24c/24cp and 522 Citroën DS 19 (1956-19..) and 530 Citroën DS 19 berline 1963 (1964-1970) and DS 23 berline 1969 (1976-78) (1)

Hello everybody.As I find that there is not much of fench dinky post, I decide to open one. Cheers :laugh:

Hi, what a great collection of French Dinky Citroens. Sometimes I think some of the models from the French factory have the edge on Binns Road for quality of finish and colours. I havn't got any French Dinkies in my collection yet but would love to own some. Great pictures. Regards, Don Bugden

Hi Richard and Don, I'm sorry to confess that I have no Citrons at all. That was different in my childhood as this photo of ca. 1957 proves! In fact, these Dinky's (and one Porsche by Tekno) were not mine, but my elder brother's, who is still a very good amateur photographer and used me as a photo model. Since the young boys started playing with them, not much later, they did not last very long in this as new condition! Kind regards, Jan

Very nice photo, Jan. How many of us was playing with the dinky toys, on the carpet of the dinning-room or the drawing-room ? On this photo, it could be me ! (with blond hair !) Kind regards Richard

No, it's me for sure!!(LOL) Although I fancied - and still do - wooden or tiled floors... Friendliest regards to you Jan & Richard. Jacques H.

Since Don brought up the issue of color and finish of the French Dinky's maybe being better than their English cousins, I wanted to ask others, including Jan and Jacques what their experience has been. I have a decent collection of French Dinky's, from just after the war up til about 1960. I will say that most of them seem to have a very nice paint job.....bright, smooth and shiny, with nice detailing. I also have a few from about the mid 1950's that have a terrible paint job....a few are very rough and dull, not shiny. I have the Ford Vedette Taxi in black and the black paint as well as the roof is all frosted. I have never seen an English Dinky with these paint conditions, so was wondering if any of you have noticed that with a very small percentage of the French models?Terry

Terry, I hope our French experts will reply to your question, as I do not have that much experience with, or knowledge of, French Dinkies. Regards, Jan

Jan--Thanks for your reply....maybe I should start a new thread with that as the topic, as I have wondered about this in the past. I am not sure who the French Dinky experts are, but certainly Jacques would would a good one to answer this. Terry

Jan and Terry. The paint used was a solvent base paint and if it was too diluted, when the toys arrived in the oven, the solvents evaporate too quick and the paint had not enough time to lie down at full length on the coach-building. It can be that but it can be also a dust problem, flying in the air, when spraying the paint. Be indulgent for my english and I hope that you understand what I mean ! In 2011, at the Coventry meeting I brought with me a leaflet on the paint factory, and David took photos of all the pages but he did not published it in 'The Journal' until now. My family was very involved in this paint company, named HADFIELDS. It started in UK in 1840. Richard

Richard--Thanks for your kind reply. That is interesting and I am sure that painting the models could be tricky at times, for lots of reasons.What is strange, at least for me, is that the examples of poor painting I mentioned only occurred on French models. I have several hundred English Dinky's and have never seen an example of this with them...only the French ones made in the early to mid 1950's. Could very likely be for the reasons you mentioned.....I was just curious if any others had also observed this. Terry

Richard--Thanks for your kind reply. That is interesting and I am sure that painting the models could be tricky at times, for lots of reasons.What is strange, at least for me, is that the examples of poor painting I mentioned only occurred on French models. I have several hundred English Dinky's and have never seen an example of this with them...only the French ones made in the early to mid 1950's. Could very likely be for the reasons you mentioned.....I was just curious if any others had also observed this. Terry

Terry, both of plants (english and french)had their quality controls teams and, probably, the french one failed from time to time. The other reason is that all the items refused by the control team were threw in a garbage to be destroyed but a lot of them disappeared in the pockets or the bags of the staff. With the permission of the chief, of course. Richard