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Topic starter
04/08/2021 2:03 am
Several years ago I bought Minimarque Bugatti Royale, loved the model. The car had broken and missing hood ornament and broken fender lights. Later I was able to acquire the model in mint condition and if you are familiar with the model you know how crude the original hood ornament is. Anyway, the mint Royale is in its box, this post is for the damaged one that I had displayed. Recently I also bought IXO-like Waymann Royale but the model had some hard to remove pitting, so I decided to use it for parts and repair the Minimarque. The hood ornament of the IXO was very basic and unfortunately I knocked it off when cleaning the model. The fender lights however were usable and came off easily. I also have 2 Franklin mint Royales but didn't want to sacrifice one of them for donor car... Hence I decided to try to make my own hood ornament. While searching for the good material, I grabbed a paper clip wire, flattened it on one side and started shaping with micro files, then polished it with polishing rubber bits. This thing is microscopic, about 4mm and some of the final detailing was done using a microscope. Considering the limitation of the material and the tools I used, I was pleased with the result. I put it next to the 1/24 Bugatti Esders hood ornament for comparison and took several pictures:
04/08/2021 8:46 am
I've heard of making a mountain out of a molehill, but an elephant out of a paperclip??? Way to go, Chav! Here's a reminder for those who may have forgotten:
Rembrandt Bugatti would be, I think, very pleased with your results. Congratulations!
04/08/2021 9:14 am
Excellent work Chav. I'm impressed.
Topic starter
04/08/2021 1:25 pm
Nice work! But if it happened to me, I would have found one of the scads of Solido Royales on ebay, bought a cheap one, and extracted its elephant. With age comes laziness I guess.
I agree "With age comes laziness", and I am talking for myself; but if you mean this hood ornament ... I don't like it. The original Minimarque hood ornament is similar.
04/08/2021 3:16 pm
@chav You'd have to find one of the old ones with the mascot still packed separately (No. 136). I did not realize the 4026 Royale had made the elephant so chunky when fixed to the radiator.
Karl Schnelle and Karl Schnelle reacted
Topic starter
04/08/2021 3:26 pm
I see, these are much better, here is a pic from eBay ... Thanks for your insight Harv. The new Solido also have no fender lights (apparently they are called cowl lights?).
Harv Goranson and Harv Goranson reacted
Topic starter
04/08/2021 4:36 pm
Also for your enjoyment recent Royale pictures from Henry Ford museum.
