





I also replaced the connectors for the shocks by messing bars, since I had doubts about the rigidity of the plastic rods.




Also I have started work on the floorplate and firewall. Not much to say here, except to keep in mind to work straight, otherwise the overall result later on will not look too good. The firewall needs to be quite strong, by the way, so I used quite an amount of glue to have all the joints well filled.



This way you have an impression of the shere size of this single part:



The handbrake, on the other hand, is more fun to do. There is basically nothing wrong with the original parts, but it could be done a bit better ...
So I decided to replace the original twist bar by a self made one. I created two little forks in alu sheet that will enclose both cable shoes. These are the cables that will go to the rear brakes. The shorter cable to the front left side of the firewall will connect to a lever, which at his turn connects to the driver's hand brake pull bar.
For this lever, I did the same thing by bending a small piece of alu sheet. It looks complicated ,but in fact it isn't.

In the next few photo's, you see the original bar, and the self made one compared to each other:







You will ask: "will this remain visible afterwards?". My answer: "Not quite. When the engine is built in, you will hardly notice this detail. But it was fun doing it..."
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Old 07-06-2011, 04:38 PM   #25
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

A small update, but quite some work involved

Since last update the floorplate has been sprayed in black, the harness has been attached and a couple of thingies were added to the engine bay. Let's review:

- The front suspension and engine support were glued to the floorplate. I had to pay cash for the fact that I did not stick for 100% to the building instructions. The handbrake had to be dismantled partially because the front ladderframe needed to be inserted first. The handbrake lever needs to pass beneath the torsion bar ...
- The handbrake lever got a bit of attention and now looks acceptable. A return spring was added as per the instructions,
- the throttle pedal got attached to the firewall. The part was found broken in the sprue, so I had to repair. I chose to replace the broken bit by a copper bar (0,5 mm). The eyelet and end lever were re-used from the original part,
- both engine supports were glued to the side walls. I dry-fitted the engine to check stance and fit, and everything seems to work out just fine up to this point. Fingers crossed for the rest ...

I would like to mention that I chose to lighten up the matt black of the front a little bit by drybrushing it with Tamiya matt aluminium, but the result was in my opinion too contrasting, so I toned down with Tamiya red brown.








See you later.
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Old 07-09-2011, 04:01 PM   #26
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

Fantastic works.
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Old 07-14-2011, 04:20 PM   #27
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

Since last update I have been working on the steering. Considering the weight of the assembled kit, the kit parts were far too flexible in my opinion, and to get some ease of mind I decided to replace the steering rods with copper bars.

This is how I got it done:

On top you see the original part. It's just a plastic bar with connectors at both ends. I cut the connectors loose and drilled them, so I could insert a thin copper bar. This was covered by a larger diameter bar for stiffness and now I have a rigid steering bar of the correct diameter.



The steering arms click to the slider, which needs a rubber buffer at both ends to stop the sliding bar from running too wide. The 2 halves for these buffers need to be glued together. No problem but for the material used here. They are actually done in rubber, realistic enough maybe, but a real pain to get them cleaned (if not impossible) and aligned properly and neat. So I turned new ones in brass, so this can be mounted without too much trouble.



A small dryfit:




The clutch and brake pedal assembly then: I was thinking about replacing some parts with PE but that would be some overkill. After all most of these parts will hardly be visible after engine assembly, so I went with the kit parts. Only addition are the return springs on the pedals.





Last but not least: this is how the front bay now looks like:



Enjoy!
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Old 07-15-2011, 09:34 PM   #28
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

Wow! I´m impressed by the amount of work this kit requires by itself. And you´re making it even better, stronger, more accurate.
I´m keeping my eyes on this project.
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Old 07-16-2011, 05:11 AM   #29
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

The kit requires a lot of work by itself, that's correct. But you could easily just limit to that. It can be built without the reinforcements,using fixed springs and so on. You could get away with it, but I just want to make sure that the model which has so much work involved shows correctly once built and does not collaps under it's own weight.
After all, it has a reputation regarding to that
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Old 07-18-2011, 04:00 PM   #30
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Re: Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

Yes I know, lots of updates, but I want to show you guys step by step how this thing is coming together. After all, you don't see this one built every day.

All goodies from previous update have been attached to the front bay.

I have been experimenting on making springs that could be inserted in the shock absorbers, but somehow I was unable to find any material that was strong enough to hold the weight and was able to spring back in original shape after it was pressed together. Either it was too soft, either it didn't "spring".

Considering the weight of the added extras and the fact that I have no clear view on how the built kit will lean on it's suspension (or make it collapse all together), I haven't taken any risk. I glued the shock absorbers, so they are now fixed. The inside is one massive block of 2 component epoxy glue, so should be strong enough.

After a subtile weathering, the front bay now looks like this:











Comments and critics always welcome, good or bad.
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