SMC Show Entry: 1/16 Citroen DS (HELLer)

[The creative explorer]

OK, first of all, I seriously hope I did good with opening a new thread for the contest, it wasn't completely clear for me wether to open a new one, or to post in the contest-topic. If it was not good; Sorry!

Second; I am not heading towards any prices and I enter this contest for more humble reasons; trying to work on the kit and see if my skills are getting some better. I've seen the work posted in the contest-topic and I am quite overwhelmed with that. I know and I read that skills is not so much in the game, but I am lightyears from that level.

However, All that American Flavour that has been poured into the contest, I thought it would be nice to come with a French Delicatesse. A nimble and frutile godess; the DS from Citroën, produced by Heller, or better HELLer. It is by far the worst kit I've EVER had in my hands and I am determined to finish it.



The beginning of the misery, it shows here pretty well that the body is warped and broken




Every single part needs putty , thát bad is the kit






The radiator looked rubbish, so I removed the inner part and replaced it with fine mesh




Warped....


The valve cover




The engine after a few modifications


The engine after it's paintjob, the green is self-mixed and I think it is close to reality, since it is very hard to find reference material




And a little of a trademark with my builds; I always replace the v-belt with more realistic material, cut loose the bearings and assemble it to the engine


The bearings


Engine with some new parts






Little by little, I make some progress, but slow and carefull, since the body has the will to brake very easily




More putty




The engine a few steps further


According to the manual, this is how the exhaust should be. I think it does look ridiculous and I will modify it a little


Wiring


I had to take a brave step, because the left part kept breaking, I also broke the right part, this way it is saver to handle the car


It does look a lot like Iowa :(


Filler


The exhaust after modifications




I also stumbled upon a crack during filling, so I also filled this one




Dry-fitting the front






Lower window sill seeing from the top


1 thing that keeps me busy are the window sills, they keep breaking and are extremely fragile. I made a internal 'rollcage' so it will give it some strength until I can assemble the body with the chassis

[keramh]

Hello,

wonderfully, I lack the goddess and also the cabriolet still in my collection.
Please me now, however, your construction report to be allowed to pursue here.
What is to be seen up to now like to me very much.
Here sometimes a link of an original restoration of the goddess, if you did not know this yet.
Citroen Restoration - Citroen DS Restoration

[Tage]

I love the "Engine-Newaty" of putting the temp roll cage inside.
Well done! Can't wait to see more photos.

[The creative explorer]

Thank you guys,
@Keramh; I do have that link, as a matter of fact; I have used that link a lot for detailling my engine.

It took me a little while for finding some motivation for this horrible kit to continue working on. It is quite a challenge and I am sure, that if I can succesful finish this kit, I can handle every kit out there. It is thát bad.

I started with sanding the front pillars (again) and I keep my finger crossed they wont break this time. And I repainted the body black again. The black from Auto Air, is quite different to work with than their other colors; it sprays quite difficult and doesn't want to lay down evenly and was the reason that on the end of the day, I removed the black layer again. It looked so wrong.

While I started a new black layer, another problem rose; my airbrush compressor stopped working in the middle of a paintjob. The pistonrod came loose from the crankshaft and after working on it for an hour, I managed to get it working again and finished the black paintjob. Not happy, but doable.

The idea I had for the paintjob was a custom one; but since this is a classic car, I didn't want to give it a obvious custom paintjob; it had to be something it could be done factory-standard. So I mixed the color I wanted and deliberately painted it over the black paintjob, to give it a darker hue. And I think it came out perfect, exactly the way I wanted.

And so today became clearcoat day, the last couple of months I have not been very satisfied with my clearcoating skills. Actually; I am quite dissatisfied and I could choose to do it the same way I always did or test a few variables that I think might work better for me. And since this car will not be a winner anyway, I decided to practise my skills and do it different.
I raised the temperature in the paintbooth, I raised the airbrush pressure and instead of a couple of mist-coats building up, I decided to go for one mist-coat and a thicker wet-coat.
I must say I am sort-of pleased, I am onto something, since the paintjob is better than my previous couple. I have to redo the hood, since it is uneven and I want to change my paintbooth, since there is a lot of dust in the paint unfortunately, but other than that, it is a nice paintjob. There is still a lot of room for improvement, but it is improving.
Well, let me stop talking and give you some pictures:

[The creative explorer]

[sjordan]

Just amazing what you're doing with so many problems in the kit. Keep it coming!

[Andym]

Olijnsma - Don't sell yourself short my friend - that looks like some pretty find modeling to me. In terms of the kit itself and based on your description, it sounds like the scale model and the 1:1 prototype have a lot in common. When it comes to fit, finish and design, the model looks like a faithful replica of the real car.

I love your choice in paint scheme and also look forward to many more pictures.

Great job so far.

Andy.

[Nortley]

Hi Erik, You've worked a miracle on this kit, and that FRASCAR roll cage is brilliant. Heller has produced some pretty nice kits, it looks like their older ones are better than the newer ones. What's what can be tricky, with newer packaging of older kits. As we see here, Heller did make some classics that no one else did.

[hot ford coupe]

Now that's something we haven't seen around here. Great subject. Keep up the great work.

[keramh]

WOW,

A very nice colour combination, the both fit very well, pleases me already about the final result with the chrome parts etc.
It is to be seen really nicely what you have done till present from this Kit.
The car body and the engine have become really very nice.

[The creative explorer]

Thank you guys for the kind comments!

I am very happy with the color-combination, so happy that I started to sand again hahaha. Actually, just for sanding of a few dust particles and some unevenness in the paint. I hope to give the car it's final clearcoat in the weekend, or; next year!

The rollcage is nothing but a utmost necessity. The body keeps breaking around the windowpillars and this way it keeps some strength in the body, which is hardneeded.

@Skip and Andy; this kit is seriously bad. I have a nice collection of modelkits, not huge, but enough to last me the rest of my life, and I keep browsing through them. I love the engineering, the subjects, the parts and the cars itself.
Off all the kits I have; for sure this is the most terrible one. Everything is off, needs putty and/or other modifications.
But; I am determined to finish this car, my motivation is simple; If I can build this kit, I can build any kit. I thought it was a nice stimulation.

@Nortley; I wouldn't want to say their older kits are better than the newer ones. They have a few nice kits, like the Bugatti Type 50, but if I don't like the subject very much, I stay away from Heller.

[Nortley]

Hi, What drew me to Heller kits was the unusual range of subjects. The Bugatti T50 is for sure one of their best, but even it needed a bit extra. Happy New year!

[The creative explorer]

Happy newyear :)

Your's doesnt look too bad at all, I've seen it will need work, but not that bad IMHO. But, if we wanted a good big scale, we need to go for a Tamiya , so we can't complain haha