Citroen DS Expo technique

Citroen DS Expo technique

La version de salon de l'automobile de la fameuse Citroen DS, a presenter des solutions et principes de technique. Bientot chez Marpytoys en 1:18.

At the 100th anniversary, I got in contact with a friend of a friend of the Frech Citroen DS club, who asked me, could you please build a prototype of the DS-expo-car? I will send later some pictures. We need it asap, that is this september already for a club-meet.
The only answer possible, no of course not. Other obligations, running projects, etc.
But the topic facinated, so finally we [that is my son and I] decided it would be a nice project for our just bought 3D-printer. Also the parts should be cheaper than the moulded resin-solution, as we would need a lot parts to detail this car correctly.
So we designed some parts, printed them, adjusted them, trimmed them, reprinted over and over. And gradually we are getting closer to the modelcar parts we needed to actually build the modelcar.

At the time the Norev 1:18 DS21 in white was released, and proofed a nice basis for the transformation we had in mind.
Of course after dis-assembling the modelcar, we had to remove all kinds of solutions made specifically for the Norev-model, but in conflict with the open model of the salon-tech-version.
Also the original engine-plate was not really in the shape we needed. So we took it out, ginded, filed, sanded, adjusted etc till it resembled the car in the foto's we found on several sites. The further we came, the more we needed to take decisions like: which version will we apply of the several used, what year will we pick, how authentical should it be, how much labor is acceptable for the transformation so it will still be affordable for other collectors, should it become a transkit or a full transformation, how to overcome some challenges not really possbile in the chosen scale. In the picture gallery of this blog, you will find some photo's taken while in the process of development.