I acquired this pre-owned kit many years ago - I think from ebay - the box is OK, but there are no instructions & no decals, and a load of bits off the sprue ( thankfully only the larger parts )
The Royale was made late 20's, early 30's - was 6.5m long, weighed 3t & had a 12.7L straight 8 engine! These were all handmade & the coachwork varied from car to car. The boxart shows silver & black, but I'm going to go with blue & black.
This boxing & tooling dates from 1984. I think I opened the box, saw the truly horrible 'chrome' parts & consigned it to the back of the stash. I've enjoyed making the older cars recently, like the Model T & the Delage D8, that I'm ready to give this a go
Sorry for the picture - a combination of poor light & chrome - the camera didn't like it. Doesn't matter as I intended to strip all the chrome off........................
To find out if it was worth continuing - I put a sample of parts into my bleach jar, If I couldn't get the chrome off, then I'd not bother going any further.
Not bad, just a few patches of chrome left - I then cut up all the major chrome bits & dumped them into the jar overnight...........
At the moment, all the smaller parts, door handles etc are sitting in the bleach jar - I'll take them out tonight.
If you're wondering why bleach? I used to use Fairy Power Spray - at about £3 a 1/2 litre bottle. I now use Tesco Lemon Fresh Bleach at 90p for 2 litres ( which I already used for domestic use! ). It may take a bit longer, but is actually easier to use - a glass pickle jar with parts & bleach, tightly capped & left overnight works well ( I give it a bit of a shake now & then ). The smell is a bit overpowering, but dunk the whole lot into fresh water & rinse.......................
I'm going to wait until all the bits are dechromed before I make a start. No instructions mean that it's a bit of a puzzle, but I've found that the Bandai 1/16 Bugatti Royale instructions will help - The Italeri model seems to be a much simplified version of the Bandai model
Dave
The Royale was made late 20's, early 30's - was 6.5m long, weighed 3t & had a 12.7L straight 8 engine! These were all handmade & the coachwork varied from car to car. The boxart shows silver & black, but I'm going to go with blue & black.
This boxing & tooling dates from 1984. I think I opened the box, saw the truly horrible 'chrome' parts & consigned it to the back of the stash. I've enjoyed making the older cars recently, like the Model T & the Delage D8, that I'm ready to give this a go
Sorry for the picture - a combination of poor light & chrome - the camera didn't like it. Doesn't matter as I intended to strip all the chrome off........................
To find out if it was worth continuing - I put a sample of parts into my bleach jar, If I couldn't get the chrome off, then I'd not bother going any further.
Not bad, just a few patches of chrome left - I then cut up all the major chrome bits & dumped them into the jar overnight...........
At the moment, all the smaller parts, door handles etc are sitting in the bleach jar - I'll take them out tonight.
If you're wondering why bleach? I used to use Fairy Power Spray - at about £3 a 1/2 litre bottle. I now use Tesco Lemon Fresh Bleach at 90p for 2 litres ( which I already used for domestic use! ). It may take a bit longer, but is actually easier to use - a glass pickle jar with parts & bleach, tightly capped & left overnight works well ( I give it a bit of a shake now & then ). The smell is a bit overpowering, but dunk the whole lot into fresh water & rinse.......................
I'm going to wait until all the bits are dechromed before I make a start. No instructions mean that it's a bit of a puzzle, but I've found that the Bandai 1/16 Bugatti Royale instructions will help - The Italeri model seems to be a much simplified version of the Bandai model
Dave