Heller 1/43 Peugeot 203

The Peugeot 203 is a large family car which was produced by the French car manufacturer Peugeot between 1948 and 1960.

The car was exhibited at the Paris Motor Show in 1947, but by then had already been under development for more than five years. Volume manufacturing was initially hampered by strikes and shortages of materials, but production got under way late in 1948, with buyers taking delivery of 203s from early 1949.

The 203 was Peugeot's first new model launched after World War II. During its twelve-year production run nearly 700,000 203s of all variants rolled off the assembly line in Sochaux, France. Between the demise of the 202 in 1949 and the launch of the 403 in 1955, the 203 was the only model produced by Peugeot.

The 203 was also assembled in Australia, beginning in 1953, and thus becoming the first Peugeot model to enter production in that country.

I mentioned in a previous preview that Heller did a whole series of 1/43 car kits back in the 1970s or so. This is one of them. I was fortunate enough to locate one of the early French cars on line and here it is.

The kit is quite nicely molded in a dark red plastic. Like others in the series, the interior is a tub into which one places the front seats, dash and steering wheel. The one-piece body has all the clear bits installed from the inside so you will either have to do some masking or paint the body prior to installing it. The front piece with the grille and headlights is separate.

A flat floor pan is provided with some chassis detail embossed on the plastic. Wheels are right and left halves and will fit on plastic axles. These axles are held in place with blocks that have channels cut into them. It is a system that is simple and quite appropriate for this scale. The chrome is nicely done and consists of mostly headlights, bumpers and wheel covers. You'll need to paint the chrome on the grille and other body trim such as around the windows.

Instructions are two exploded diagrams that will be familiar to people who have built Heller kits with Heller paint colors provided. A decal sheet with license plates is also provided.

This should be a pretty easy build kit. You can brush paint all the interior bits and for colors, a good look on the 'net will provide a ton of options.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_203

March 2018

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