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Citroën Xsara WRC - Francois Duval, ADAC Rallye Deutschland 2007 (part 4)

Slowly slowly I continu with this project.

One of the very obvious things I noticed when looking at my reference pictures is that the co-driver (Patrick Pivato) sits very low in the car compared to Francois Duval.
Something that's not too hard to simulate in the model. To that end I made a hole in the floor of the insert for the interior of the car. It looks a bit ragged, but I don't think it will be visible once everything is stuck together...


The floor of the car itself keeps giving me slight worries. In the previous part I showed that I had straightened the part with heat from a hair dryer (and cooling the plastic immediately afterwards with cold tap water).
After a few days (okay, months, in the meantime) of rest I have the feeling that the plastic is trying to return to it's bent shape. At least it seems as if the floor is not so straight anymore as I remembered...
Maybe I need to have another go with the hair dryer to sort it out.


To liven up the interior I decided to use some parts from the new generic detail set that's been released by Kool Models Productions recently.
Although I must admit that I've been tempted to make the parts myself on my Anycubic Photon... Next time maybe.


When test fitting the (so called) suspension parts I noticed that one of the attachment points on the floor where the suspension should be mounted was molded a bit badly. I had to use a chisel to deepen the attachment point.
Just another example of the not so great moldings from Heller. Luckily I spotted this in time.


As the fitment of the suspension parts and the wheel wells isn't that smooth I decided to glue the suspension and wheel wells to the floor.
This way I'm able to fill the gaps and smoothen everything before painting.
I'm sure this will make painting and masking things a bit more of a challenge. But I'm hoping that the end result will justify this decision.



As shown in one of the previous updates I opened up the vent holes in the bonnet and the airscoop in the front bumper to add a bit of realism.
As there's nothing to show behind these openings I made some "boxes" the blank off the holes.
Below is a picture of the box for the bonnet vents.
I made this from 0.25 mm styrene sheet. Which, I must admit was a bit wobbly. I think I had better used some thicker material. But it serves it's purpose, so I'm happy with how this turned out.


In the next update I will show how I added some extra detail to the roll cage and some other additions I made to the interior.
Dependent on how much work needs to be done on the suspension/wheel well parts I'm hoping that the first parts will get primed for the next update.

Stay tuned.

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