1/8 Citroen 15/Six.

Here's a few pics of a Heller 15/Six Traction Avant I built for a client a long time ago. There's only 3 pics here as I've misplaced the disc with all the pics on- these were already on another site so I moved them over here. Once I find the disc I'll post some more.
It took 6 1/2 years to build this bitch as the vinyl interior and rubber parts were unusable!! The vinyl was oily and wouldn't take any type of paint or glue so I vacformed all the parts. The rubber parts were scratchbuilt with the larger pieces cast in resin. The wiring harnesses are all scratchbuilt as per the real car and the terminals are all made from solder. There's over 1000 scratchbuilt parts in the kit (mostly in the engine bay).







Chris.

now thats one hell of a build i must say you must have the patience of an angel

A beautiful model mate - well done. I built this kit as a display model years ago for the Heller importing agent (Zimbler P/L), and yes, it was a bitch to put together but the end result was magnificent. Your model brings back many memories of both the model and the real car. I have been inside one of these at a car club rally and it was a lot of fun. Interesting for me was how the gear shift lever was built into the dash - weird.

Thanks dv8v8, Nighthoon, and Tezza.
Tezza, how did you go with gluing and painting the interior??? It drove me insane! Same with the rubber parts- they cracked up wherever I bent them. The first experience I had of the cracking was after installing the plug wires- the next day they were all broken up!! I've built 2 of these (this one and Rust in Peace) and I bought a 3rd a couple of weeks ago to do as a totalled wreck. I changed my mind and sold it on eBay.....
They're definitely a strange car! One of the first front wheel drives, OHV motor, the aforementioned shifter through the dash, and the gears themselves- they were cut with chevron teeth- that's apparently where the Citroen emblem came from.

Chris.

Chris the headliner as I recall was made from thin vacform sheet that was an absolute pain to paint and cement into place. I did that after painting the body as I had to virtually hold it in place until the glue dried (I used Tarzan's Grip for it, a rubbery cement). Also the wiring was too thick and odd looking so I replaced it with thinner electronics wiring. The tyres were very oily and I washed them with turps and then detergent. I painted them with real tyre black paint (flat finish) and it stuck on very well.

Because I built the kit when it was newly released (1970's) I didn't have any problems with the rubber hoses, etc. However I didn't opt to have many working items such as the suspension, because a display model gets much rough handling, so I cemented many working parts solid. I think most of the items are too weak to work without breaking anyway?

Here's some links that may be of interest to you about the Heller kit.

http://www.korkutvarol.com/citroen_v.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/pop2/korkut/
http://modelwork.pl/viewtopic.php?t=639&start=0

Sorry the last link is not in English but the pics are interesting.

They're good links Tezza. Back when I built it I didn't know how to use a computer so I relied on the real thing and the parts manuals the models owner had. I really like the look of the 2-tone one on the last link!
I recall photocopying the english text and stickytaping each section onto its relevent page in the instructions. That was a pain in the proverbial....
The headlining in this kit was damaged beyond repair when I opened the box. I got in touch with the distributor (not Zimbler- they were always helpful) and they basically told me tough luck and gave me the phone number for Heller in France. I couldn't find anyone who spoke english there and it was back before the days of cheap international calls!! One of my friends owned a hobbyshop in western Sydney and sold me another kit wholesale. I took the headlining out of that one and turned the rest of the kit in to the rustbucket (Rust in Peace). I glued the whole headlining into the painted body (except around the rear window) then trimmed it down. I found it wasn't too bad to install considering I was expecting trouble.
You're spot-on about the suspension- especially the rear. If you look closely at the first pic you can see clear acrylic rods holding the car at the correct ride height. It was the only way I could think of to mount the car solidly on its base as well. There's a couple of pieces of mirror perspex under the car that are supposed to look like puddles but they're there to show off the detail underneath.
I've built quite a few Pocher kits and I found the Citroen to be much more difficult but with more scale fidelity. It's definitely the most difficult kit I've ever built but the satisfaction once it was done was immense!! I often think of doing another one but I just can't bring myself to biting off so much again....

Chris.

My dad taught me the phrase "once bitten - twice shy", so even though I was paid off with another Heller Citroen kit for building the display model, I don't want to go through that challenge all over again. So the Citroen sits in my cupboard keeping my Pocher kits company (French and Italian together - I hope they're not reproducing in there).

I reckon if you can build this Citroen kit successfully you can build anything, and that's quite a statement for me.

Never a truer word spoken mate!! Your dad's a wise man.
Tezza, if your Pochers do start reproducing I'd be willing to adopt the offspring.....

Chris.