58655 Tamiya Citroën 2CV Charleston M05 kit Review
The Citroën 2CV ("Deux chevaux") was the brainchild of Pierre Boulanger, who assigned André Lefebvre as engineer and Flaminio ...
https://www.thercracer.com/2020/05/58655-tamiya-citroen-2cv-charleston-m05.html
The Citroën 2CV ("Deux chevaux") was the brainchild of Pierre Boulanger, who assigned André Lefebvre as engineer and Flaminio Bertoni as stylist. The goal was to to help motorise the large number of farmers still using horses and carts in France in the 1930's. Unfortunately as the car was nearing production WW2 consumed Europe, so the 2CV would not be shown to the public until 1948 at the Paris motor show.
The 2CV is in reality is a very innovative pick up. The combination of innovative engineering and easy to construct bodywork made it very versatile car.
The 2CV charleston was introduced in 1980. It was a special edition with an art deco-styled paintjob, it proved so popular that it kept in production for a decade. In this era the 2CV even made an appearance in 'For your eyes only' with Roger Moore using it to charge away from the henchmen through the olive groves of Spain.
I have a soft spot for the 2CV, ive been looking at the kit for a while and it seems to be pretty cheap at the moment so I decided to pick up the Tamiya kit to feed my nostalgia and for a bit of fun.
I wont cover the build, the detailed builds take a lot of time and I wanted to just indulge myself in the build and have some time to just enjoy the hobby. (If you want a detailed look at a M05 build, check out my M05pro build here)
It was great to just sit at my table, and build the kit. There is no surprise to anyone that reads this site that I am a fan of Tamiya, and to just take my time and spend a few hours here and there building up the M05 chassis was a good distraction from all the stuff going on at the moment.
As with any Tamiya kit, the build was straightforward with the kit instructions. I have had several M05 chassis over the years and I do have a soft spot for them. They are rugged performers, and I always think they are great fun running the stock motor. The FWD drive train always wants to light up the front tyres if you push hard on the throttle, and the silver can gives you a good sense of scale speed.
If you want to hop up and tune the M05, check out the tuning guide here
With the chassis built I moved onto the the body. The detail here is superb as you would expect. I did think it might be difficult to get the box art, but I just took my time. The body took longer than the chassis but I was really happy with the final result.
With the chassis built its done a couple of batteries up and down the secluded cul-de sac. It is never going to be raced, and to be honest it will probably spend more time on the shelf, but it's been a tonic at rekindling my affection for this hobby. Now what am I going to build next?
I wont cover the build, the detailed builds take a lot of time and I wanted to just indulge myself in the build and have some time to just enjoy the hobby. (If you want a detailed look at a M05 build, check out my M05pro build here)
It was great to just sit at my table, and build the kit. There is no surprise to anyone that reads this site that I am a fan of Tamiya, and to just take my time and spend a few hours here and there building up the M05 chassis was a good distraction from all the stuff going on at the moment.
As with any Tamiya kit, the build was straightforward with the kit instructions. I have had several M05 chassis over the years and I do have a soft spot for them. They are rugged performers, and I always think they are great fun running the stock motor. The FWD drive train always wants to light up the front tyres if you push hard on the throttle, and the silver can gives you a good sense of scale speed.
If you want to hop up and tune the M05, check out the tuning guide here
With the chassis built I moved onto the the body. The detail here is superb as you would expect. I did think it might be difficult to get the box art, but I just took my time. The body took longer than the chassis but I was really happy with the final result.
With the chassis built its done a couple of batteries up and down the secluded cul-de sac. It is never going to be raced, and to be honest it will probably spend more time on the shelf, but it's been a tonic at rekindling my affection for this hobby. Now what am I going to build next?
