Heller/Airfix Peugeot 905 review

[robdebie]

Originally Posted by lotus123

Interesting comment. I've seen a number of comments regrading Fujimi's rear deck proportions (and I've modified a few Fujimi decks to represent various cars), but I've not picked up on this before (or even noticed, for that matter).

Can you be more specific? How did you spot this?

I think it was Tom Tanner on the GPMA YahooGroups that first pointed it out. He compared the (then) new Fujimi 917 to a real 917, and found out that the whole front half of the car was too wide, some 4 mm. The windscreen was made far too wide, which made the problem unrepairable. And frankly, Fujimi has a bit of a reputation of messing up bodies! The old Heller model has a reputation for being accurate but very difficult to build.

I recently started measuring the old Heller kit for a review. I'm using factory drawings and the race-to-race details presented in the Naher 917 book, 917 dimensions published in various sources, plus my own analysis of the various wheels used to calculate 'width over wheels' dimensions, to see whether they fit inside the bodywork. So far, the Heller model's dimensions and shapes are all correct. You can see the difference between the Heller and Fujimi body widths here:

http://www.modelbrouwers.nl/phpBB3/v...=28164#p578059

One last comment: from experience I know that most modelers go for details instead of the correct shape. So they are not bothered much by shape problems like this. I'm part of the minority, and rather start with a correct shape, adding the details myself.

Rob