In-Progress - Bugatti Royale

AmazonSprite · #1 03-05-2006, 05:03 AM

As requested (& promised) in another thread, here's some pics of the Bugatti Royale that I'm currently building. It's Bandai's 1:16 kit, so it's very large - shown below next to a 1:24 GTO for comparison, with a 1:24 MB 500K in the background:

Like virtually all my kits, I bought it off eBay. It was described as untouched & complete. Complete yes, but untouched - no, as the body had already been painted.... Fortunately though it was to a good standard (& probably better than I could acheive) so I'll leave it as it is. The body is slightly warped which is normal, and it's much better than on the other one that I have (which will be built as either just a rolling chassis or converted to match another Royale bodystyle).

Amongst other things, the chassis needs to have the detailing finished before the wings / floor can be glued down. I have loads of reference pics of the chassis, but might save some of that detail for the other one. Getting the rear axle into the right place was a pain - if it was left where the fit of the parts would put it, it ended up off centre in the wheelarch

It's not quite perfect now (much better than before though) and even this involved a lot of juggling and careful trimming / building up of mountings etc.

To give an idea of the size, here's the real thing (the exact one in this kit

) as seen at the Goodwood Revival in '04:

Wish I'd taken more photos but it was long before I bought the kit.....

I'll post up some more pics later

G-man422 · #2 03-05-2006, 07:14 AM

That thing is Beastly! keep us updated.

Samurai75007 · #3 03-05-2006, 09:56 AM

Good god that thing is HUGE!!!

alakai · #4 03-05-2006, 10:16 AM

Those definitely are massive! Looking good!

blubaja · #5 03-05-2006, 11:41 AM

Huge..yea! Keep up the awsoem progress man!

AmazonSprite · #6 03-05-2006, 04:57 PM

Another pic to show the size - next to a Bandai 1:16 Mercer Raceabout (itself a large car):

Quick mock-up / trial fit of the body panels. The doors & bonnet are just propped in place, hence the poor fit.

mikemechanic · #7 03-05-2006, 06:52 PM

Excellent nice to see someone else building this kit. I built it a few years ago and posted it here. Feel free to check it out. Looks like I need to take some updated pics with my new camera.
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...bugatti+royale

G-man422 · #8 03-06-2006, 06:43 AM

looks good.

Martsmodels · #9 03-07-2006, 08:12 AM

Should be great when you've finished her!

I seem to remember reading somewhere that they only made about 8 chassis' and this Coupe de Ville started life as a roadster! That must have been something to see (!!!)

AmazonSprite · #10 03-09-2006, 07:32 AM

Thanks for all the comments guys! I haven't done any more yet but I hope to make some progress this weekend.

Martin - funny that you should mention the Esders roadster - that was already one of my ideas for rebodying my other 1:16 Royale kit (complete, and the wings / bonnet are ok, but the body is very badly warped) but given the history behind it, that's definately the plan now!

CADguy · #11 03-09-2006, 01:41 PM

Great work on this classic beauty so far. I have this kit and plan on starting it very soon. Gathering reference for these cars is no easy task. I'd really like to see the chassis photos you have. I hope you make the roadster body. It'd be cool to see both bodys for chassis 41111 together.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martsmodels

Should be great when you've finished her!

I seem to remember reading somewhere that they only made about 8 chassis' and this Coupe de Ville started life as a roadster! That must have been something to see (!!!)

This chassis was in fact bodied as a boat-tail roadster originally. Here is a recreation of the original 'Esders' car.

There were six chassis's built, and there have been 11 different body configurations. Each one of them was fantastic. It's a shame that there weren't 11 separate chassis's and bodys created.

Martsmodels · #12 03-10-2006, 07:45 AM

Fabulous!! Just done a Google image search on Esders (I guess you have too) and there are quite a few pics of that recreation on there. It doesn't look as if that would be too difficult a conversion although the details may be harder to get.
Keep us posted.

AmazonSprite · #13 03-15-2006, 06:05 AM

Update!!

I've been trial fitting the body & interior, & there are a few minor issues, but nothing that I think can't be sorted out. Pleasantly surprised especially given that this is an old kit ('70s?) and the bonnet & all the doors open.

Problem 1:

Body doesn't fit properly against the wheelarch - hopefully some careful sanding of the lower edges of the body will fix this. if pressure is applied, it lines up but I don't want to have to hold it while the glue dries:

Problem 2:
Rear door hinges are visible in the chauffeur's compartment:

Should be able to solve this by boxing it in with plasticard. The body will need this anyway as the centre pillars are quite weak (one has already snapped & been repaired). The division doesn't line up properly as the body is slightly warped, but it will be ok once it's glued. The texture to the seat is quite good and I can't decide yet whether painting it will actually improve it!

Problem 3:
Unfortunately the hinge aperture is much larger than it needs to be:

Again, plasticard to the rescue!

Problem 4:
Body sitting too high on the chassis at the back:

Again, pressure solves this, so will carefully sand the top of the chassis / underside of the floor as required.

And now for a few proper pics. At this stage, none of the interior has been painted yet (the orange parts will be tan coloured - Humbrol matt 29):
[img]

The door looks like it's hanging off rather than opening smoothly as the hinge panel is onlu blue-tacked in place - actual fit will be better!

Wheel detail:

The spokes have been painted silver, as they are matt on the real thing. Still needs a black wash & the red band added.

AmazonSprite · #14 03-31-2006, 06:03 PM

No pics as there's nothing exciting to show, however I hope that this thread may help anyone else who builds this kit

The wings / floor are now on the chassis, and sitting properly, or at least as well as is possible - it's not 100% but it's ok. I've had to file out the front wheelarch apertures a bit to improve the wheelarch to wheel fit, and in order to get the wings to fit properly at the rear, the fuel tank had to be removed as it was making the body sit too high. This is a knock-on effect from my adjustments to the position of the rear axle (it needed to move back to centre the wheels in the arches), and I've had to remove most of the top of the fuel tank so it will fit - fortunately these changes won't be visible.

My next project will probably be Heller's 1:16 Citroen DS19 'Decapotable' (cabrio), which I've mocked-up quickly to check the panel fit before I spray the body - it looks tiny next to the Royale, even though it's the same scale!

Martsmodels · #15 04-02-2006, 04:33 PM

Great to see that you are getting on with this one, despite no new pictures.

These older 1/16 kits are surely additiive if you like the Vintage/Post Vintage era (which I do) and take a lot of work to get 'right'.

I have found that the body tub to rear wing (fender) never fits without a bit of persuasion (as you said). There are two options here - either sand down for a perfect fit or apply a couple of dabs of CA glue between your poly cement to hold the body tub down. It depends on the end product I think - for instance I don't know whether the Royale has the tube trim between the fender and the bodywork as in some cars of that era (if it has - then the fit doesn't have to be as exact and you can get away with the original because the tubing will cover the gap). (hope I'm not trying to teach my Grandmother to suck eggs here)

Keep us posted on this one because I'm sure there is a lot of interest

Good luck with the 'Bug-antics'

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