Hachette 1/12th Routemaster Bus. Now with night photos.

[fightersweep]

I thought I would post this here in case anyone is interested. Finally finished after two and a half years! Now, I know a lot of folk don't like these partworks because of the cost, and I knew what I was getting myself in to, but this was my first partwork and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. A sort of respite between my "proper" models that I could plod away at and not have to worry about ruining any paint jobs!

 

It certainly builds into an impressive beast and believe me, this thing weighs a ton. No WIP I'm afraid as a two and a half year WIP would have sent everyone off to sleep. It's actually a very good model, but I did decide to modify several areas in which it lacked. For example, I re-did pretty much the entire interior. The supplied floors were cast in a horrible almost orange plastic. Nothing like a real Routemaster floor. This was re-painted and lightly weathered in a far more suitable colour. Every seat was re-painted. Hachette had you fix every seat back cushion in place with screws, resulting in the rear faces of every seat having a very noticeable pair of screw heads showing. They also only painted the grab bars on the top of each seat chrome, and missed the rest of the chrome seat frames. I glued the cushions in place, filled the screw holes and repainted each seat and each full chrome seat frame. All cushions were matt varnished as they all had a slight sheen.

 

The stairway kick plates were fixed with overly large chrome screws that make the stairs look very dolls house like, so the kick plates were glued and the screws replaced with pin heads for a far more in scale look. I also made a black out blind for the rear of the drivers cab. Exterior wise, I pretty well left as supplied. However, being that these models are supplied to be built entirely with a screwdriver, all beading strips are attached with small screws. This made it all look a bit Mecanno like, so I filled each screw head with paint to try and achieve the look of a rivet. They still look a bit overscale, but way better than they did. Eventually, I may decide to replace all of these with pin heads, but that's for another day. All adverts were "aftermarket" items to replace the supplied ads as they were not too great.

 

She also lights up. Full interior lights, head lights, destination blinds and indicators and rear lights. Have to say that this model really comes alive at night and looks superb lit up. I'll post some night shots when I get the chance. Overall, a very good model with a few short comings, but a very enjoyable build. Pricey? Overall yes, but still way cheaper than what I was spending on cigarettes ten years ago before I gave up. Would I build another? Possibly. I'm very tempted by the 1/12 1973 Eddie Stobart DAF "Twiggy" with trailer that's just been announced. That might well sway me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...A couple posted with my trusty Starsky and Hutch mug for scale...

 

 

 

Cheers!

Steve

[MR2Don]

Absolutely remarkable!

[s.e.charles]

great model. it would be helpful for us little people to understand what "partworks" is; thanks.

[fightersweep]

6 minutes ago, s.e.charles said:

great model. it would be helpful for us little people to understand what "partworks" is; thanks.

Ah! Sorry. It's those weekly magazines that supply parts each week to build up the model. This one ran to 130 issues. Not cheap overall, but I have to say that it's a very complex model. The chassis alone was a work of art. Shame it's difficult to see, but I plan on fixing mirror tiles to the wooden base.

 

Steve

[klubman01]

Wow!  Looks almost real.  Well done.

Trevor

[bentwaters81tfw]

You can just hear it..........'I 'ate you, Butler..'

 

Looks like you could climb aboard and drive away. Yes, they are expensive, but this looks worth it.

[fightersweep]

Thanks all. Glad you like it.

 

@bentwaters81tfw

 

Must admit, I wasn't sure what to expect, but for the money, I don't feel too hard done by. It's an incredibly complex model. Forgot to mention, all the bells around the bus work, along with the horn. It does have engine noises too, but that's admittedly a bit pants. The only thing I'm not too keen on are the screws that hold the bodywork beading in place. As I said, I filled them with paint which helps, but it does look like it was assembled at Harland and Wolff. I'll modify that at some point.

 

It did come with 10 figures, but I chose not to use them. Unfortunately, the driver doesn't look like Stan, but he is a dead ringer for Blakey. 

 

Edit: I forgot to mention. This is the next planned part work from Hachette in 1/12. It's going to be hoooge, and I'm sorely tempted.

 

 

Steve

[colin]

Looks a brilliant build, bit out of my price range unfortunatley

[fightersweep]

4 minutes ago, colin said:

Looks a brilliant build, bit out of my price range unfortunatley

Agreed. I certainly couldn't afford it in one hit, but the weekly doses made it a bit more bearable.

[JeroenS]

Ooh the bus looks really good! And I can understand you being tempted by the DAF. 

[fightersweep]

@JeroenS

 

I can't wait for the DAF to be released. Should be mightily impressive in 1/12, and of course, best trucks ever! 🙂 

[Davie]

That Routemaster must be huge. I've got the Tamiya 1/12 Mini Cooper and that's big enough!

[johnlambert]

I don't even want to imagine how big this must be!

 

The stairway and interior shots look so real I'm sure you snuck in a couple of pictures of a real Routemaster  although I never travelled on one that was quite that clean inside; it just needs a few discarded tickets and sweet wrappers to complete the illusion!

 

Great work, there almost needs to be a "Wow" response as "Like" doesn't do justice to this build.

[Fnick]

Wow looking at that inside shot I am in a real bus! No really!

 

Nick

[fightersweep]

@Davie @johnlambert

 

Thanks for the kind comments. The bus is pretty huge indeed. It measures 70cm long by 37cm high, which funnily doesn't sound so huge, but believe me, it takes up a fair bit of space. I did think about weathering up the interior some more, and maybe adding the figures and some litter, but decided upon the ready to leave the depot look. The timescale for this one is mid 60s, so it would have been pretty new and I think LT kept these things pretty clean as a rule. Either way, as supplied, the interior did look very toy like and needed a lot of work, but it was worth it in the end. 

 

Steve

 

 

[fightersweep]

11 minutes ago, Fnick said:

Wow looking at that inside shot I am in a real bus! No really!

 

Nick

 

Thanks Nick! I hope to get some night shots later of the interior to post here. Believe me, it looks even better lit up at night, and Hachette gave some thought to the LEDs used as it has that yellowish warm light that Routemasters had. Overall, it makes for a pretty funky lamp at night!

 

Steve

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Blimey that's seriously impressive well done! Did the exterior come 'pre painted' or did you spray it red?

Just some discarded ticket stubs on the floor to do!

 

Nice one!

 

TT 

[fightersweep]

@TEXANTOMCAT

 

Thank you! Much appreciated. Everything supplied is pre-painted, which is a blessing particularly for the exterior finish, and also comes with all the company logos and info pre-printed too. It's all very well done if I'm honest. It was only the interior that let it down a bit, and that was mainly because of construction methods as well as some of the colours used for the pre coloured plastic parts such as the floor. As supplied, it builds into a perfectly acceptable model, but it's also a great canvas for extra detailing etc. Some folk went crazy with their builds, and I think I went somewhere in between. A guy I know did a complete re-paint into a different livery. Looks amazing, but a lot of work. I'd be happy to build another. The Stobart DAF is a possible and I've heard rumblings of a 1/8th Starsky and Hutch Gran Torino being tested in France. I would have that in a heartbeat!

 

Steve

[peekay]

Extraordinary model! In the right setting you could have convinced me it was real. Really nice job on improving the interior.

[fightersweep]

@peekay

 

Thank you! I really appreciate the kind words.

[fightersweep]

As promised, here are a few night shots. Not great I'm afraid as my little Nikon point and shoot isn't great, or more likely, it's the Muppet trying to operate it. Hopefully, they give an idea of what it looks like lit up despite being a bit blurred.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers!

Steve

[Alpha Delta 210]

Absolutely awesome! So realistic!

[klubman01]

That is absolutely amazing.  The penultimate image, in particular, looks so real.

Trevor

[TonyW]

You swine! I'm nearly welling up at this end!!! Talk about memories flooding back.

 

That model looks absolutely fantastic. The night time shots are out of this world. I can almost feel the bus swaying as I look at the upstairs shots.

 

Me and my mates would buy Red Rover tickets, as advertised on your bus, from Wandsworth Bus Garage and spend the day criss crossing London by bus. 5/- bought the ticket at the time and it got you unlimited travel for the day.

I also travelled across London every day by bus to school, bus pass in hand. First from Earls Court to Ladbroke Grove (31 and 52 bus) then, after we moved,   from Wandsworth to Ladbroke Grove (28 and 52) The 31 was usually an older bus, the 28 and 52 pretty much always Routmasters.

Seeing your pictures took me right back to legging it the length of Kensington Church Street, leaping from a 52 to catch a 31 or 28 sat at the lights at High St Ken. The open platform at the back made moving boarding possible and quite normal. More than once I got hold of the rear grab rail but my little legs wouldn't windmill fast enough to keep up with the bus and the final leap was just out of reach. Defeated, I would have to wait in line for the next bus.

 

I might be needing the Revell kit in my future, and it's all your fault!

 

Happy days, thanks for making my day today.

 

Tony.

[fightersweep]

@Alpha Delta 210  @klubman01

 

Thank you for the kind words. I really appreciate it and glad you liked the build.

 

@TonyW

 

Thank you, and I'm so glad that the build stirred some happy memories. Thanks for sharing them with us. I didn't get to travel on many LT Routemasters. I used to stay with my grandparents who lived in Hornchurch a lot as a kid. We would regularly get the bus into Romford, but most of the time it would be Daimler Fleetlines. Every so often though, we would get a Routemaster, and I would always find it quite special. As nan smoked like the proverbial chimney, that meant the top deck, so a double win for me. I always liked travelling on them in the dark as the lighting always felt really cosy and ambient.

 

Being a Southend on Sea lad, we were fortunate to get a fleet of Routemasters in 1988/89 that ran services to around 1995. They became really popular with the locals, and a lot of people used to let the Atlanteans and Nationals pass by in favour of the Routemasters. Even though I had bought my first car then, I still used to grab a ride on the ST Routemasters just for the sake of it. All of the ST Routemasters were initially named, such as "Pride of Southend", "Pride of Rayleigh", "Pride of Westcliff" etc. My favourite was "Pride of Thundersley", which by removing a few of the letters, some wag at the depot had renamed "Ride of Thunder". I believe there's a photo of that somewhere. I've got a destination blind and wecome aboard poster for a number 29 ST Routemaster hidden away somewhere.

 

The Revell kit is a very nice kit, albeit an RML. I got some decals made up for a ST Routemaster and began a WIP here. It's a stalled build at the moment as this big Hachette kit pulled me away, but I was silly enough to start converting it to the shorter RM. That's quite a job in itself, and all those seat decals will drive you nuts. For the money though, it's a lot of plastic and I really recommend the three etch sets that were made for it by Czech Truck.

 

Steev