Citroen 15-Six "Traction Avant" - 1952 - Heller - 1/8

[deedlit]

Each time I open this thread I know I'll be impressed, once again today

[ianc911]

Body looks really nice. Would like to see some shots of the seats. Keep up the good work,

ianc

[DominiqueBeerts]

Thanks guys.

It has been almost a month since the last update, so high time you get updated on this WIP...

The body has been mated with the floorplate. That did not just click together, but needed a little bit of swearing and a lot of clamps to keep things aligned. The main difficulty was that the floor plate and body need to be glued by both edges, and that's always a pain to do. But OK, it got on, so now at least it starts to look like a car

Next step was the fabric on the inside of the roof upholstery. I heard from another builder that he had no problem mounting this, but mine was way too small. So I went for a compromise: I left a gap in the front, and decided to work around the rear window with painted masking tape. Mounting the rear window was a real problem, since the upholstery was pushing against the top edge of the window, so it would not stick. But in the end I managed to seal it using a few clamps. Then masking tape closed the gaps between the upholstery and the rear window. Little or none will be visible once the model is closed.
I will have to enlarge the shelf between the rear seat and rear window as well, since also this does not fit with the upholstery.

While gluing the chrome moldings between the floor plate and body in the front door, the lacquer started to react with the glue. It showed some white fog when it got in contact with the glue. I used super glue in gel, but I will have to use epoxy from now on. This will less aggressive I think.
The attempts to get rid of the fume spots caused some lacquer damage, but that will be easily camouflaged with some weathering. No panic.

Until soon, and thanks for following.

[corvettekid_7684]

Looking nice...super glue tip: the glue will fog in places you have touched (oils in yr skin) I've managed to greatly reduce or eliminate fogging if I wipe the area down with a q tip dipped in rubbing alcohol & wear gloves while handling parts. My main problem is actually doing it, lol, but if I'm gluing in a highly visible spot, its worth the hassle

[DominiqueBeerts]

Originally Posted by corvettekid_7684

Looking nice...super glue tip: the glue will fog in places you have touched (oils in yr skin) I've managed to greatly reduce or eliminate fogging if I wipe the area down with a q tip dipped in rubbing alcohol & wear gloves while handling parts. My main problem is actually doing it, lol, but if I'm gluing in a highly visible spot, its worth the hassle

It makes sense, although I wonder if the use of automotive polish may have something to do with it as well. But I will certainly keep this in mind. Thanks for the tip.

[idgeek]

This is an awesome build!

your weathering of the engine bay look fantastic! do u also build military subjects? 'cause the military guys weather very well.

[DominiqueBeerts]

Originally Posted by idgeek

This is an awesome build!

your weathering of the engine bay look fantastic! do u also build military subjects? 'cause the military guys weather very well.

Thanks. I am very happy with the result on the engine bay myself. But I don't do anything else than cars and occasionally a motorcycle. I try to read about painting techniques and see how I can use these techniques on non-military models. After all, if it works for them, why not for us?

[DominiqueBeerts]

OK, small update.

The back axle has been finished and mounted, just like the front windshield. No problems this time.

I dirtied up the undertray (well, very slightly at least) as a test. I used Tamiya Red-brown which I stamped on with a piece of packaging foam. Then I sprayed a mist coat of LifeColor Worn Black, and a mist coat of LifeColor Dirty Black. The gas tank has been done just like the engine bay: drybrushed with Tamiya flat aluminum with some red-brown to tone down the sharp aluminum patches.

It is not my intention of showing the car in a way that the undertray will remain visible, I just wanted to see what the effect of these LifeColor black shades would look like, since I used for the first time. It is a nice base for further weathering in my opinion. I will use them again.

Now let's get to work on those back seats.
See you later!

[Nissanmotorsport]

I love it.

[dino246gt]

Very entertaining thread, excellent work and detail progress photos, thank you, and keep the great work going!

[DominiqueBeerts]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the kind words.

As promised, the back seats have been installed.
They went in quite smoothly, except that the back is a bit tight between these armrests. But apart from that, no problem at all.
I just raised the seat about 1,5 mm to make it fit better against the front of the armrests.

So here are the pictures for the time being:











Next up: the dashboard. This will be fun to do!

[willimo]

Gosh that looks good! I love this build. I love these big scale builds, there is so much opportunity to detail the car. And you are doing an amazing job! I love all your fabrication on the little details.

[DominiqueBeerts]

Thanks guys. These large kits are not the cheapest ones, so when you start one you may as well try to make something decent out of it, or at least have a good bunch of fun with it.

[DominiqueBeerts]

Update on the dashboard.

The instruments are built up in 2 layers over painted clearparts, each decalled with either gauges and text. The clearparts are partly painted with Humbrol ivory. When mounted one before the other you get a nice depth effect, just like the real thing.

Only, I needed to cut the decal in the back because the gauges for the thermometer and gas level did not align with the remaining clear bits on the top clear part. By shifting the gauges towards the edges, they aligned much better.





I added a couple of watchmaker's screws and I think it doesn't all look that bad in the end. The dashboard is dryfitted here, and I think it will work out fine. There are still a few things to add to the dashboard though. More about that later.





By the way: looking at above pictures you might think that the gear lever has been mounted upside down, but it isn't. Believe me, I had the same impression, but i checked multiple times, and it seems to be correct this way:



In above pictures you can also notice that I have replaced the steering column by a self-made one. The kitpart is made out of nylon. Nice for the nylon fans, but completely useless in this context. The kit is intended to build up with working steering mechanism. When using this nylon part, it will definitely sheer when you turn your steering wheel, and the alignment of the steering wheel with the dashboard will be ruined forever.
I don't intend to be using the working steering mechanism, so I don't care about that, but the kit part is also everything but straight. So again; completely useless.
This is my version in brass:





You can see that it fits neatly in the steering housing (everything is still dryfitted and needs to be painted, finished and detailed). We can continue the works ;-)

See ya later!

[corvettekid_7684]

This thing is just unbelievable