Hello everybody! We are planning to make a Bugatti Bebe Prototype miniature model.
But we don't know what colour it was. Especially it seems the the colour of front body is different from rear body - ???
Please advise me if you have any information about it.
I have attached the period photos.

I may be completely wrong, but it seems to me to be unpainted. There does seem to be evidence of welding and/or planing around the scuttle area ; which might account for the two-tone effect.

But this is pure speculation on my part based partly on observation of the two photos and partly on Ettore leaving the prototype T10 unpainted for a while.

Does anyone else know for sure?

Johan

Thank you, Johan,
It is surely possible the prorotype car was unpainted. The rear body might be made of fabrics so that two-tone effect appeared. And it seems the front body has not revealed bare-metal itself but a rust preventive had been painted.
What colour was unti-rust paint in those days ?
annex_green

Hi,

I agree with Johan. looks unpainted aluminium(?), but prepped for painting.

Had a look at Tome 1 of Norbert Steinhauser's masterpiece and pages 238 and 239 show an advert and picture that suggest a glossy mid-grey. Page 240 shows a picture with the car looking like it has black paintwork with a slightly matte sheen to it.

You have hit on a problem I have been unsuccesfully trying to solve. That is, if you have a grey scale picture (as black and white photographs are) and you know what some of the colours are -say the Bugatti logo colours, tyres and leaves on a tree - can you extrapolate the other colours from the grey scale?