About a week after my previous post about never having seen an HH that wasn't painted in the standard colour, I came across a local auction listing that showed a greenish HH. I quickly entered a bid and continued browsing the auction as it was about to close.

Not finding anything else of interest, I took a closer look at the Royal I had bid on, and quickly realized it had been repainted. My excitement had collapsed into dread as the auction clock neared zero; I prayed that someone would enter a last second bid to take this HH off my hands.

As luck would have it, someone did outbid me and I dodged a bullet. Had it not been for this thread I probably would have looked more carefully before placing my bid... 

In my defence, I had bid on a thumbnail of this image (below). It's obvious - now - looking at the full image that:
1. The colour is just wrong
2. The keytops are the wrong colour
3. It's not a great repaint as things such as the ribbon colour index are painted over
4. The unpainted components are the bog-stock Royall HH colour

I would guess that this was done a long time ago as the dealer/shop sticker on the ribbon cover is very old and it doesn't appear to have been removed and reapplied, or masked and painted around. Also, the paint is textured, not a technique that current day rattle can painters bother with.