Probably I will fill the gap with left-overs from my decal sheets. Generic sponsors, but present on the European market will make the perfect match. I still need to do my inventory.

Gabriel

Gabriel,
Thought so. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Dacia 1100 decaled.

Joel

Wow! That two tone rally scheme looks great, Gabriel!

Great progress Gabriel.
As usual you paintwork is excellent and the two-toned job very retro. Looking forward to your choice of decals for this.

cheers
Michael

OK, still thinking if I should start yet another build for GB or wait for the shipment from Miami to arrive, and with the second NASCAR almost done, I decided to finish one of the sidelined builds.
Here my rally and de luxe versions part ways - I'm not ready for decals yet, and the owner wants his de luxe Dacia badly, even without badges. Well, it's going to be a de-badged Renault for now.
I dusted up the body and went for another 3000 grit polishing, then added some BMF to the drip line and to the median insert, as the French produced Dacias had. I had enough steam for only one side, but still good progress, since I am pretty much advanced into this build as well:


Gabriel

Good to see this one back on the bench, Gabriel!

The BMF has turned out very nice on the drip lines

Gabriel,
I totally forgot about those two builds. So far the Renault really is looking quite good.

One thing for sure, you've turned into a car modeling machine.

Joel

Great to see those, two beauties, back on track.

Looking good Gabriel, nice smooth work!

Cheers, D

Thanks, Russ. You know, a man can become accustomed with anything, even with applying BMF. I still hate it every time - LOL!



Haha, I almost "forgot" myself, but the owner of the civilian version didn't. He kindly reminded me the other day... and the timing was perfect!


Sometimes I wish I had much else to do. The Island it's in complete lockdown 4 days/week and money scarce. At least I do what I like to do best. I can say I am happily modeling (for now)



Jesper, to be honest I was afraid I lost completely the taste for them, but surprisingly I didn't. That saves my credibility I hope



Tank you, Damian! I did my best - BMF jobs always irritate me more than anything else. I should consult a psychiatrist for baremetalfoilphobia. Sounds serious enough to get me locked up?

UPDATE - HELLer, HELLer
The City Lady was kind enough to turn the other cheek and I slapped some BMF on it too. I even managed a slighter better application:


Then I pulled out from the sprues these naughty parts. Every single one had something against me: either a seam line nearly impossible to clean, either a stupidly placed injection gate, either both sunk and raised pin marks, you name it!


To get a taste of it, here's one of the four inner front fenders, with one raised, one deep pin mark. The one on the left was cleaned already:


The crown goes to the rear engine bay wall, with three pin marks and two sink holes. There are two sinks on the other side too:


Back inner fenders for the Rough Lady and front inner fenders for the City Lady were installed. They attach by glamorous butt end joints. The Heller engineers are still living in Modelling Middle Age - it was like assembling a wooden model:


The direction and steering assembled on the City Lady. Unfortunately some nice detail it is covered by by the clunky inner fenders and separation wall. As a bonus, the wheels are steerable.


Rear axles and suspensions installed - some petite detail there, again, not very visible but notably better engineered than the front axle:


For the Rough Lady's undersides a had some special treatment. Candy red experimentally applied over copper here. It might worth saved in my Recipes Book


Now, this snakepit of vinyl strands supposed to be the roll cage for the Rough Lady. Boy, I prefer the British humour to the French one!


Now I have to scratch-build a roll cage. Lucky me I have good teachers around!

Gabriel

Battling the parts, from hell, shouldn't be a problem, for you Gabriel. With the Ferrari build, you fought the parts, from hell, below hell and won.

The candy red over copper base looks great. Noted in my little book as well, thank you very much.

The vinyl roll cage has to be one of the most ridiculous auto modeling items EVER.

I'm sure you can scratch build a replacement, unless you have made sprue goo, of all your sprues

a vinyl roll cage? What the heck!? That's straight out of hell!

Every confidence you can build that cage, if I can do you it anyone can.

Gabriel,
Those two Heller kits are sure living up to their reputation. Seems that the engineers were instructed to max out the number of injection marks humanly possible. Still, your side by side progress pic with the engine bays does look darn good to me.

As for your love/hate relationship with BMF. I can't even get a sub par effort done. I'm going to order a few super sharp scalpels for the BMF and hopefully that will help me get over the hump.

That roll cage really looks like it was an afterthought for sure.

Can't wait to see your next update after you've solved all of these issues.

Joel

Jesper, glad you liked it. I forgot to mention: that was Ruby Red. Over silver, it will cool to a purplish hue, as Damian achieved on his Ford Campaign build. Over copper takes that nice auburn hue, while over gold becomes a "richer" red. I never test it (yet) over a solid color but I think it will be interesting over yellow or tan and psychedelic over a (metallic) light blue.

And yes, Heller guys went a notch too far with the rubber parts in this kit: rubber seats and bench, rubber engine parts, rubber roll cage... all that because their fathers didn't use the rubber



Russ, I'm still in shock. You know how they say... Evil comes in many shapes... one it's here! I'm gonna to exorcize it, as Jesper and David suggested already

David, nice of you to show such confidence, but in scratch-building department, my skills are to pre-school glue-the-fingers-together evolutionary stage I will try nonetheless

Gabriel

Yes, the kit is very inconsistent with itself. Some parts or sub-assemblies are superb, some parts are stinky trash. Someone takes "controversial" decisions - to say the least - by Heller, and I've seen many horror YT movies Heller related, like clear injected doors and such. And it's annoying to see such things, knowing that they have the skills to best Fujimi likes at all times. But no, they have to be "different" at all times and at all costs. C'est ridicule, mon cher!


I dropped it, I adopted it again and it works for me, but I never get to be comfortable with it


Yeah, I guess they made the rally version as a pimped up version of the civilian version and didn't bother to do all the homework. Yet the flares are molded (nicely) in plastic. Strange enough.


Absolutely honoured by your interest in this dual, Joel! Probably I'm going to focus more for now on the civilian build as it has to catch my first shipment to Canada. However, I'm gonna put more thought and effort in the rally version, since this one it's not bonded by any contract, and I can work to it by my heart's desire.

Gabriel

Gabriel,
I'll be following both builds till the cross the finish line for sure.

Joel

Well Gabriel you have certainly cured my desire to buy one of these kits. I really like the little Gordini but it seems Heller have the bar too high with the effort required. Have to wait for the next manufacturer to come along, maybe Ebbro. They do nice french cars.
But saying all that they do look very nice followjng your efforts. Waiting to see how these ladies finish up.

Cheers
Michael

Thanks, Joel! Kind as always!

Michael, I'd love to hate [i]Heller[/b], but I can't Their models still look "cute", will all the headaches! I know, it's not a proper technical word to describe the quality of a kit, but it's the only one I found. I'm still considering buying at least the Talbot LAgo from them, since no other mainstream manufacturer seems too interested of antiques other than AMT and ICM and guess what: both of them are making Ford Ts

UPDATE
My old good friend, the engine bay wall it's still here, undergoing treatment Now I'm actually working on the other side, because there are sink marks too.


I found a spare racing seat from an AMT kit and decided to replace the old one. Now I'm considering if it will be wise to delete the passenger seat. What do you think in terms of relative realism?


Suspensions, transaxles and direction also added to the Rough Lady. Not very realistic, but that red looks good


Slowed down progress by yet more written reviews in the making, but I keep putting parts together little by little.
Gabriel

Gabriel, your patience is surely being tested lately between these little gems and the Ferrari from JC Lee!

Lovely neat work, slowly but surely on the clean-up and modification works but at the end it will be very satisfying to sit back and view the results of your toil.

Cheers, D

Gabriel,
The suspensions are coming along quite nicely. How they did the real world design and geometry is somewhat novel, but it is, what it is. I do like the Red for contrast and interest.

As for the racing seat in the rally version. Both stock seats are usually replaced with some make of racing seats. The navigator needs to really be restrained safely as he spends so much of his time looking down at this book of notes for the entire course so the driver actually knows where and when to turn. For the little I actually know about Rally cars, the seats are always in exact pairs.

Joel

Thank you for the moral support, Damian! Yes, they will move along and for the racer I have no time constraints - I'm OK in replenishing my patience tanks




I agree with your opinion, Joel. Indirect conclusion it's that I better delete the navigator's seat, since I don't have another spare, nor am I a scratch-building champion. I could design couple of seats in 3D and print them in resin, but the process will be too long, as I print them in Canada, and with the actual state of international shipping, I better pass. More I think of it, more I find the common sense solution is to delete the seat.

Gabriel

UPDATE

This is my first foray at this extent in scratch-building / kit bashing, and probably I'm going to be the laughing stock of Nick, Richard, Robert and anybody else, but here I am. Digging deep enough in my years worth of spent sprue sediments, I came out with this:

Lucky enough, I found a next seat for co-pilot and now the problem it's solved, I found a drag tail bar that offers me a rudiment of the roll cage and the cradle for fire extinguisher, a cooling unit from a SdKfz 251/1 which will b my auxiliary fans, a steering pump from a Mack DM600 that it's going to be my auxiliary oil pump, an air filter cover from a F-100 which will play the extra oil can, and some other bits and bobs that I might find use for. I cannot find my fire extinguisher though - and I'm sure I had a spare one. Coincidentally, the section of the bar I already have it's identical in section with my q-tips tubes, and there is plenty material to waste if something goes wrong - and it will go.

I started my embarrassment by removing the door inserts detail:


I drilled holes at the corners of the detail, to aproximate where the door cut-outs would have ben:


Using the back of my modelling knife to score, and an Olfa-P scriber to cut, I opened the door panels:


I almost damaged the first one because I cut too close one hole to another, and I modified the cutting pattern for the second door insert:


I glued the door panel to sheet styrene to make another door insert which in my hapless mind should resemble to a bare metal door. I need to trim the excess when the glue it's dry:


From a couple of plastic spoon handles I made "stiffening belts" for the roll-cage which I adorned with lightening holes. They are a little rough around the edges, but you'll get the idea:


And this is the interior layout I came up with so far, before de roll-cage:




Comments, suggestion, slapping over my wrist - all welcome!

Gabriel

well, I'm no racing car expert, but that looks like some darn fine model making to me, Gabriel