Revell Routemaster, London Country 480 mid 70s

[Kallisti]

Complete!

Quite a few people have built the Revell Routmaster model and I've seen a lot at various shows in the last year, so I wanted to do something different and personal.

Back in the dim and distant past that was the 1970s I used to take the bus from my home village of Swanscombe in Kent to Gravesend to attend Gravesend School for Boys. The bus I invariably caught was a 480 whose route took it from the eastern side of Gravesend, Denton or Valley Drive all the way along the busy industrial North West Kent roads to Dartford and Erith. This was an ara of heavy industry, paper mills, printing factories and most of all cement factories. Blue Circle had the biggest cement factory in Europe on the banks of the Thames in Northfleet and Swanscombe also had its own cement works, in the shadow of whose chimney I grew up.

As a result, the buses were a mess, always dirty. Added to the fact that this was a provincial bus company so its advertising opportunities were not as great as the London buses so adverts changed frequently and often were not even present. Then I found this superb photo:

How about that for weathering?

So inspiration struck and this is the result:

I did have some issues with the decals for the "London Country" logos - the yellow is too faint on transparent decal paper so I had to try to match the background green on the decal which wasn't entirely successful and I've run out of white decal paper, but got some more on order so when that arrives I'll have another go with a rage of greens to get a better match.

However, in the meantime I'm very happy with the end result

Edited May 1, 2015 by Kallisti

[snapper_city]

It looks great finished. Has been a fun build to watch come together and the result looks terrific. Hopefully will see this in the flesh tomorrow evening.

[swordfish fairey]

Great work and such a difference from the others I've seen....The worn paint is particularly realistic.......BZ...........Smudge

[thorfinn]

Wonderful job! It's always great to put a personal spin on a project.

[chrismac60]

Great model Andrew, but you definatly need one of Eds bases! See him tomorrow

Chris

[Bengalensis]

Very well done! It's really nice and I like the weathering very much. Wonderful build!

[Foghorn Leghorn]

Now that is bl**dy good!

[Glen T]

That really is one well worn bus, excellent build and finish.

Glen.

[louiex2]

Some of the best weathering I've ever seen. Excellen work!

[wagoneer]

Superb! For anyone not familiar with the route this bus took, they (and everything around the area) did look like that! One of my grandads worked at the cement works at Northfleet in the 60's so he may well have got on this bus.

[PlaStix]

That is stunning! As others have said - best weathering I've seen! Most impressed.

Cheers,

Stix

[pte1643]

That's a super job.

The heavy weathering is great.

I lived in the "Red Bus" area of West London during the 70's, and they were no different really. Most pictures from this era show how neglected some of them were.

[Kallisti]

Thanks guys, glad you like it

[Spookytooth]

Alll aboard !! Great build sir, nicely weathered as well.

I didnot know that you could get decal paper?

Well I am just a newbie .

[DanSAR95]

Easily the best vehicle build I've ever seen. It really is award winning stuff. The weathering is insanely good and this whole model is embarrassingly fantastic. I also agree that you see so many of these built oob, so for yours to be in a different livery and, if I remember from your work in progress that you made some internal improvements, it really is a brilliant build. Well done

[Kallisti]

Thanks guys

I've very pleased and proud to announce that the model won the Member's Trophy last night at the Farnborough club - this is a 6 monthly special competition that this time around was for "Civilian Vehicles". There was some stiff competition from some other very good models, including a couple of decidedly knackered looking Minis

Edited September 10, 2013 by Kallisti

[pte1643]

I've very pleased and proud to announce that the model won the Member's Trophy last night at the Farnborough club

Bloomin' good show old chap.

I was encouraged to put mine in a show/competition, by some work mates, but I never got round to it (couldn't be bothered is probably more accurate).

[raif]

Fantastic! well done on the Trophy, lovely subject and those tyres are about as perfect as I have ever seen in modelling!

[kev67]

Very nice, I hope that Revell bring out the single decker RF bus

[Will Vale]

Very cool, I like the mis-matched repainted panel, and that second pic could be a real one.

[Kallisti]

Thanks

[Jabberwocky]

Stunning. Absolutely stunning. I hope I can get to see this one face-to-face, (so to speak), at some time.

Congrats on the prize, and this really deserves it.

Cheers,

Paul

[Stesca]

Superb, I really want to build this model especially in green, builds like this just make it harder for me to resist, well done excellent,

Steve.

[Kallisti]

If you are going to Telford this year, the bus will be in the Civilian Vehicle class in the competition

[griffsrw]

that is stunning, a great inspiration . now that is a weathered bus, tickets please.