Need help on "reverse-engineering" part of a model without instructions

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I'm trying to recreate the one model made in the LEGO Club Magazine for the first series of Collectable Minfigures that didn't come with instructions in 2010; the Clown car. I've basically been recreating it in LDD and so far the one area I'm having issue in is the round front section with the blue stud.

The car looks like it uses this mudguard, but whatever the front rounded plate with the blue stud is connected to seems to collide with the studs of said mudguard and can't be placed down flat, meaning it may not be the same but red rounded plates. That or it's connected to a hinge piece at the back to "drape" over part of the car at an angle, but would there be enough stud space to do that length wise? It could also just be a matter of what's connected to the grey piece and the answer not being the same, rounded plate, but it does look like it's rounded like the front piece and I'm not sure of other similarly rounded pieces that are shorter to accomodate for the mudguard studs and still connect to the rest of car through SNOT.

TLDR; I'm bewildered by the construction of the SNOT-based, blue/grey/red middle front section of the car and wonder if anyone here could take a crack at it.

EDIT: Here's a link to the image I took from that might be slightly better quality: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=4642125

Edited July 17, 2020 by Transparency for Effect

[deraven]

Do you have a link to a better image?  Kinda hard to see the area in question with the tiny, low-res version here when using the little EB storage space and I'm not even sure if that piece behind the modified grey plate is actually rounded at the top or if it's a roof brick or something.  Doesn't seem to be a lot of images of it online...

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That's kinda the best image we got as I've only seen scans of the LEGO Club Magazine here:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=4642125

[MAB]

 

To me it looks like a plate on top of the mudguard (I used a green 1x2 here), 2 1x1 SNOT bricks (not headlight, the stud on side 1x1 brick, could also use a 1x2 with 2 studs), then the plate with hole on that. The bottom of the blue piece matches up perfectly with the yellow mudguard.

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1 minute ago, MAB said:

 

To me it looks like a plate on top of the mudguard (I used a green 1x2 here), 2 1x1 SNOT bricks (not headlight, the stud on side 1x1 brick, could also use a 1x2 with 2 studs), then the plate with hole on that. The bottom of the blue piece matches up perfectly with the yellow mudguard.

The only problem is that it really looks like there's other red rounded plates behind the grey one in the image I linked, to which that'd collide with the studs of the mudguard. So either there's smaller plate pieces that match the roundness of the grey one or the two/three rounded plates stuck together are just sitting on top of the car unconnected (maybe as to why there ain't no instructions) although that probably doesn't look the same as it does in the image. But I do appreciate the construction you made here :) I could use it for my recreation but with red snot pieces behind it if the other idea doesn't pan out.

[MAB]

The only other thing I can think of is a bracket rather than the 1x1 bricks but that would leave a gap in height between the blue and yellow.

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I'm starting to think the SNOT bricks holding the blue "headlights" in place are the ones with two studs opposite sides, and those are holding the rounded plates in place unconnected as it's sandwiched between the mudguard's studs and the front blue tile's edge.

[TeriXeri]

Looks to me there's a red roof slope behind the grey part:

Edited July 17, 2020 by TeriXeri

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1 hour ago, TeriXeri said:

Looks to me there's a red roof slope behind the grey part:

That looks like it could work! Looking back at the image, that looks like it could be that roof piece after all, and at the very least that's easier to go with than finding a way in attaching other or smaller rounded plates that aren't a thing looking into it (Occam's Razor?), so I think I'll go with this. Many thanks!

EDIT: It's also worth noting that the height of the "windshield" section seems to require 2 plates instead of another regular brick, so that kind of fits with the construction shared here of putting a plate below the SNOT brick that connects to the front rounded grey plate.

Edited July 17, 2020 by Transparency for Effect

[ChocolateCrisps]

Not sure how much it will help, but I just dug out my copy of the magazine and scanned a slightly higher res version of the image:

 

[MAB]

From that higher res image, it looks like cheese slopes on a plate.

 

It is nice someone still has the magazine!

 

[deraven]

38 minutes ago, ChocolateCrisps said:

Not sure how much it will help, but I just dug out my copy of the magazine and scanned a slightly higher res version of the image:

That's the ticket!  Looks like it's 2 cheese slopes and not a roof brick or anything else SNOT behind the grey plate.  I would say the mystery has been solved!  

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Just now, deraven said:

That's the ticket!  Looks like it's 2 cheese slopes and not a roof brick or anything else SNOT behind the grey plate.  I would say the mystery has been solved!  

It has been! It totally wasn't other rounded plates after all, plus it seems I was also wrong about how the blue headlights are connected, with me thinking prior they were attached through SNOT bricks with the clip for the horn on top, as well as the proper placement of the windshield piece. Thanks ChocolateCrisps!

[TeriXeri]

Yeah red cheese slopes make sense, better picture certainly helps.

Edited July 17, 2020 by TeriXeri