Renault 8 TS
Developed over 5 years, the Renault 8 was introduced on 22 July 1962. Following the scheme used so far in their cars like the 4/4 or the Dauphine, Renault built a utility model "all behind" type (engine and gearbox hanging behind the rear axle) with a 956 cc engine that developed 48 cv 5400 r.p.m. Outwardly it was a car quite "normal" with a straight dashed line with an air of evolution of the Dauphine model.
In France, and in addition to the range of the car version, was selled the Gordini as sports model, with changes in the rear suspension, the brakes and especially in the engine, which was a 1,300 cc, that with its 95 hp turned the car into a real racing car
Here in Spain, and discarding the manufacture of the Gordini, FASA introduced in 1968 the TS model, with a 1,018 cc engine and 56 C.V. 5,500 r.p.m.. With this car,Renault organized the first single-brand competition in the country, the "National Renault 8 TS Cup", like the competition that already existed in France with the Gordini. The cup, which was first held in 1969 season was a success and a school of pilots like Salvador Canellas, Jaime Sornosa, Jesus Pareja and Jose Angel Sansiambarrena among others.
Of course, the car sports participations were not limited to the circuits and many TS and Gordini could be seen in rallies and cost increases.
In 1/32 scale the car has been replicated by Team Slot time ago and more recently by Tecnitoys, besides the resin kit artisans as presented here. My intention is to replicate the car in a street version, for that I start from of the lagartijakit resin body kit that is of exceptional quality and very complete as you can see in the picture below. And from my point of view has much more charm than that the model released by Tecnitoys.
In fact, this step by step will be, except for minor differences, essentially the same as used at the time the author of the resin body. If you want to see it visit this link.
The first thing I always do, and no different in this case is to adjust the chassis. A Ninco Porsche 365 chassis going down the box of parts fitted with a short box engine pod.
Because the wheelbase is somewhat shorter, I modified the front axle support moving it slightly forward, and leaving the rear axle supports a bit lower. The other changes were limited to trim the ends to fit properly within the body.
As engine I will use a Ninco NC1, that due to its size touches the bottom of the drivers tray and does not allow the proper adjustment of the chassis, body and drivers tray. The solution is to scrabble a little on the bottom of the tray to avoid the motor touches it.
For the body, the chosen color was X3 Tamiya acrylic yellow applied with an airbrush. Previously I painted the model by hand with white primer with bad results, which will give me more work in getting a good finish. At least the yellow paint covers very well and the tone is right for the car.
Meanwhile, I took to modify the optics that came with the kit. With fine waterproof sandpaper removed the silver lining of the fund, helping me with a stick and a toothpick stucking carefully aluminum tape that is used in air conditioning assembly, which is easily found in any hardware store. The result was acceptable as you can see in the following photo:
To place the headlights, I had to dig a little holes with a drill of 6 m/m the exterior ones and 4 m/m the interiors. This are once placed:
Painting the car was more complicated than I expected because I chose the wrong primer as said avobe (I used white Humbrol enamel with a paintbrush) and paint did not cover well the surface of the car. I had to strip paint from virtually every place and scrape the surface carefully to left it well matched. After discolored, I gave four coats of yellow Tamiya acrylic paint with the airbrush , which certainly covers a lot better than I expected despite having over-diluted the paint with alcohol. After letting it dry, I painted the details of the body with Vallejo acrylic colors, side stripes previously masking the body with Tamiya masking tape, and gums of the windshield with a fine paintbrush and pulse. A lack of some refinements, the result was this:
For the interior also use the Vallejo acrylic colors and are thus:
Once painted details like the side moldings with vallejo acrylics and gutter and the metalic sheet of the glasses ruber0 with silver Eding indelible marker it became clear for me that for the next time I will paint these details with indelible marker. It covers very well, much better and is easier to paint. Anything easier than for someone with a pulse as bad as I may seem, of course.
I´ve paintet the headlights with red indelible marker and with transparent Tamiya acrylic orange and red, in this case, much better than painted with indelible marker. And is that with such small details, the tip of the pen was a little big, however, with a 0/10 size paintbrush those details are painted better.
T cut acetate crystals and stuck them with hight transparency bicomponent glue. The result was not good, should have set before painting the body and paste them once painted. Once attached, two coats of "Bosque Verde" varnish by brush let the body ready.
Here is he drivers tray with the pilot once painted:
For the tires did not want to use the aluminum ones that came with the kit because they had a too large diameter for the model size. The car originally fitted 15-inch wheelrims, which at 1/32 scale gives a diameter of 11.90 millimeters. With patience and care I reduced the diameter of a few Altaya rims which were in the drawer and then adapted the resin kit inserts, as explained in this link. Once adjusted, I painted along with the bumpers and steering wheel with silver Humbrol enamel.
Except one, that I had off-center the insert, the rest I left to my taste.
The placement of the decals had no trouble even though they are very small, except that simulates the dashboard, as these are of impressive quality. Once fitted and with two coats of "Bosque Verde" varnish applied with paintbrush don´t notice the gap between the decals and bodywork. After leaving the varnish to dry, I assembled the car: The tires selected are the same as the SCX Fiat Panda and Seat Abart (15 x 7 mm) that shook an inch to give them a far more consistent at the car scale. Once everything assembled looks as follows:
If I had it to do it again, would be more careful with the primers (better not to invent and use a spray primer), try to decorate the details with little more care, especially the gums on the windshield (indelible marker better than silver paint by paintbrush), and adjust the interior and the glass more carefully and especially before painting.
And so far has given the assembly of this kit, to date with the most I enjoyed, for its quality, whether by car, by how it looks ... in short, a very beautifulmodel perfectly reproduced. It is those jobs where you never think "Why that I'll be stuck in this mess?"
| Chassis | Ninco Porsche 356 chassis, adapted |
| Wheelbase | 73 mm. |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 125 x 51 x 41 mm |
| Weight | 81 gr. |
| Motor | Mabuchi Motor long box |
| Front tires | Scalextric 15 x 7 mm., narrowed |
| Rear tires | Scalextric 15 x 7 mm., narrowed |
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