Tamiya's Traction Avant "Paint it Black"

4th owner in 1946

Original: This Tamiya "Traction Avant" was part of our groupbuild. I already had a sedan by converting a Matchbox 32th cabrio to it, so what to do with this nice crisp Tamiya kit? Let's open the bonnet and make it show it's 3 layer of paint! Ok, and than? Ah! a diorama! A proud owner of a car in 1946 sands the nice pre-war car to paint it black. This model has the wheels that are common on the cabrio, so let's cover them with paper. The engine is a part of an Italeri Opel Blitz engine, the rest is made of card and sticks.

Model: 35th scale Tamiya "Traction Avant".

Build: March 2011 - June 2017

Paint: Basecoat airbrushed in 3 layers with hairspay and Tamiya Acryl. Pieces of bare-metal and all kind of details with acryl.

Build history

July 8 2017

After the finishing of 4 projects, this old project that is nearly finished is to be next. At the latest club meet a couple of good suggestions are going to be the last part of this 5 years of little progress. A new nameplate, Red doors on the back(did you get the hint?). The wall extended to the corners, lot's of little items added, painted, a lot of dirt, including a broom and box with garbadge, the primer can on the stool, brushes, and there is an easter egg. Not really visable on the pictures.

October
15
2016

Well the floor got some details and a lot of the little stuf is taking it's designated place and shape, but it's going slow.

December
26
2014

With the moral support of Roy the balance between the "collection of spares" that need to be there and a "complete garage tooling" the composition takes shape. The tin with the primer is going to be the central point of focus

March 18 2013

As a part of my inventarisation of what projects are stil to finish it stil is waiting for inspiration.

December
11
2012

For visiting / building on one of the fairs that the SMF visits it went with me. I probably needed some inspiration.

May
27
2012

Let's start with the walls and floor of the diorama and with the bench. Making diorama's is new to me, so I make what I think is logical in small steps.

March
30
2012

At start I already played with the idea to make it into a diorama. Now that I have a skeletal Citroën almost ready, the diorama needs to tell the story of the conversion of this stripped car into a luxourious family car. A workbench it needs and a stack of all the parts that have been been removed. All these part have to be painted but my biggest problem: composition. Which side with the nose? The rear is largely changed, so, that should be in view. The left door open means that these awesome pedals with Citroën logo on it are in sight.

March 19 2012

After closing the contest our rust specialist Barry and I where talking about it and an old Dutch joke (French cars already start to rust on the folder) made it logical to put some spots of primer on it to sugest it being ready to spray it black. As I had seen him in action with "bare-metal foil" I dived into my stash and got out a sheet of 20 year old foil. So, there are spots on the Citroën where our brave Frenchman sanded through all the paint.
While zooming in on it, the sheet of etched components revealed a dashboard with opening glove box and pedals. So lets add those!

March 17 2012

It all starts with the SMF build marathon March 17 2012. The whole club wil build a Tamiya Traction Avant. As we build the Tilly last time from closed box, we now got agreed on paint. So, bring it with you ready for paint. So I got an idea of the fourth owner in 1946, an unknown Frenchman, that has bought a pre-war Citroën "Traction Avant" that reveals 3 layers of paint and use. After the confiscation by the Germans it was liberated by the Americans and repainted.
Using the hairspray technique its steps in painting where methodicaly and profesionally recorded by Niels Henkemans.