AEC ROUTEMASTER RLM double-decker bus

[Tony Bryan]

Seems to be a common problem with Revell, but don't let them hold you back from doing a great job

[truckabilly]

Another phase of the seats saga began. The decals. I cut them out and organised two separate groups for the left and right side. Just as the seats and frames.

The decals represent textile fabrics. No reflection is desired. Therefore I sprayed all the seats with Humbrol´s matt varnish No. 49.

The photo flash produced some glare anyway but the seats look okay in normal light. I glued them to their frames.

[truckabilly]

Since I will use the PE grill, I added a few details under the driver´s cab. This area is not complete yet.

Also the stairway is assembled. The aluminium stripes will be covered with BMF.

[David G.]

WOW! What a huge project. Excellent work so far, love all the detail you're adding!

David G.

[truckabilly]

The area under the driver´s cab seems to be a little empty comapared to the real Routemaster.

So I made a steering box and placed it in its place.

It will not be that much visible through the front mesh. But it fills the area a bit more anyway.

I cannot stop thinking of the emergency exit through the floor of the upper deck. It is covered by a plate like this.

This is my version. It will not be that shiny.

[truckabilly]

A little more pictures:

[truckabilly]

Ladies and gentlemen, on board please! The upper deck has all the seats installed. I tried to fade them and shade them so that they would lose their brand-new shine. Unfortunatelly, the pics do not show this too well. The flash reduced the effect quite a lot.

[truckabilly]

Another step forward - the ceiling. Two ceilings, actually. It is the first time that I took a shot at preshading. I have never done that before. Those of you who master this technique at the top level will probably laugh. But I am happy that I managed to hit the black lines at least this way.

My effort will not be much visible on the down-facing ceilings. But I wanted to try my first preshading on something less exposed before I will dare to make it on a cab or something like that.

Cheers.

[GeeBee]

I cannot stop thinking of the emergency exit through the floor of the upper deck. It is covered by a plate like this.

This is my version. It will not be that shiny.

The original Routemaster didn't have that hole in the floor, the photo you have is of an old Routemaster (RM125) run by the WRVS as a playbus, as the rear door had a door fitted, a hole was cut in the floor above the engine cover for a quick exit from upstairs, the Routemasters run in service didn't have this fitted

Edited April 28, 2013 by GeeBee

[truckabilly]

Okay, thank you Geoff for the info. This way or the other, my bus has the cover fitted already and I think I will leave it there.

After a few weeks of thinking of the outside colour for the bus, I´ve chosen the RAL 3002 that is reportedly used by London Transport for local colour repairs. It is two-component colour used in 1:1 world. As such, it gives a much deeper shine, that it should be on a model. I will handle that later. I sprayed these first panels separately because I need them to:

A- complete the engine bay

B- fit the inside left-hand board of the lower deck to it

I took the pictures in poor lighting conditions. We have heavy rains here these days.

I will try to soften the shine a bit with filters and post-shading. The engine bay will be covered with some grime and dust.

[sportandmiah]

I really like the weathered effect. Super build!

[David G.]

Keep up the good work! I enjoy following your progress.

David G.

[truckabilly]

So, here is the weathered engine bay. I sprayed well diluted shades of brown and grey humbrol enamels over the red color as well as the AK Interactive enamels like streaking grime or fuel stains.

This is a brake valve under the cab floor. A sort of... It won´t be much visible behind the grill. But it is there to fill the space under the cab. The surrounding panels are only brushed for the same reason. It won´t be visible.

I had to clean this wall six times. For whatever reason I could not get rid of some debris. And when it finaly looked satisfactory, a silver finger print appeared on there. So... this is after the final cleaning.

The stairway tower is in place for good. The aluminium strips are partly made of BMF and the rest is painted with GSI Alumine. Instead of time-table I framed in a truck scheme from the KFS decal sheet. I did not have the time-table.

All for now. Thanks for looking.

[Old Albion]

This is a superb project with some very nice details and excellent weathering. Well done so far and I will look forward to future updates.

[kilrathy10]

You detail work is superb....You've really taken this challenge on.....Way to go...I know I'm impressed....

[truckabilly]

Thank you for your positive replies. I moved a bit forwards with this build again. One of the shortcomings of the kit in my view is the thick windows framing. There is no such thing in the real bus. It is more like a wall with windows cut in. In order to get a look like that, I covered the windows with a 0.3 mm sheet which I glued to the frames and then I cut off the windows.

Now with a surfacer applied it looks like this.

It needs a bit more work on the shape and surface but I think that this modification helps the interior look better.

[Brizio]

Beautiful!

[David G.]

Looks fantastic! Keep up the good work.

David G.

[kilrathy10]

Definitely looking good, Man....Really starting to come together....

[griffin]

damm thats a lot of work for an modification that nobody notiches haha.

But you know its there and that is what counts.

gr chris

[truckabilly]

Hey there, London doubledecker bus is back. And I had to go pretty far way back in history of this forum to find my thread. I left the project resting for a while. Somehow I was not able to come up with a decent quality of the paint job. I won´t go in details. Nothing seemed to work for me while I tried to get a nice and shiny coat. So, I took a few months off but I couldn´t stand the shame anymore. I said, one last shot and let´s keep on riding no matter what.

So, here I am with the best coat I could get and determined to finish this London pride.

The "Piccadilly Circus" sign in the back is not quite straight but I´ve noticed it too late. The front part with the grille broke into three parts the other day and it needs some more treatment. Here it is with the PE details.

And the tail part with lights and license plate.

That´s all I got for now. This and the hope in a smooth ride.

[Tom Geiger]

Great work! I think I want one of these bus kits! Maybe I'd do mine as one of the open top Philadelphia tourist rides. In fact, I think I'll go down town and take a tour for research purposes!

I wouldn't worry about the exterior paint work. Those busses were used and abused. I've heard that the colors on panels varying depending on resprays under poor conditions.

[alangarber]

Wonderful job

[Bowtienutz]

Great work! I think I want one of these bus kits! Maybe I'd do mine as one of the open top Philadelphia tourist rides. In fact, I think I'll go down town and take a tour for research purposes!

I wouldn't worry about the exterior paint work. Those busses were used and abused. I've heard that the colors on panels varying depending on resprays under poor conditions.

I didn't know they used them (one) in philly take lots of photos I'd glady pay you for a cd/DVD of photos maybe you could smoosze someone and get into the maintenance yard and really crawl around it. I know you love that. Talk to you at NNL East. Brib ya with food. I know plastic would work better. But I'm buying all that I can find food I can live without.

[Tom Geiger]

I didn't know they used them (one) in philly take lots of photos I'd glady pay you for a cd/DVD of photos maybe you could smoosze someone and get into the maintenance yard and really crawl around it. I know you love that. Talk to you at NNL East. Brib ya with food. I know plastic would work better. But I'm buying all that I can find food I can live without.

Vince, I'm not sure, someone else mentioned them in Philly. When I was downtown for a conference last September I saw open top double deckers, but I didn't take much notice since I saw them from the back. May be later model than the Route Masters, but worth a look. And good enough to take a tour with. First I've never ridden up top of a double decker, and second I've been here for four years and have yet to really investigate the city. Heck we only got to Lancaster to see the Amish because we had Aussie visitors last fall!