Christian Hey's

Bugatti and Boats

From the builder...

I first have built the Arno boat from Italieri, in the early 2000, after having built a few Chris-Crafts 1/8 and RIVA 1/10.

4 years later I found on Internet, in the US, a motor for this boat.

A very fine work, essentially in white metal and photo-etched material, and many photos. But in the box, 1 of the 2 cylinder heads was missing; So, I had to make a mold and to create this piece.

All the chandlery I have made previously for my Chris-Crafts and Riva were a good learning...

The very many photos obliged me to go very far in the precision...

I am not retired (62 old) and work only a few hours in the week, in winter, so I needed 1 year for the boat, 1 for the motor, and 1 more for all the accessories.

The Bugatti T50 chassis came later. I found the model in his sealed box in a flea marked, but I was not specially looking for.

Since the late 1970 I knew about this model and 1979 I have built the Alfa Romeo Monza, without any fine-tuning.

Aluminum blocs and compressor were found in Mosheim, where someone builds Bugatti motors in 1/8 scale.

As I have no experience about sheet metal work, I decided to build only a chassis model.

I thought also it would be a pity to hide this beautiful Bugatti motor.

In the meantime I am building a Phantom II chassis and the motor is at least as beautiful.

My tools are a Dremel 3000 and a little metal tower.

I often use recycled material. For instance the wheel trims are bottoms from coca cola cans...