As mentioned in my last post, during my travels in Malta, I picked up three toy busses. Two have been put aside for display and future use in a Hercules game but the third was earmarked for my British Home Guard.
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| Three Busses |
I will note here that there are several different scales and manufacturers of busses available and at wildly varying prices. These were the nicer of the 1/48ish scale that I found. I picked them up from a store in the otherwise touristy Buggiba at 12 euros for 3. The exact same models were 8 euros each in the airport store. Caveat emptor!
Not being a Bedford expert, I believe that these were from a primarily post war series but a handful were built in '39 and they look right, so I am not going to sweat the details.
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| The Victim |
The models are of Chinese manufacture and feature a white metal body on a plastic chassis with plastic windows and detailing. The chassis is fixed to the body with two phillips screws so disassembly was trivial.
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| Bits and Pieces |
The chrome bits are held on by the chassis pins and the windows just pop out with a gentle push on the securing tabs. Some detail is created using stickers but overall the paintwork is actually very good. I was actually reluctant to carry out the next step.
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| Stripped for Service |
Into the paint stripper went the body. Unlike some Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars I have stripped for Car Wars where a thick layer of paint obscured significant detail, the paint was quite thin and came off easily and cleanly.
At this point, I am not sure how I am going to proceed, My initial thought was a simple conversion with the windows as is. As I look through various period conversions, I am now leaning toward armoured radiators and rifle ports in plated over windows. This will involve a lot more modelling work though. Much to ponder and more to follow.
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