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B-Type Military Omnibus (Battle bus)


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B-Type Military Omnibus of the  91 Army Service Corps  MTC.  Ypres Spring 1915

 

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Introduced in 1910, when most buses were still horse-drawn, the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) B-type was London’s most successful mass-produced motor-bus. 

After the outbreak of war in 1914, London buses, along with their drivers and mechanics, were commandeered for the war effort. 

The buses were used to transport troops to and from the Front Line and were put to use as ambulances and even mobile pigeon lofts. Nearly 1,200 LGOC vehicles went on war service, most to France and Belgium, with some travelling as far afield as Egypt.

Apparently a number of these buses went to France still in their LGOC red livery and after a few weeks they were painted in a more suitable colour by their crews. It seems likely that this was a khaki-green although contemporary witness accounts describe a wide variety of colours. It was also observed that quite often the khaki paint would be chipped and worn through and the old red colour would show through bringing back memories of when these buses had travelled London's busy streets in happier days. 

The windows would often get broken by the soldiers rifles and equipment so in the end they just removed the glass and placed wooden boards on the outside. I guess it also afforded the passengers little protection from stray shellfire. 

 

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The detail and fit on Miniart's kit is excellent however many of the parts are very fragile making them difficult to remove from the sprues and clean up which led to a very slow build process. I did have to replace some of the linkages with brass rod.

The wood grain in the plastic window boards provided in the kit were a little over done for my liking and in most of the photos I could find they seemed to use five boards rather than the six on the plastic items so I used some wood veneer strips to replicate them.

I also wanted to have a couple of broken windows so I used some glass microscope cover slips to replace the plastic windows.

 

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I did actually paint the model in the LGOC red livery so that I could chip and rub through the khaki top coat to show some ware and tare. However by the time I added all of the mud and dust effects not much of that can be seen so in hindsight I would have saved a lot of time just adding some chipping etc on top of the khaki. 

The 'correct' Khaki or service colour from WW1 is often debated and I don't think there really is an exact colour so I went with what I think looks right. In this case for a base colour I used AK's Real Colors Khaki Green No3 with some gloss added to get a satin sheen.

I cut some stencils from the scanned decal sheet and sprayed the markings on and then sanded them down to give a worn look. Weathering was then added using oils,paints and pigments. 

 

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There are photos of a couple of these busses carrying a bicycle on the front platform. I thought this might make an interesting addition so I added one of the Masterbox kits.

 

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Overall I'm pretty pleased with the way this one has turned out. Hopefully Miniart will add a Pigeon Loft at some point or even a Mobile workshop.

If you are interested in how this model went together there is a work in progress here.  

 

Wayne

 

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Wayne, that bus is superb. I followed the wip and was very impressed, both with the kit and your work. But if I was to single anything out, it would be that bike. That is just brilliant. The spokes, the pump, the brake levers all make this a great little model, all on it's own. Nice work.

 

John.

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Wonderful,  just wonderful! 

Superb modelling the attention to detail in build, paint and weathering is outstanding, as John has said the bicycle is tremendous on it's own! (Is it straight as Masterbox supplied or have you add to it?)

 

Great work

Darryl 

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Absolutely love this. Lots of little details that make it. The accuracy of those details are the key for me. That bike is perfect! 

This is on my list as a pigeon lost including the bike so will use this as a reference 😉

Nice to see you exposed the brass handrail as well 👌

 

A

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4 hours ago, PlaStix said:

One of the best models I have seen on Britmodeller!! :worthy: :worthy: :worthy: :worthy:

Kind regards,

Stix

 

19 hours ago, gmoss said:

Exceptional

 

On 06/09/2020 at 13:45, Tom W. said:

This model is outstanding in every detail. I'm very impressed. It looks so realistic... Masterpiece!

 

On 06/09/2020 at 12:48, Getting Old said:

Brilliant work :clap2:

 

On 06/09/2020 at 11:00, Ernst said:

Superb, this is a stunning model. This is a joy to watch.

Cheers,

Ernst.

 

On 06/09/2020 at 10:51, APA said:

Absolutely love this. Lots of little details that make it. The accuracy of those details are the key for me. That bike is perfect! 

This is on my list as a pigeon lost including the bike so will use this as a reference 😉

Nice to see you exposed the brass handrail as well 👌

 

A

 

On 06/09/2020 at 10:38, StuartH said:

An absolute work of art. 👏

 

On 06/09/2020 at 10:18, Ozzy said:

Absolutely fantastic build Wayne.

 

On 06/09/2020 at 08:28, Jasper dog said:

Wonderful,  just wonderful! 

Superb modelling the attention to detail in build, paint and weathering is outstanding, as John has said the bicycle is tremendous on it's own! (Is it straight as Masterbox supplied or have you add to it?)

 

Great work

Darryl 

 

On 06/09/2020 at 08:27, Stef N. said:

A real beauty Wayne. Following the WIP we saw how much thought, effort and hard work went into this and the final piece hasn't disappointed. Really top modelling all round. Bravo.👏

 

On 06/09/2020 at 07:51, Bullbasket said:

Wayne, that bus is superb. I followed the wip and was very impressed, both with the kit and your work. But if I was to single anything out, it would be that bike. That is just brilliant. The spokes, the pump, the brake levers all make this a great little model, all on it's own. Nice work.

 

John.

 

On 06/09/2020 at 07:42, viper-30 said:

Excellent work love the details ...inspired 

 

On 06/09/2020 at 07:01, johnny akes said:

Superb, a real master class in modelling and weathering. Excellent photography too.

 

On 06/09/2020 at 01:56, busnproplinerfan said:

Like the grand daddy of bike racks. Just needs a street dio.

 

On 06/09/2020 at 01:30, Longbow said:

Inspiring work all around !! Fantastic attention to detail, and finishing !!

 

 

I would just like to say a massive thank you for all of your fantastic comments and feedback, it's made my day reading through them.

 

Wayne

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On 06/09/2020 at 08:28, Jasper dog said:

Is it straight as Masterbox supplied or have you add to it?

They are really nicely detailed little kits. I think most of them come with a figure, this one was the European Civilian on Bike, 1944-45, 'The Price of War'. I know it's the wrong time period but I don't think bikes changed that much.

I added some springs under the seat and a lens to the front light. I did have a bit of trouble with the spokes. They are etched and were a little too big to fit inside the wheels so some careful sanding was required. You can see that there are a couple of bent ones if you look closely.

 

3 minutes ago, diablo rsv said:

This is on my list as a pigeon lost including the bike so will use this as a reference 😉

I am tempted to do the same. Miniart did release a set of pigeons in 1/35 so I hope they will release a kit of the Pigeon loft. I can guarantee that if I start scratching building one they will release one.  

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22 hours ago, edjbartos said:

Can’t really add anything different that’s already been said, it’s just an absolutely amazing piece of work, I’ve followed your wip and really enjoyed how you’ve done things. Well done, excellent work...

 

Ed

 

11 hours ago, kiwitrogg said:

Outstanding.  Bravo Sir !

Cheers

Gaz

 

6 hours ago, vaoinas said:

Absolutely marvellous model.

Perfect in every way possible.

Thank you all very much! I did really enjoy making that one as it was something different for me. Now I don't know what to build next.

 

Wayne

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