Auto Car | 1960 Renault 4 CV | The Renault 4CV is a small French car built between 1946 and 1961. Intended by its creators to be a “people’s car”, it was inspired by the original Volkswagen Beetle and was the first French car to sell over 1 million units. Conceived during German occupation, the design team envisioned something suitable for the economically difficult years expected to follow the war. The 4CV was first shown to the public at the 1946 Paris Motor Show and by 1949 was the most popular car in France. It was powered by a rear mounted, water-cooled 760cc inline 4 cylinder engine. The completion of this same kit by my late friend Ted Holowchuk, a true master modeler as well as teacher, was an inspiration for me on this project. Prior to his passing, Ted and I had talked on and off about both building the same ‘simple’ car kit and the example he built was a ‘donation’ from me.
This kit is from Heller’s fairly broad range of 1:43 scale European cars originally introduced during the later 1970s. Some, including the 4CV, are still irregularly available today and it is one of the better offerings from the range. At one time these kits were quite common and extremely cheap, but now some of the harder to find issues like the Alfa Romeo Alfasud, Peugeot 604, and Citroën DS can be difficult to find and costly to purchase. All 25 parts were molded in a grayish tan plastic that was easy to work with. Except for reworking some parts and adding a number of small details, I built the kit more or less out of the box.
The moldings are crisp and accurate with good detail throughout. The head and taillights are a prime example as though very small, they have accurate scale fidelity + are molded in clear plastic versus being chrome plated like I’ve seen on other small car kits. Everything fitted pretty well and the way the parts where originally designed allows detailing to be easily done. In spite of this, there are two areas that need improvement; the wheels and the windshield.
The chassis is simplified but reflects the actual car well and the interior floor is molded integral with the chassis. Other parts included in the box are a pair of separate front bucket seats, a rear bench seat and package shelf, a combination dash/fire wall, a steering wheel and column, four individual clear windows, a floor shifter, chrome plated bumpers, hubcaps and headlight ‘buckets’. My kit also had a small decal with a pair of unusable “Renault” license plates. The inside of the body shell and dash have basic detail, which I enhanced a bit during assembly.
The kit wheels are very simple, made up of two halves with molded-on tires and the aforementioned separate small hubcaps. The issue that I had with the wheels is because the differentiation between the rim and tire are very subtle and must be scribed or otherwise enhanced to look right. The instructions on my late 1970’s issue used a single exploded view drawing. There isn’t a lot of published material on the car, at least in English, and the box art was quite accurate, so I used it as a detailing reference. The Internet also came in handy for amassing a small photographic reference file.
Source : www.internetmodeler.com
This kit is from Heller’s fairly broad range of 1:43 scale European cars originally introduced during the later 1970s. Some, including the 4CV, are still irregularly available today and it is one of the better offerings from the range. At one time these kits were quite common and extremely cheap, but now some of the harder to find issues like the Alfa Romeo Alfasud, Peugeot 604, and Citroën DS can be difficult to find and costly to purchase. All 25 parts were molded in a grayish tan plastic that was easy to work with. Except for reworking some parts and adding a number of small details, I built the kit more or less out of the box.
The moldings are crisp and accurate with good detail throughout. The head and taillights are a prime example as though very small, they have accurate scale fidelity + are molded in clear plastic versus being chrome plated like I’ve seen on other small car kits. Everything fitted pretty well and the way the parts where originally designed allows detailing to be easily done. In spite of this, there are two areas that need improvement; the wheels and the windshield.
The chassis is simplified but reflects the actual car well and the interior floor is molded integral with the chassis. Other parts included in the box are a pair of separate front bucket seats, a rear bench seat and package shelf, a combination dash/fire wall, a steering wheel and column, four individual clear windows, a floor shifter, chrome plated bumpers, hubcaps and headlight ‘buckets’. My kit also had a small decal with a pair of unusable “Renault” license plates. The inside of the body shell and dash have basic detail, which I enhanced a bit during assembly.
The kit wheels are very simple, made up of two halves with molded-on tires and the aforementioned separate small hubcaps. The issue that I had with the wheels is because the differentiation between the rim and tire are very subtle and must be scribed or otherwise enhanced to look right. The instructions on my late 1970’s issue used a single exploded view drawing. There isn’t a lot of published material on the car, at least in English, and the box art was quite accurate, so I used it as a detailing reference. The Internet also came in handy for amassing a small photographic reference file.
Source : www.internetmodeler.com
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