Delahaye 135 by CDW - FINISHED - Heller - 1:24 - PLASTIC

[CDW]

After taking off the entire summer from model building, decided to kick off with a build of the 1:24 Heller Delahaye 135. Don't know anything about the 1:1 car, but like the body styling, looking quite 1930's in appearance. Long hood and a sharp coupe top.

My copy was damaged in transit long ago with a crack on the top. I patched up the crack using a piece of sheet styrene plastic on the inside and some putty, sanding on the outside. Will build the various sub components then paint them all before final assembly.

It's interesting the various shades of blue colored plastic Heller uses in the manufacture of this kit.

 

[Old Collingwood]

Sincerley warm welcome back mate  - hope all is good and well  with you and the family,    its great seeing you back in  "Plastic World"

 

OC.

[CDW]

Thanks OC. Got caught up on other matters, all is well.

One of the things I did was to pull everything out of my hobby room then cleaned it all spic and span, repainted the walls, hung everything back on the walls, put in new work tables and a display cabinet before moving everything (almost) I had cleared out and put it back in the room. Taking advantage of a store closing sale at a major department store, bought the big work tables and display cabinet at an extremely favorable price. Just the way I like it.   

[Old Collingwood]

Hopefully  - we will see you back at full pelt  - its been fairly quite around here.

 

OC.

[CDW]

I have plenty of entertainment subject material

 

 

[lmagna]

Welcome back from the far side Craig. Oh yeah, you have A LOT of shelf space to fill in now! It's going to be fun watching you do it!

[mtaylor]

Welcome back home, CDW.   Interesting car.....   here's just about everything anyone might want to know about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delahaye_135

[Edwardkenway]

Same as everyone else, welcome back Craig. 

I think cars of the 30s and 40s looked beautiful, nice sweeping curves. I'm in for this one!

[Canute]

The Thities really got into the Streamlined Era. I'll be in on this one, Craig.

[Papa]

CDW, you could open your own  hobby store!  😳.  I am a rank amateur stash-wise, I’m sure, with 3 plastic kits and 3 wooden ships in the wait list!

 

 

Edited October 26, 2020 by PAPA

[CDW]

58 minutes ago, PAPA said:

CDW, you could open your own  hobby store!  😳.  I am a rank amateur stash-wise, I’m sure, with 3 plastic kits and 3 wooden ships in the wait list!

 

 

Please don't follow my example, Papa. I am a bad influence in the excess stash department.

[Old Collingwood]

12 minutes ago, CDW said:

Please don't follow my example, Papa. I am a bad influence in the excess stash department.

You need  to invest in Ten pairs of hands so you can  "multi-multi-multi-multi  task  and build many"😁

 

OC.

[CDW]

8 minutes ago, Old Collingwood said:

You need  to invest in Ten pairs of hands so you can  "multi-multi-multi-multi  task  and build many"😁

 

OC.

You know the term, "tip of the iceberg"? That's what you're seeing of my model stash. I will whittle it down eventually but will never build all of these.

 

[Jack12477]

Or you need more lives than a cat ! 😉

[CDW]

🤣

[popeye the sailor]

where do you put your feet?   ......I've acquired a stash...but nothing like that!  it is nice to see you back.   looks like a good repair to the roof,  but what are you going to do about the splint?

[CDW]

Just now, popeye the sailor said:

looks like a good repair to the roof,  but what are you going to do about the splint?

I'm going to slap the 1st guy who tries to look inside the window to see it right on his noggin'. 😄

[CDW]

After assembling the chassis, engine, and radiator, everything got a coat of semi gloss primer before any color coats go on. The assembly was a little fiddly, but it looks authentic to me when it's all said and done.

[Old Collingwood]

Nice clean workbench mate🙃👍

 

OC.

[Egilman]

58 minutes ago, CDW said:

After assembling the chassis, engine, and radiator, everything got a coat of semi gloss primer before any color coats go on. The assembly was a little fiddly, but it looks authentic to me when it's all said and done

I love those old kits, they just look right and are very well done.... This is a beautiful example of a well done kit.....

 

Sitting here peeking out from behind OC's shoulder...... (you knew I would be here Craig)....

 

Nice work so far...

[mtaylor]

Looking good.  From here, it looks like the front wheels (drums) need an alignment as they seem splayed.  I hope it's just the angle of the photos.

[CDW]

Just now, mtaylor said:

Looking good.  From here, it looks like the front wheels (drums) need an alignment as they seem splayed.  I hope it's just the angle of the photos.

Yes, the alignment did need a little tweak. I think I got it about as close as it's going to get.

 

I keep looking and thinking about about the assembly and painting of the interior, the fender wells, and body of the car. This one is going to be a little tricky. The interior door panels are molded as one piece along with the side windows in clear plastic. I'm going to need to get the whole interior assembled and painted before I paint the body, and I will need to have the fenders and fender wells assembled with the body. Part of the rear fender wells are attached to the interior parts. I'll figure it out, just need to take my time and not rush through it.

 

[Old Collingwood]

Looking good mate.

 

OC.

[popeye the sailor]

adjusted the 'toe' did ya?  looks pretty good    I had some of that with the funny car...hate bending stuff.......always afraid somethings is gonna break 

    hate the way some instructions are done......there's always that one part that you just can't seem to figure out how it goes     really nice progress though.......nice!

[CDW]

You have to feel your way in the dark with some of this kit's assembly. There are no locator pins so it's trial and error to be certain of the exact positioning of lots of parts. The interior parts along with the fender wells are particularly fiddly. It's interesting how they used the various colors of plastic to mold the kit parts. Not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to it.

[CDW]

I painted the interior in a basic light brown color with the seats a darker leather brown. I glued the door panels/side windows inside the car body then test/dry fitted it all together before I do some final detail painting in the interior before gluing it all together. As you can see, the interior is not going to be highly visible at all once the model is finished. After gluing the front and rear windshields in place, will have to carefully mask the glass before priming and painting the body.

 

 

[lmagna]

Your work area is FAR too clean and organized Craig! Nice progress on the Delahaye. It is interesting, (At least to me) that they used two six volt batteries. I wonder if they were set up in series for 12 volts, or parallel for higher amperage? 

[CDW]

I was thinking the same thing about those 2 six volt batteries. There were a lot of times when I wished my old '51 Chevy (my first car) would have had 2 of those batteries instead of 1. Six volt systems were notoriously slow starters and the lights always seemed dim. If I remember correctly, a Nash Metropolitan I once owned also had 2 six volt batteries. They were located under the little rear bench seat. Seems like the Nash batteries were connected in a parallel circuit, but again, my memory may be faulty on that.  

[CDW]

PS: I am also wondering what the two boxes located on the bottom of the chassis behind the fuel tank were used for? They look like battery boxes.

 

[lmagna]

3 hours ago, CDW said:

I am also wondering what the two boxes located on the bottom of the chassis behind the fuel tank were used for? They look like battery boxes.

Now THOSE I had not noticed, and yes they look like more batteries next to the fuel tank. I have no suggestions. I can't envision a need for four batteries on anything outside of a military vehicle.