Citroen 15 Six: Complete (#7 for 2020)

As a break from the Rondeau and P68, I decided to tackle an "easy" styrene kit. I picked Heller's Citroen 15 Six, and if I thought this would be a stress-free build, boy was I mistaken.



The 15 was a development of the famous 11 Légère. The 1.9 litre four in the 11 was replaced with a six, requiring a longer chassis and hood. While it only made 75 hp, it was still quicker than most post-war French cars, and became infamous as a getaway car during the Résistance and later.

The engine is pretty straightforward. The first shot shows the transmission output shaft in the bottom of the sump. The engine sits behind the front axle, driving the front wheels, in a layout common in other French FWD cars such as the Citroen DS19 or Renault 5.



The long black rods running along the block under the distributor are shift linkages joining the dash-mounted gear shift to the forward-mounted gearbox.



Now for the bad news: lots of bits that don't have positive location means a lot of guesswork. The biggest issue is the joining of the engine to the front subframe, and the subframe to the chassis. Step 8 is the biggie.



I have gotten it straight, sort of, but while the engine is straight in the chassis, the subframe is not, meaning it doesn't quite sit square on its four wheels.

 

The subframe, above, is straight, but the connection to the engine, below, was not as straight as I thought it was.



I've decided not to fix it as it seems I am able to get the hood and radiator grille to fit well, so I'm going to stick with appearance as the main driver.

Paint came out OK; I used the approach outlined in my description of the  Ford Fairlane. The kit is molded in black, which helps.


 

The red wire is a battery cable going to the starter motor. The manifolding has no carb yet; that will come once the body is on and straight. 



Typical of Citroens, these were large and comfortable, although the beam rear axle, suspended on torsion bars, apparently led to some complaints about comfort on rough roads.

 

 

Next was the finishing touches, including 10 door handles, trunk handles or hood latches, none of them doweled in place.





A real mess! If you build this, tackle the finishing stage fresh in the morning. Not one of my best but not my worst.





What's next? Well, there are a couple of Le Mans cars in the WIP pile... Stay tuned!