|
-----------------------------------------------------------.::.
vehicles .::. civilian aircrafts .::. military aircrafts .::.
miscellaneous .::.---------------------------------------------------------- |
Roden 1/72 scale
|
I started on the Roden Opel bus. There are some large ejection pins to remove and ejection marks to fill. |
It is very visible on the rear of the passenger’s seats. |
I know that this body was purpose built for the military, but I decided to build it like an civilian bus anyway. |
I removed all doors except the front door on the right side. I am also reshaping the rear side window. I find the kit over engineered. The bonnet is made up of five pieces, so it isn't the easiest kit to build. |
The body is mostly hanging in the air so I had to add some plastic strips between the body and the chassis. But i like the kit anyhow and looking forward to the next bus from them. |
I almost forgot a missing detail on a civilian bus from WW2. So, I had to scratch build it. |
I pressed a plastic tube to get a more oval shape. |
A larger size of tube was used in the rear. While looking at pictures I suddenly realized that the buses had a wood gasifier, so I decided that I should build one for my Opel bus. |
Wood gasifier done. I claim it ready to be used. |
To make it less military looking I altered the body some more. The box above the front windows and the new door helps in this task. |
Finally, time for some paint. |
A Danish bus from the end of the WW2. |
Opel bus is standing on its wheels It isn't ready, there are still details to add |
The paint job, but it need some touch up. |
On a trip to London I found something I wanted for some time.
|
| It was an 1/76 scale AEC 10T10 Regal bus. It was a die cast but it will do fine. So why would I want one. Well the American Red Cross used them as Club mobiles serving coffee and doughnuts during WW2 and I've wanted one in model ever since I saw a picture of them. |
| I dismantled the bus and started on a simple interior. I'm probably overdoing it since very little will be seen through the small windows, but I rather do that than discover that things are missing after I'm finished. I printed two kinds of flower pattern that will be used as curtains. They are doll house wallpapers that I downloaded. They come in 72 dpi but I changed that to 600 dpi. When printed they become much smaller than the original. |
|
I search the net for pictures of the interior and found enough to build one. I finally found pictures of a real doughnut machine as well, so I tried to build one with the help of the pictures. Baskets for the doughnuts was made from stainless steel net. Stupid choice of material as it was very hard to work with. |
| Doughnuts was made of a plastic tube. Here are some pictures after I loaded up the doughnuts. The coffee urns were made from some aircraft bombs. Everything is very small, but it was a fun challenge making the details. |
|
With the doughnuts loaded on the bus, I needed to build coffee cups and two other small items for my bus. First a radio. I'm not sure if it is a right variant for a mobile vehicle but I liked the model: I searched a bit and it seems that I built a 1937 Philco 37-60 radio. Perhaps it can work in this setting even though I would have hoped it had been an early 1940th radio. A dough-mixing bowl was built out of a aircraft propeller-spinner of suitable size and shape |
| I wanted some figures in the bus. I had learned that even though the girls were American they used the same type of uniforms as the women in the Royal air force. So, I used the WAAF-set from CMK. I converted the lady in skirt to the one in the white coat. Rather bad painting but not much will be seen when the bus is finished. |
| I also made a very simple interior in the back with some bunks for the crew. The wall shelfs look to big. Now there is just a few small details left before I can paint the bus and put it together. |
|
I mounted the curtains and the shelfs at the rear, (Well I had built them so why not use them) The curtain pattern is an 1940th pattern as far as I know. I've also added some magazines to fill out some empty space |
| An EFE 1/76 diecast transformed to an ARC Club mobile just like the originals were. I used Tamiya XF66 gray color on it. |
| De Agostini/Atlas had a bus collection in 1/72 and the first one out in the Swedish edition was a Volvo bus. I bought a used one cheaply. |
| (Model finished 2024) |
| It had probably been used as a toy as the rear-view mirrors and some chrome bars in the front were gone, and so was the sun visor. The grill over the spare wheel was broken and the rear bumper was missing. |
| Prior to 1967 Sweden had left hand traffic and this bus must have been used during the transition to right-hand traffic as it had doors on both sides.zBR> But I wanted an earlier one for left-hand traffic so I didn't mind the broken parts. I started by removing the door on the right side. text |
| It was filled with plastic card. Then I built a new bumper and the bottom of the spare wheel that had to be rebuilt as I was going to add a luggage rack in the rear. |
| A new floor was needed to hide the stairs on the right side |
| and a couch was built. |
| I thought about the colour for a long time. A fictitious company or maybe a postal coach? But in the end I decided on the national railways, SJ who also had bus traffic. If I ever will use it in a diorama it will easily fit as SJ ran in large parts of Sweden. |
| My conversion isn't based on a real bus though. |
| Stockholm December 11, 2011 |  |
Updated August 22, 2024 |
----------------------------------------------------.::.
vehicles .::. civilian aircrafts .::. military aircrafts .::.
miscellaneous .::. home .::.------------------------------------------------------ |