Heller Renault R8 Gordini

[64Comet404]

I received my overseas order for aftermarket R8 Gordini parts today. It's nice to have extra detail, but I had forgotten how pungent the odour of European casting resins can be. If I went by smell, I would swear the resin was made from mothballs! ?

 

[lucky 130]

Add three more nuts to the wheels, Thats what you had to do to keep the wheels from coming off at cornering speeds. three lug wheels just couldn't handle the stress. The SCCA allowed this alteration. Hope you have fun. It's such an undated little sedan, and so much fun to drive.

[Nacho Z]

Hi, guys and gals.  It has been a while since I updated this thread, over one year actually.  This is just a quick post to let you all know that the little Gordini is done and in the hands of its new owner.  I am going to continue with this WIP thread and finish it before posting anything in the Under Glass section.  This little car fought me tooth and nail the entire way and I am truly happy to have it off of my bench.  I will try to get a few more updates in the next few days.  Thanks to all of you who commented and offered suggestions.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Thanks for all you've posted to date. I just bought one of the Heller kits knowing zip zero nada about it. Now I have some info.  

[Pierre Rivard]

I can't wait to see the rest of this WIP and posting under glass. There were a few R8's running around my neighborhood in the day so this build brings back nice memories.

[Nacho Z]

Monday nights are when I seem to do my updates, so let's get to it.  Because it has been over a year in real time since I've updated this build, I will do a quick overview.  The truth of the matter is that I really, really dislike this model.  I'm not a fan of the real car either.  If you ever have a chance to build this kit, don't.  Run.  Run fast and run far.  The fact that I don't like the real car and the fact that the model sucks is why it has taken me over a year to build it.  I kept finding excuses to stick it back in the box.  I do appreciate all of the advice that I was given earlier in this build thread.  My honest hope is that if someone else is building this kit, they will come across this thread and glean the information herein.  OK, on to the build.

 

A lot of the interior pieces as well as the roll cage was cast in a weird rubber / vinyl material.  I cleaned the pieces up as best as I could and installed them.

 

As pointed out in my previous posts, I killed the body of the original kit and had to buy a re-pop.  Upon inspection, I thought the plastic was weird, or at the very least, different than what I am used to.  Here is the body being backlit with a lamp.

 

 

I did all of the bodywork that I had done on the original kit.  I went ahead a shot primer on the body.  Just plain ol' Tamiya White Surface Primer straight out of the can.  I want to point out the track width of both the front wheels and the rear wheels.  This will bite me in the backside later on.

 

I also worked on the interior door panels.  Once again, in true Heller fashion, the panel lines were non-existent.  I did my best to mask off the various panels and painted it per the kit instructions.

 

Here is a quick shot of the quality of the decals.  These are the new ones.  The carrier film on all of the decals was atrocious.

 

I'll stop there for this update.  There is plenty more heartbreak to come.  Thanks for checking in!

[lucky 130]

before you get too far along, the interior of the car is the same as the exterior, French, only the door panels( upholstery) is black. Dash, steering wheel is also black. you are thinking way too hard, these were really basic cars, with the exception of some "acid dipped " body panels. Great model will finish up to your liking.

[Nacho Z]

5 hours ago, lucky 130 said:

before you get too far along, the interior of the car is the same as the exterior, French, only the door panels( upholstery) is black. Dash, steering wheel is also black. you are thinking way too hard, these were really basic cars, with the exception of some "acid dipped " body panels. Great model will finish up to your liking.

Michael, I really do appreciate all of your input.  I hope you continue to comment in this thread.  I did post on Sept. 23rd that the model is done and it is with its new owner.  I built it the way he said to although I readily admit that he did not give me a ton of details about the car.  

[Nacho Z]

I think that this will be the last update.  As I have stated before, this kit fought me all the way.  If it were not for the fact that I was building this for a friend, I would have just put it back in the box and then put the box in the garbage can.

 

The chrome trim that runs down the sides of the car came like this.  I cut the bits off, stripped the chrome, cleaned up the parts the best that I could and painted them with Green Stuff World Chrome.

 

In, what has been for me, typical Heller fashion, this is an example of Heller's work.  This part, #12, came off the parts tree.  When I went to install it, I quickly realized that the part wasn't going to fit.  Yes, a simple thing to figure out, but also a simple thing to get right in the first place.

 

One bright spot was the Tamiya paint came out like this straight out of the can.

 

The re-popped kit has the same issue as the original and that is the tulip panel is terribly bowed.  This messes up the fit of the boot lid and the rear glass.  Please go back to the beginning of this WIP thread to see why I didn't attempt to fix it.

 

The final insult was the rear glass from the re-pop.  It was literally flat and not curved.  Thank the Good Lord that I still had the original kit's parts.  I had to use it to finish the kit.  For fun, I laid the bad kit glass on the body, (see 2nd picture).

 

Lastly, The carrier film on the decals was atrocious.  I took all of the stripes and cut them out so that they were individual stripes.  I had to be very careful with the spacing and how straight I laid them.

 

Thanks for putting up with all of my complaining about the kit.  In my defense, it is a steaming pile of ?.  I will post a few pics of the finished model in the Under Glass section.  I did not get very good pictures of it due to time constraints.  Thanks again for following along.

 

[Pierre Rivard]

Despite the multiple hurdles the car looks beautiful John, but no thanks to Heller. When a highly skilled builder such as yourself calls a kit a pile of ... then it must be really really bad. We've been warned!