1/16 Citroën DS19

[The Creative Explorer]

I was thinking for a while about it, but when I had the oppertunity again in my hew house to model, I want to work on the Heller 1/16 Citroen DS, Why? Because it is by far the most terrible kit I own. It had breakage, warpage and misfits all over the place. And if I finish this one, it can only get better with my kits haha. I think I was either very stupid or very brave to start this one, time will tell I guess. That and I wanted a real challenge.

The BoxArt is actually quite nice, too bad they opted for a big, weak box in where the car does get flattened and broken.

The beginning of the misery; here you can see the warpage, breakage and squished car.

The kit is so bad, that basically every part needs bondo

The radiator didnt convince, so I cut out the middle part and replaced it with mesh.

Warpage

The valve-cover

Edited June 19, 2010 by Erik Olijnsma

[The Creative Explorer]

The engine after a few changes

The engine after a first coat of paint, it is hard to find good reference material for the paintcolors, but I think this green will come close.

And a usual for me; the v-belt just isn't realistic, so I separate the wheels and make my own belt

Some new parts on the engine

And little by little I make progress on the body, but since it is o so delicate, I have to walk on eggshels.

[The Creative Explorer]

And some more bondo

[Modelmartin]

I built one of these when they came out and I didn't think it went together too badly. It did take a lot of skill.

The problem came about 5 years later. The door skins, fenders and hood were all warped and coming off of the model!! I think the paint combined with the very thin plastic that Heller molds was a bad combo.

Good luck on yours. It is a cool model when done.

[Jim Gibbons]

I will be watching this, as I have the kit. One of my windshield posts were broken, but seemed that there was no warpage (yet.) Your engine is coming out well.

[The Creative Explorer]

Thanks guys,

I am going to use auto-air colors, and since it is acryllic I am not expecting warpage from it, but even with thinnerbased paint it is not a good sign if it is going to warp later on.

Jim; Did you do a testfit on the chassis? that will quickly show if there is warpage, usually the bottomparts are getting much wider than they should, but that should also be a easy fix when the body goes onto the chassis I hope.

[Jim Gibbons]

Thanks guys,

I am going to use auto-air colors, and since it is acryllic I am not expecting warpage from it, but even with thinnerbased paint it is not a good sign if it is going to warp later on.

Jim; Did you do a testfit on the chassis? that will quickly show if there is warpage, usually the bottomparts are getting much wider than they should, but that should also be a easy fix when the body goes onto the chassis I hope.

Thanks for the information. I have the kit in storage, but have to get it along with some others. When I did some basic fitting (about ten years ago,) it seemed fine on the chassis, but time may have changed things. I hope it is still okay; I was planning to build it like a German ad that came out at its introduction, medium yellow body with a black roof.

[Harry P.]

Well now, there's a kit you don't see every day! I'm looking forward to your progress updates...

[Kombi]

This car is among my all time favorites and I've seriously considered obtaining a kit, but I'm going to watch your build here and see how it goes. I definitely consider my skills on the amateur side of intermediate. So I've got a feeling I may be better off living vicariously through you on this one.

The thing I just don't understand is why there hasn't been a 1/24 scale plastic kit made (or maybe I just have found it)?

[The Creative Explorer]

I had a bit of lack of motivation, so I worked on the Speedtruck and the Camaro Nomad. Now they're finished, and found some much needed motivation for this kit, I started working on it again.

Mostly I've done is filling and sanding. Basically all of my work on this kit consists of filling, sanding, filling, sanding....etc...etc.. You get the picture.

Today's update isn't much different. I added the dashboard, since it had major gaps in the car. And this way I could fill the gaps. I also glued the body to the front-end, but I am so scared it will break again. It is just such a weak point. I might going to glue the windshield in place, so it will hold throughout the handling. I also added some braces for strengthening.

[Kombi]

Goodness, this thing looks like a bear to build.

[baddgass]

MAN U HAVE ALOT OF WORK TO DO ON THIS KIT, AND IT LOOKS LIKE U KNOW WITH 2 DO. KEEP IT UP NICE JOB.

[Hornistfuller]

have you considered strengthening the inside of the fenders with styrene ribs and then a layer of epoxy or squadron putty? ive built a few big heller kits and this has always been the best solution. i do like that bracing though. its almost like a real car.

[Chuck Most]

I've always liked this car- maybe I need one of these kits. Heller kits are generally pretty good, never built one in 1:16.

Great job on this one so far!

[The Creative Explorer]

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]

[sjordan2]

As I mentioned elsewhere, this is amazing work, especially on such a difficult kit.

[Jim Gibbons]

Very nice; I like your choice of the two tone colors. A bit of time with a polishing kit should give the results you want. I will definitely copy your body bracing idea when I get around to mine. I likely would only have done it after a disastrous break while building. I'm looking forward to see more of your progress; I know I will learn from you. Happy new Year, Erik!

[Harry P.]

I also like your two-tone color scheme... subtle but very cool.

You've put a lot of work into this kit... keep at it. Once it's finished you'll enjoy it even more, knowing how much work was involved in getting it built.

[sjordan2]

I also like your two-tone color scheme... subtle but very cool.

You've put a lot of work into this kit... keep at it. Once it's finished you'll enjoy it even more, knowing how much work was involved in getting it built.

You've probably seen Erik's 1/8 E-Type, which demonstrates his resourcefulness in filling the notorious body seams.

[Kanedge]

You've got a nice project on your hands here, I love the paint you have going on this, hope it works well for you.

[Chris C]

These are cool cars, I've always invisaged one in flat black, metalflake red roof on red steelies & wide whites..... A French Mercury! Looks like a nightmare to get together, but you're doing a top job....persevere!

[classic]

Hi Erik,

keep up the good work on this model. I love your colour combo and detailing. I also started down the dark path with this kit, it is buildable and draws a lot of interest at shows as you hardly ever see one completed.

Yours will be a show stopper once completed. I did do some detailing to mine but not as much on the interior. In the end I was glad to get it all together!

Here is a pic of my completed build.

Regards,

Steve.

[Cato]

Very classy, clean build.

[vaughn]

You've done some great restoration. Really like the color scheme you have chosen.