Chenard & Walcker "Mistral" by Kherson Models (Ukraine)

NOVEMBER 2015

This thread has been transferred from S1/43. Due to technical reasons possibly not all comments of members are visible. I'd like to apology for this. The photos, hosted by photobucket, will be deleted in near future. They will be replaced by new versions from flickr, but this will take some time. For any questions, please contact Jean B. Thank you!

I think it's time to start a new thread, isn't it? I've already presented the Chenard & Walcker Mistral, one of the French aerodynamic show-stoppers of the early 1930s (in this case 1933 or 34). The model is (or: was) built very fine, but as always: Cannot leave anything the way it is... The coachwork is made of copper by galvano-forming, perhaps the best way to create a metal model without industrial equipment. This time I want to build as much in metal as possible, so I will try to cast all the details as wheels, dashboard, seats and radiator grill in white metal, instead of the resin parts of the original build.

One last view of the original model:



The base plate is glued into the coachwork, but this was not made very accurate:



So the whole car had to take a hot bath - and if one wouldn't know better, you could assume that the car was made for swimming:



Finally all glued parts were disassembled...



... and the coachwork stripped:

It's an often made mistake with this car: There is NO art deco pattern on the headlamps, what you can see are the reflections of the art-deco interior of the surrounding hall. Supersize the photo, and you will recognize the same details from a different angle, which also appear on other shiny parts of the car on various photos.

To be able to screw the base plate and the body together in future, I applied metal paste and drilled a hole through base plate and the hardened block of paste:





Furthermore I created a center tunnel. I really don't know if the car had one, but the "beginning" with the gear lever was already made, and I think it is coherent this way:

...already done I made the effect with graphite powder, unfortunately it can hardly be seen on the photos - in fact it is quite silvery-shining. I will try to apply some more layers to enhance the effect.

The wheels, now made of white-metal, polished and clear-lacquered:



The (first) photo-etched parts for the wheels:



And the completed wheels:



By the way: Is the car really white? Or what do you think?

The chassis is completed, axes, wheels, exhaust pipe are on their places:





The rear got a a kind of "snap-tite" to allow easy assembling of base-plate and coachwork together with the screw in front:



Tyres were rubbed with aluminium powder to make them brighter:



Original plastic radiator shell and the same casted in white-metal:



... and completed with the grille:

Hi, Paul,

I think photo-etching should be a thread for itself... Generally you can split the complete procedure in two parts: making the films with a graphic program on your PC and then etching this with an etching device. Both steps are not difficult, but require some tricks to get a useful product. Perhaps I can describe the single steps with the next turn of photo-etching; if you need some assistance right now, please send a PM, thanks!

As already announced, I try to work with white-metal casting, and after having made the wheels, I today have finished the dashboard and the seats. To cast very fine details in white metal seems to be not so easy , so I had to differ from my original plans and make the seats with much more handicraft. However, I think I can use it this way:



The original resin seats, my polystyrol patterns and the white-metal castings:

A "sneak preview" of the almost finished seats:



... and the now even surfaces for the interior door panels, made with a polystyrol dummy and polyester putty:

... and the completed chassis/base-plate with seats, pedalry and gear-lever:

Sorry for my absence, very annoying to have to spend so much time for earning money, organizing life and so on, when a model car urgently needs ones help :lol:

So for today only the photo-etched parts, which now allow proceeding with the Mistral:

Of course I have, to be honest: all the time! I'm quite confident that Santa will bring a lathe this Christmas, and then - I hope - I'm quite well equipped with the basic tools in my workshop. It will nevertheless be a long, long way to design a model car by myself, and so I consider my current model building as a kind of training for bigger challenges. I will let you know...

The steering wheel of the Chenard is mounted:



The central gauge:



And the first layer of primer:



The thin rods of the triangular windows had been removed, also the door handles and the small rivets on the rear fenders. All these parts will be made separately.

First layer of white enmal lacquer:



...and the second one (I'm curious how many further will be needed... ):

I couldn't stop there, and so I applied some further layers of white and clear paint (the "warm-white" hue is due to electric light) This is not the final result, but now we slowly come to the end:



And a first view of the completed dashboard and the "Mistral" writing for the rear end:

Painting and polishing is completed, the small rivets are placed:

Seems to get a kind of "live-blog" But that's all for today: windscreen frame, bonnet center line and headlight frames were covered with BMF:

@ Murat: Have a look at my recent built car, the Horch Spezial Roadster. There was much more BMF and much more difficult areas, that was real fun :roll:

Windows were cut and placed on the rear of the door panels, placemakers below to have the same thickness all over:



Then the packages were placed into the bodywork having properly fitting windows and a solid interior design together:



Final sprint

Ready for the White Elephant? Here we go:

Hello guys,

thanks for your compliments, that's what I do all this for :oops: I'm always keen on trying new techniques, this time it was mainly to create masters for the seats and cast them in white-metal. And yes, especially from the outside this Mistral looks so very clean that you could assume that I hardly changed anything compared to the original... In fact I invested roundabout twice the time than for my recent works - perhaps it took so much longer just because to achieve this clean look with nothing really special :? However, as the heart of my collection should represent the aerodynamic luxury cars of the 1930s, this one was a must-have for me, and if I should ever be able to create a car by myself, I would surely use the technique of this one, that means "galvano-forming".

My next project will be the Austro-Daimler Bergmeister, this will show many more conventional details. At the moment I'm busy with preparing Christmas, so I think in January I will post some news - if you want to have look...?

Kind regards and season greetings!

At least there seems to be one photo of the interior:



You can recognize the central gauge and compare it with similar gauges by Chenard & Walcker. Furthermore we can see the lean seats with the tube frames and the "holders" on the rear. The decorative "V"-lines on the door panels are visible, and I tried to make this with photo-etching, just to give the car a "real look" - more or less