Surprise Bugatti

Bit of a funny story about this one. I didn't actually mean to buy this model, but circumstances just happened. A Finnish model shop was selling a model of a Bucciali TAV8 for 15 Euro (it was the Russian Amercom offering) so I decided to jump on that. Next morning I get a phone call from the proprietor who told me that since his recent updating of his site, it came with the side effect of causing a bunch of phantom articles to appear that he hadn't had in stock in years. So, he suggested if I'd like to replace that with the Bugatti Royale since to him it looked just the same (though not really), and as it was a car I had occasionally thought of buying but never got around to, so I agreed.

Second surprise in this merry-go-round came when I actually received the car, for I expected this to be one of the numerous PCT models out there, one which he was also selling for the same price. It wasn't, and actually turned out to be an old Solido instead. It came in all black with no particular finer detailing, but did have a hood that popped off so you could see the engine. But on the basis it was still solid (ha ha) enough, so I figured I could do a little finer adding to it myself. I applied some silver marker on the door handles and the little chrome strips on the running boards, and then took a fitting enough blue model paint jar from my small collection of paints to colour in the two-tone insert. The original paint is really crappy, all lumpy and poorly applied, so it kind of shines through, but I think these little retouches helped to considerably remove much of the flatness of the original. And it also helped that the hood came off, so it was easier to paint without having to deal with those large fenders.

Anyway, that's how I almost accidentally ended up with this Bugatti; not a great model really, but certainly not the worst either.