Volvoman

Thanks for showing us those Harry, I have'nt seen them that large in reality...!!

Really nice build Tulio, very nice indeed. Just a little joke, I take it you have the correct tyres for this kit and that you don't need me to post you any....??

Hi folks, as of late, a few tri-chevies have appeared on these pages, all of which have been very pleasing to look at I must admit, so I thought that I would share my particular build with you. Last year, I was fortunate to take a family holiday to Las Vegas and whilst there, I saw a beautiful example of a 57 chevy parked up outside the Tropicana hotel that was used for promotional purposes. My wife took some shots of the car and decided to build the model when I got home as I had the car in my kit collection and also as a momento to a fantastic holiday. The car is the California wheels 57 chevy which can be built as stock or custom so this was the ideal starting point.The model was primered and then painted in Tamiya Italian red having masked off the roof to be painted in Tamiya gloss white.The interior was then painted in matt white using the interior decals supplied with the kit. Whilst the kit was going together really well, I suddenly asked myself how I was going to replicate the fancy Tropicana Las Vegas decals that were on the real car. I did'nt feel confident enough to make my own so the car started to drift away from being an exact replica and more towards a model that I would be happy with as I did'nt want to risk ruining the paintwork and foiling which I was happy with.I also added a set of Kens Kustom dice to the rear view mirror which I think really suit the car. Any thoughts and comments are welcome and thanks for looking.

Interesting, very very interesting.....

Looking good Matt, this is really coming along well. I have this kit in the James Bond guise but have decided to use a spare set of Tamiya wire wheels for mine as I personally l think that the ones supplied are a little simplified and the tyres leave a lot to be desired as well. Not wishing to take anything away from your excellent model but I personally would have used the Tamiya wheels and tyres. I will certainly be watching the build on this one as I think you have something unique to your collection.

Hi guys, it just goes to show that you really do have to shop around for certain kits, I was very lucky when I purchased mine from my local hobby shop as my friend gets discount from Revell and he passes the discount on to all his customers and because he knew that I had wanted the Routemaster ever since it first appeared in the catalogue listed as a 1/32 kit, he gave me extra discount. Sometimes it pays to be loyal to your local hobby shop...!!! Hi Darren, firstly I would like to say that like me, you bought the Haynes Routemaster book which has some excellent reference pics inside and you will find it very useful whilst you are building your bus. You are right in saying that the chassis and engine is mainly in silver, I must admit, I really did'nt do much to mine as I wanted to give the impression of a well kept bus or even a restored one so the chassis has'nt recieved much weathering at all except for the exhaust which was painted in Gunmetal and then weathered with Tamiya rust pastels. The gearbox was also painted in Gunmetal just to break up the vast expanse of silver but the Tamiya weathering pastels would work fine if you wanted to give the impression of a hard worked bus.As for what silver to use, I used Humbrol no11 silver from a spray can but if you can't get Humbrol paints, then I suppose you could use Tamiya Aluminium as I think the Tamiya silver would be a bit too bright for use on a chassis. I really am pleased that I am giving you some input towards helping you with yours, it really would be great to see another one on the forum.Best of luck with your build and don't forget to message me with any more questions that you may have.

Stunning build and the colours are beautiful!!

Hi Darren, sorry for the delay in responding. The interior panels that you are refering to need to be painted a deep burgundy colour, I used a spray can for this as I was fortunate enough to find a very near perfect match whilst shopping at a home improvement store with the wife. (We were looking for wallpaper but this find was more important to me!!!) It does'nt have to be a gloss finish, more of a satin finish is what you are looking for to achieve a good result. You also state that the interior roof panels need to be painted cream, this is not the case. On the real buses, the interior roof panels were painted a gloss/satin yellow for back in the days when people were allowed to smoke on the bus, they would be easier to clean. I used Humbrol 69 Yellow from a spray can which gave the right effect but I suppose any gloss yellow would be sufficient to achieve the right results. Hope this info is of some use to you and if you need any more help or any other questions you may have then please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks again for all your comments guys they really do mean a lot. I appreciate your comments Jason and totally accept them as constructive criticism, I suppose there were that many Herbies made for both film and promo work, no two were ever the same. My reference pics came from a book that i bought about TV and film cars and the pics that I used showed the stripes as I copied them onto the model so if they are'nt exactly correct, then I stand corrected. I genuinely do appreciate your comments and thanks for your interest.

I know I have posted this up on my own thread but as you are collecting Monaco pics, please forgive me for adding mine into the mix... I'll get you Hannibal Smith.....!!

Can wait to see this finished!! We have plenty of Ford Transits and Mercedes Sprinter vans driving around the roads of the UK which look remarkably similar to this......!! Sorry, that should say CAN'T wait....!!!

These are beautiful cars and I have a couple of the Fujimi kits in my collection. I remember being at a classic car show a number of years ago and the guy who owned one fired it up and blipped the throttle a few times.... I ###### near had a crisis!!!

Hi Darren, i'm so glad that my Routemaster has given you some inspiration for you to build one and like yourself, I also own 2!! Can you please tell me in what part of the build you are reffering to about the reddish-purple colour? Is it the actual body colour, the interior or the colour of the wheels? If you can let me know, then I will try to help you out with that one and any other questions that you may have then please feel free to ask me as I have plenty of reference books regarding these buses. Thanks again for your interest.

Nice builds on your 57's Ron, your track racer looks mean!! The colours on your other two really do stand out. Once again, great builds.

Love the build on your Manx, I have'nt seen any of these on sale in the UK yet but will be buying one at the first chance I get!! Love the colour, by the way....!!

Beautiful looking Buick you got there Slusher, very nice indeed!!

Thanks for all the kind words guys!!

This is a model that I built a while ago when I was building a few tv and film cars. Herbie was built from a Tamiya VW Beetle using the hub caps from a Hasegawa samba bus and his racing stripes were made from solid decal. I used Halfords VW white spray paint on the body and bare metal foil was used on on the window frames, running boards and bodywork trim. The number decals were taken from the polar lights snap kit and the license plates were printed from the net. As usual, all comments are welcome and Herbie sends a Beep Beep!! Thanks for looking guys.

You can look at the end result now and think to yourself "i'm so glad that did'nt end up in the bin!!" Your Edsel is stunning and you should be very proud of it. Very well done.

Very nice work on your mini jason, the paintwork is excellent and the stripes and checkers make it stand out from others.

Thanks for your comments Wally, I agree with you on hoping for Revell to give us an American bus, maybe a GM Fishbowl type Greyhound as i've always fancied building the 'Speed' bus. Just hope that I can keep it above 50mph........!!

Glad to have bought back some happy memories for you Agent G, thanks for your comments everyone.

Nice clean build there zenrat. Maybe Decker would have caught the A team if he was driving that...?? LOL!!

Very very nice and certainly different. Looks like it has more street cred than my Monaco military police car.....!!!LOL!!!

Thanks very much for the comments guys. Steve, I totally agree with you on saying that Gene Hunt is the man. The closest' hard copper' we had in England in the seventies was Jack Reagan from The Sweeney and I suppose the equivalent to him in the states was of course Dirty Harry Callaghan( Clint Eastwood being one of my all time favourite actors) but by the time the Eighties came around, political correctness started coming in to force and he had to tone his act down a bit. zenrat, you are right about the cars from Life on Mars, what I would give to get hold of a 1/24 MK3 Ford Cortina GXL. Can someone out there PLEASE make one???